‘Homes’ and being ‘at home’ in New Zealand: women's place-making in internationalised higher education

Abstract

Research on students' experiences in internationalised higher education largely assumes students' autonomy and privileges their public selves. New Zealand research is no exception. Little attention has been paid to students' lives beyond classroom contexts; how national policy and institutional practices shape students' everyday experiences and ‘home’ lives similarly and differently. In addition, gender is afforded scant attention or considered only as a secondary concern, and people whose partners or family members are international students are invisible. This article endeavours to address the relative inattention to gender in international education research and the invisibility of women whose partners are international students. It draws on data from interviews with 17 women involved in a broader doctoral research project during 2005 and 2006. The women were either migrant or international students or had partners enrolled as international students. The article uses ‘home’ as a lens for examining women's situated and transnational place-making and factors that promoted or precluded a sense of belonging in New Zealand. It draws connections between women's accounts of ‘home’ and feeling ‘at home’, and broader politics, policies and institutional practices in New Zealand higher education.

La investigación sobre las experiencias de estudiantes en la educación superior internacionalizada en su mayoría asume la autonomía de los y las estudiantes y privilegia sus individualidades públicas. La investigación en Nueva Zelanda no es la excepción. Se ha prestado poca atención a la vida de los y las estudiantes más allá del contexto del aula; cómo las políticas nacionales y las prácticas institucionales dan forma a sus experiencias cotidianas y a las vidas en el “hogar” en forma similar y diferente. Además, se le ha prestado escasa atención al género, o éste ha sido considerado solo como un tema secundario, y las personas cuyas parejas o miembros de la familia son estudiantes internacionales son invisibles. Este artículo se propone abordarla inatención relativa al género en la investigación de la educación internacional y la invisibilidad de las mujeres cuyas parejas son estudiantes internacionales. Se basa en datos de entrevistas con 17 mujeres que participaron en un proyecto de investigación doctoral más amplio durante 2005 y 2006. Las mujeres eran o bien inmigrantes o estudiantes internacionales o tenían parejas que eran estudiantes internacionales. El articulo utiliza al “hogar” como un cristal a través del cual se examina la creación de lugar situada e internacional de las mujeres y los factores que promovieron o impidieron un sentido de pertenencia en Nueva Zelanda. Establece conexiones entre los relatos de las mujeres sobre “hogar” y el sentirse “en el hogar”, y las políticas, la política y las prácticas institucionales más amplias en la educación superior en Nueva Zelanda.

Keywords:

• higher education
• internationalisation
• women
• place-making
• home
• New Zealand

Keywords:

• educación superior
• internacionalización
• mujeres
• creación de lugar
• hogar
• Nueva Zelanda

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the women involved in my research project during 2005 and 2006, and to my academic supervisors, Dr Karen Nairn and Dr Jacqui Leckie. The New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology provided funding for the project in the form of a doctoral scholarship.

Notes

 1. I use these terms in reference to women's (or their partners') enrolment status in New Zealand higher education institutions, but acknowledge the limits of such terms as a way of identifying women. As Madge, Raghuram and Noxolo (2009) note, whether a person is classified as ‘international’ or ‘local’ (in this case, a ‘New Zealander’) depends on the geo-political centre from which the classification occurs.

 2. Biculturalism in the New Zealand context refers to partnership between Pākehā and indigenous Māori. ‘Pākehā’, a contested term, was the name given to Anglo-Celt colonisers by Māori (Spoonley 1993). It is now used more generally in reference to ‘white’ New Zealanders (Mohanram 1998).

 3. This term is explained in the endnote above.

 4. Full-fee paying international students are ‘a crucial source of funding’ for New Zealand's public higher education institutions, effectively subsidising domestic education in an era of reduced state expenditure (Butcher 2004b, 259). While a small number of international students study on the basis of scholarships or exchange agreements, the majority pay fees set by their respective educational institutions to cover the full cost of their courses and generate a profit. In contrast, New Zealanders with permanent resident visas or citizenship status receive a government-subsidised higher education. (For a full account of the emergence of ‘export education’ in New Zealand, see Tarling 2004.)

 5. Bullen and Kenway (2003, 41) describe ‘culturalism’ as characterising much international education literature: that is, ‘the privileging of culture – and cultural difference’ as a ‘primary analytical tool’ (citing McConaghy 1998).

 6. This is a likely outcome of policies aimed at attracting (older) postgraduate and doctoral students.

 7. Women are identified by codename.

 8. Rose's previous country is not identified to protect her anonymity.

 9. Most international students coming to New Zealand shift hemispheres, seasons and climates. New Zealand's climate is temperate but varied; this study took place in a city characterised by its frosty winters and cool summers. Despite considerable efforts to encourage retrofitting of older New Zealand homes (for example, see http://www.energywise.govt.nz/), landlords are not required to provide heating for their tenants or to insulate older houses (Department of Building and Housing, personal communication, 14 October 2010). Although university halls of residence are warm and well insulated, most do not accommodate students' partners or families.

10. Sharon used this term in reference to non-Asian New Zealand students.

11. I draw here on the definition of ‘Asia’ provided by the Asia New Zealand Foundation (http://www.asianz.org.nz/the-asian-region): the broad region of the world bordered by Pakistan in the west and Japan in the east; the People's Republic of China in the north and Indonesia in the south (accessed 18 May 2011).

12. Xena's situation was complicated: although she was a citizen of Ireland, her partner was a citizen of the UK with which New Zealand has a reciprocal healthcare agreement. Also, Xena had lived and worked as a healthcare professional in the UK for many years.

13. Sawir et al. (2009, 46) note that although no education export countries provide all international students with quasi-citizenship rights, European Union (EU) members ‘come close, in their treatment of students who are citizens of other European nations’. Sawir et al. make no comment on the implications of EU members' provision or otherwise for the welfare of international students' partners and families.