1. Housing trajectories of Chinese international students in Sydney, Australia
- Author
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Judd, Sarah
- Subjects
Student migration ,Tenancy rights ,International students ,Student housing - Abstract
International students constitute a large proportion of Australia’s university student population and are an important source of revenue and skilled migration. International students’ welfare has recently received increasing attention as evidence has emerged that many international students face significant challenges beyond the classroom that threaten their wellbeing. Housing is one area of concern, with problems such as crowding, unaffordability and exploitation reported across Australia. However, to date there has been little evidence about these problematic housing outcomes and why international students experience them. This thesis begins to fill these gaps through an original conceptual framework analysing international students’ housing trajectories and their influence on housing outcomes and wellbeing. It focuses on Australia’s largest city, Sydney, and on Chinese international students at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) as a case study group. Primary data was obtained from eleven interviews with a range of stakeholders working with international students across Sydney, an online survey of 393 Chinese students at UNSW, and two focus groups comprising a total of nineteen Chinese students. The research found that a number of problematic housing outcomes were common and could adversely affect international students’ wellbeing. Analysis using the housing trajectories framework developed for this thesis demonstrated that a number of structural factors, resources and constraints influenced students’ housing context and housing options, and students were found to actively make strategies to negotiate these circumstances. Together, structural factors, resources, constraints and strategies were shown to influence international students’ housing outcomes and wellbeing. The findings presented in this thesis provide evidence of the nature, extent and implications of problematic housing outcomes among Chinese international students at UNSW and original insights into the circumstances influencing such outcomes. They demonstrate that problematic housing outcomes do not occur in a vacuum, but are influenced by prior circumstances in the housing trajectory. At the same time, the research shows that students are not passive victims of their circumstances, but rather active agents who engage with challenges in their housing context to meet their needs and preferences. These findings will assist with the prevention of problematic housing outcomes locally, nationally and internationally.
- Published
- 2014
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