Global Flows, Local Belonging: A Quantitative Study of International Students in U.S. Higher Education

Abstract

The increasing emphasis on international student success in higher education encouraged researchers to examine factors influencing students’ sense of institutional belonging. Prior research has demonstrated that belonging is critical to student engagement and persistence (Tinto, 1975; Hurtado & Carter, 1997). While belonging has traditionally been examined through campus-based experiences, less is known about how broader global experiences shape students’ sense of belonging. Arjun Appadurai’s theory of global cultural flows provided a framework for understanding these influences (Appadurai, 1996). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between international students’ experiences across Appadurai’s five scapes and their sense of institutional belonging. The sample consisted of international undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at a large public research institution in the southeastern United States (N = 106). Data were collected through a self-administered online survey, including the General Belongingness Scale (Malone et al., 2012) and measures representing each dimension of global cultural flow. Results indicated that global cultural experiences were significantly related to institutional belonging. Ethnoscape experiences and financial well-being emerged as significant positive predictors, while technoscape, mediascape, and ideoscape were not significant predictors. Undergraduate students reported higher levels of belonging than graduate students, while no significant differences were found based on first-generation status or continent of origin. These findings contributed to a growing body of literature by situating international students’ sense of belonging within a global context. The results emphasized the importance of social and financial dimensions of students’ experiences and highlighted the need for future research using larger and more diverse samples.