Paula Dunstan, September 2016

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Bringing the World to Melbourne

International Students and the Making of a City

ThisisasummarypaperandrevisedversionofapresentationtotheISANAVicTasStateConference,Melbourne,9September2016*

An international student recently observed that, ‘We bring the world to Melbourne’, to describe hercontribution(andthatofherpeers)tothecity.Onthefaceofit,bringingtheworldtoMelbourneseemstobe a simple idea of incoming diversity, in a citywell used to such incomings. It supports perceptions ofinternationalstudentsabouttheirconnectionstothe‘mostliveablecityintheworld’,theircontributionstothecharacter,youthandcultureofplace.Itisanideaaboutsocialchange,butitisnotsimple.Inthispaper,Ireflect on recent research findings in relation to the interactionsbetween international students and thecity.iTheseincludeobservationsandmemoriesofplace,aswellasinteractionsandengagement.

Melbourne’s‘liveability’iirankingpresentsthecityasanentitywithdesirable—andmarketable—social,educationalculturalandenvironmentalfactors.Thecityisnotinafixedstate,however.Population,infrastructureanddiversitychangeovertime.Thehistoryofplaceandhumanmemoryhaveapartinthis.Theideaofcityisalsounfixed;‘incompletewithnocentre,nofixedpartswithoftendisjointedprocesses.’iiiItisdeconstructed,saysIenAng,‘bythosegroupswhousedtobemarginalisedwithinitsbordersbutarenowburstingoutofthem...’ivItfollowsthattheexperienceofliveabilityisunevenacrossthepopulation;themeasureisalwaysrelative.Ininternationalstudentexperiences,themarginalised-integrated,mobile-locatedbinariesarealsorelative.

Suchaviewofcityspaceincontinualfluxprovidedacontextforthisstudyofinternationalstudents,theirlocal and global mobility, their sense of place and their transnational connections. It also presented achallenge to represent the city in relationship with its people, a social rather than an instrumentalistperspective.Thiswasparticularlyevidentintheagencyofinternationalstudents,forexampleincommunitybuilding,advocacyandactivismintheeventsillustratedbelow.v

In this study, evidence showed how transnationalism—manifested in connections, relationships, socialpractices,technologicalcommunication,localandglobalnetworksthatoperateacrossnationalborders—iscommonininternationalstudentexperience.viStudentsareoperatingtransnationallyinanumberofways,for example through reference to student groups in their countries of origin, ‘internet activism’viiandthroughsuche-commerceactivitiesassellingUggboots,babyformulaandothergoodstoChina.Whilethetermisnotcommonlyusedininternationaleducationdiscourse,transnationalisminpracticewasactuallyverywellunderstoodandarticulatedinstoriesofpersonaljourneys,theconnectionsbetween“home”(asashiftingsignifier)andMelbourne,thetiesthatbindstudentstoeitherorboth.

The experience of place—the city in the lives of individuals—was evident in the way the studentparticipants imagined the city,used technologyandcommunicationnetworks in their social andpoliticalactivities,theirexpressionsofmultipleidentitiesandtheiruseoflocation.Inthisconceptualisation,thecitycontextisfundamentaltotheinternationalstudentpopulationandtothestudyofinternationaleducation.These are actors, the agents in the city’s development. In the process, demographic impacts aredocumented,businessesrespond,policydevelopsandplaceschange.

Paula Dunstan, September 2016

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Bringing the World to Melbourne: International Students and the Making of a City

The contribution, or impact, of international students in such a framework goes well beyond economicbenefits or the commercialisation and promotion of liveability to which we have become accustomed.Rather, positioning international students in the city context invites our gaze on interactions and themakingofplace.Thispropositionbalancestherealitiesofthe‘managed’citywiththehumanscale⎯Ang’scontinuous deconstruction. It focuses on aspirations, on the agency of international students, theirrepresentative associations and on the key facilitators of activities such as welcome and leadershipprograms.NotableherearethedevelopmentsinitiatedbytheCityofMelbourneinrecentyears,respondingtothemultipleelementsweseeininternationalstudentlives.

Achallengeinlinkingtheexperiencesofinternationalstudentsandthemakingofplaceisrelatedtohowweunderstand how context interacts with multifaceted stories, the dimensions of belonging andtemporariness; the changes we see in people and place. Individual perceptions are important to thisunderstanding. For example, one student participant who referred to the geometric glazed walls ofFederationSquarereflected:

“I really like this place. You can comehere and be the only one, or you can be herewithmanypeople,groupsgoingontoursandschoolchildren.Ilikethewalls.Internationalstudentshaveto

findtheirplaceandwhenyouarealoneit’snicetohaveacomfortableplace…Sometimesweliveinsidethewalls.”

Place, space, time, identity and local knowledge interactheretogenerateasenseofbeinginaneighbourhood.Theperception is subjective yet connected to the meaningsthat are collectively attributed to space. Internationalstudent networks and formal associationsviii are madefrom the complex relationships that students create forthemselvesandamongthemselves,withinstitutions,with

city-basedservicesandamenities,withthespacesinwhichtheymeet,andtheusestheycreateforthecityenvironment.Cafesbecomemeetingrooms, thestreetsaresites fornetworksandformany internationalstudents, Melbourne is the gathering place for the world. These are the connections formedwith place,betweenboundariesandacrossborders.

From the evidence gathered in this study, I suggest the typical focus on the economic contribution ofinternational students under-recognises the social influences, the transnational practices, the agency andtheaspirationsforsocialchangethatcomewithinternationalstudentstocitieslikeMelbourne.Therelatedliterature often undervalues their experiences of being and belonging, their imaginative and practicalapproachestoengagement.Thefocusoninternationalstudentexperiencecan,andshould,shifttoamorecontextualizedviewtoacknowledgecitypolicyandbroaderdiscoursesabouturbandevelopment.ix

Theworldwithwhichweengageismadericherandenablesourunderstandingthroughtherelationshipswehavewiththesestudents.Theirexperienceismorethanthesumofcomponentswelabelas‘thestudentexperience’becauseofthecontextualrelationshipwiththecity,itselfchangedbytheirpresence.Whenwetravelandwhenweinteractwithtravellers,weconnectwiththeworld.Internationalstudents,inbringingtheworldtoMelbourne,offerusopportunitiestodothis.Insuchanenvironment,citieschange,andsodowe. Notes

iThefocusofthisDoctoralresearchwashowspaceandpeopleinteract,andthewaysinternationalstudentsimaginethecity,engagesociallyinitsmakingandthetransformativedimensionsofthecityovertime,specificallyinthedecadebetween2000and2010.Thecontributionsofinternationalstudentstothecitywererecordedanddescribedthroughinterviews,focusgroupsandresearchintorepresentativeassociations.

iiTheEconomistIntelligenceUnitproducestheannualGlobalLiveabilityRangingReportusingarangeofcriteriatoproduceitsresults—calculationsofstability,healthcare,cultureandenvironment,educationandinfrastructure.

iiiAmin,A.,&Thrift,N.(2002).Cities:Reimaginingtheurban.Cambridge:Polity,p.8.

Paula Dunstan, September 2016

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ivAng,I.(2003).Together-in-difference:Beyonddiaspora,intohybridity.AsianStudiesReview,27(2),p.143.IenAngisProfessorofCulturalStudiesattheInstituteforCultureandSocietyattheUniversityofWesternSydney.

vImages,L-R:1)KarenPoh.(2011,July9).Bersih2Rally.MELDMagazine,usedwithpermission,2)AFISinformationday2014,retrievedfromhttp://www.meldmagazine.com.au,usedwithpermission,3)ImageuploadedbyEkabhishekhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_against_Indians_in_Australia_controversy.CreativeCommonsAttribution2.0.

viRecentworkonsocialmedia,andcommunicationsisparticularlyvaluableinanexplorationoftransnationalbehaviour,socialnetworkingandinformationgathering.See,forexample:Alzougool,B.,Chang,S.,Gomes,C.,&Berry,M.(2013).Findingtheirwayaround:Internationalstudents'useofinformationsources.JournalofAdvancedManagementScience,1(1),43-49,andChangS.,Alzougool,B.,Berry,M.,Gomes,C.,&Reeders,D.(2013,13August).MappingtheSocialNetworksofInternationalStudents:FoundationsforImprovingCommunication.FinalReport.TheUniversityofMelbourne.

viiInternetactivismisbecomingapowerfultoolforthesimultaneous,transnationalactivismthatwasseenintheIndianstudentprotestsof2009-2010,andthedevelopmentofongoingMalaysianstudentcampaignssuchastheMalaysianstudentBersihdemonstrationsin2011andOccupyHongKongin2014.

viiiSeveralstudentgroupswereincludedintheresearch,includingthefollowing:TheAustralianFederationofInternationalStudents(afis.org.au)wasestablishedinMelbournein2002withanexplicitlysocialinclusionagenda,seekingopportunitiesforinternationalstudentstobepartofAustraliancommunitylifeandtobeanindependentservicetothosestudents.MeldMagazine(meldmagazine.com.au)ispublishedonlineforandbyinternationalstudents.ItreportsextensivelyoninternationalstudentlifeinMelbourneandhasmaintainedanextensivesearchablearchivesince2008.TheCouncilofInternationalStudentsAustralia(cisa.edu.au)isthenationalpeakbodyrepresentinginternationalstudents,formedin2010.

ixThereremain,ofcourse,theconcernswehavehadforalongtimeabouttheadaptation,integration,andexploitationofinternationalstudentsasculturalothers,socialgroupsandworkers—theexperiencesoftransientnon-citizenswithlimitedrightsandstatus.Thosearenottheprimaryconcernsofthecurrentstudy,butshouldnotbedismissed.

*ContactPaulaDunstan:pd@pauladunstan.com.auforfurtherinformationandpermissiontousecontentinthispaper.