The lived experiences of international students in the Global North reveal an invisible border that leads to naturalized differentiation stemming from stereotypes and discriminatory practices.
“Please remove your food from the freezer. It has become moldy. I can smell it.” I often see such notes on the fridge of the shared space of my apartment. I couldn’t gather the courage to tell them that it was just the aroma of my ‘deshi’ spices because it is not recommended to make trouble with roommates from other nationalities. This is not an exceptional event in the lives of international students. International students often suppress their opinions and feelings to adapt to the new environment. However, as a graduate student of Anthropology, what bothered me is not only their complaints about the smell of food, but also the racial politics behind those complaints. It became apparent to me later, when I noticed they never complained about the rotten food left by other roommates.
Many students are increasingly migrating to countries in the Global North to pursue higher education and try to create a sense of belonging in a new environment after their migration (Oduwaye et al. 2023). Drawing on Khosravi’s concept of Invisible Borders, which denotes the stereotypical perceptions of migrants that hinder their inclusion and participation in societies (Khosravi 2011), this essay explores how the structural inequalities and racial identities of international students create barriers to belonging in these countries, based on autoethnographic reflections and secondary literature. By highlighting these aspects, this essay argues that the intersection of structural inequalities, ethnicity, and gender significantly shapes international students’ sense of belonging in the Global North.
The reasons for this insecurity were not only the shared accommodation with the hostile roommates, but also the existence of my racialized entity. I remember when I wore a scarf during Ramadan and walked in the street. One homeless person called me out and scared me. Although it was a single incident, it helped me to realize that my visibility as a Muslim international student reinforced my vulnerability.
Belonging and Invisible Border
“A sense of belonging—the subjective feeling of deep connection with social groups, physical places, and individual and collective experiences—is a fundamental human need that predicts numerous mental, physical, social, economic, and behavioural outcomes” (Allen et al. 2021). Nira Yuval-Davis emphasized the social positions of individuals, whose diverse identities shape the sense of belonging (Yuval-Davis 2006). In this essay, I shall describe how the multiple aspects of identities, along with structural factors, affect the sense of belongingness of international students in the Global North.
I particularly use the concept of Invisible borders, which refers to distorted social perceptions about migrants in the host countries. These borders transcend their geographical boundaries and are embedded in migrants’ bodies, reflecting their racial and ethnic differences (Khosravi 2011).
I utilize this concept to understand the lived experiences of international students that hinder their sense of belonging in the Global North. Though I primarily relied on my autoethnographic experiences, I sometimes used secondary sources to justify my arguments. Through autoethnographic narratives, I argue that invisible borders are produced by the intersection of structural inequalities, racial and ethnic differentiation, and cultural shock that hamper their sense of belonging. Gender adds another dimension to this. On the other hand, influenced by Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic violence, which refers to “the imposition of the dominant cultural norms, values, and practices on individuals, often without them realizing it”, I also suggest that invisible borders are internalized by international students, who normalize the differentiation.
Structural Inequalities and Lived Experiences
International students usually pay much more than domestic students at educational institutions in the Global North. Many countries, including the UK, the US, and Australia, treat them as “Cash Cows” These students depend on part-time jobs to cover their daily expenses. However, most students rely on financial assistance from their families (Oduwaye et al. 2023). Though in some countries doctoral students are paid for their contributions to research or teaching, the stipend is quite low and insufficient to lead a comfortable life (Pewsey 2023). Additionally, some programs like ours offer only a 10-month stipend for their work. Therefore, students need to make lifestyle compromises to save money.
Saving money has become a precondition for international students like me, whose postgraduate employment is not certain. Though I got nominated for a prestigious fellowship, my priority was saving some money for my future. So I decided to share an apartment with other students. The on-campus 2-bed, 2-bath apartments for UNR students were not accepting applications at that time. So I decided to go with off-campus student housing, which meant sharing my kitchen with three other girls. All of them were White. For some reason, they never mentioned my name. I was always “that Asian” to them.
As undergraduate students at UNR, they were not consistently clean and often left their dirty utensils for months. But I was blamed for every problem. Indeed, I was never very disciplined. But I was hurt by being accused of every chaos and dirt. I was always held responsible for the unclean oven and my smelly food. Though I opposed these accusations, they pay paid no heed to me. Most of the time, I ended up taking the blame. But the problem appeared when they began partying at 2 am. They kept drinking, shouting, and laughing about their life.
As a graduate student, I had to wake up very early. So, I requested that they do the parties early in the night. That night, they were silent. The next morning, I found the note on my fridge, saying they would throw my food away because of its smell. I was annoyed and decided to complain to the apartment authorities due to such passive-aggressiveness.
However, I heard the tragic news of Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy, the Bangladeshi international students who were killed by their roommates (Riess et al. 2026 ). Naturally, I got afraid of the violent activities their roommates subjected them to and stepped back. In my circumstances, my racial identities intersect with my financial incapacity, which strengthens my inconveniences.
Additionally, female international students face more problems than their male counterparts due to their gender identities. We generally assume that countries in the Global North have achieved female empowerment. Women lead comparatively secure lives in those countries. However, global databases on violence against women don’t support this bias (ABC News2024). As an international student, I sometimes feel concerned about my safety. Indeed, I am not as exposed to the male gaze as I was back in Bangladesh. But I never feel secure in this country.
The reasons for this insecurity were not only the shared accommodation with the hostile roommates, but also the existence of my racialized identity. I remember when I wore a scarf during Ramadan and walked in the street. One homeless person called me out and scared me. Although it was a single incident, it helped me to realize that my visibility as a Muslim international student reinforced my vulnerability.
Academic Barriers and Internalization of Invisible Border
International students from around the world who come to the Global North to pursue higher education often feel uncomfortable with unfamiliar academic traditions. For example, most US universities adopt a student-centered approach to learning that emphasizes group work and class-based discussion. International students often come from countries that adopt a teacher-centered approach, which limits students’ participation in the classroom.
Therefore, such an academic tradition seems highly challenging for them. They also struggle with the language’s speed and accent. On the other hand, they are sometimes shamed for their distinct linguistic accent. Additionally, their racial and ethnic identities, negative stereotypes, and academic pressures can create barriers to socializing with their fellow domestic students, which can result in loneliness and isolation (Rodriguez et al. 2022).
Interestingly, when I got into the graduate program at the University of Nevada, Reno, I had to deal with the internalized nature of the invisible border. My classmates were not obnoxious about my accent. But I felt ashamed of my accent. For this reason, I felt hesitant to participate in the discussion because it appeared to me that my accent was too exotic to talk in front of foreigners.
In this way, I naturalized the differentiation that international students often face. On the other hand, most of my department’s socialization efforts took place at the Bar. As a Muslim female international student, the whole setting seemed exclusionary to me, which hindered me from participating in those endeavors.
In this regard, Khosravi’s concept of invisible border is highly relevant to understanding the experiences of international students in the Global North. Invisible borders refer to stereotypes and discriminatory practices and behaviors towards migrants in the host country. For Khosravi, these stereotypes and discriminatory practices are often embedded in the racialized bodies of migrants (Khosravi 2011). In this essay, I extend his argument based on autoethnographic narratives and argue that financial hurdles and cultural shock in the academic environment, along with racial and ethnic discrimination, reinforce the difficulties of international students.
Female international students have to face additional hardships because of their gender identities. Following the concept of Symbolic Violence, my analysis also suggests that international students in the Global North often naturalize such sorts of differentiation (kdkasi 2024). Those factors actively shape international students’ sense of belonging, helping to understand belonging as a political process that depends on multiple interrelated factors.
Concluding Thoughts
The main goal of this essay is to understand how the intersection of structural factors, cultural shock, and racial, ethnic, and gender differences shapes international students’ sense of belonging in the Global North. I have used Khosravi’s concept of invisible border to understand such dynamics. However, I have expanded his theory by highlighting how aspects like economic insufficiency, cultural shock in academia, and gender disparity intersect with racial and ethnic discrimination, which sometimes leads to the naturalization of such differentiation, which eventually contributes to shaping the sense of belonging of international students in the Global North.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)
References:
ABC News. 2024. “Why Gender-Based and Sexual Violence Is so High in the World’s ‘most Gender-Equal’ Country.” May 18. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-19/why-nordic-paradox-means-womens-equality-doesnt-equal-safety/103842754.
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Riess, Karina Tsui, Isabel Rosales, Rebekah (CNN). 2026. “How Investigators Say the Killings of Two University of South Florida Students Unfolded.” April 28. https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/28/us/university-south-florida-student-investigation-timeline-hnk.
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