Master of Arts

This dissertation reports on an exploratory study of Singaporean adults' coping behavior. One-hundred and ninety-five participants were involved in the study. They were made up of mental health clients attending a rehabilitation program and healthy adults. A coping questionnaire was administered to the clients and other adults by either the mental health officer/counselor or the researcher. The questionnaire requested the participants to specify a major life event they encountered, and then self-reported ways of coping on a Likert scale. Styles of coping of participants were analyzed. The findings help imply specifically the role of rehabilitation in positive psychology, recovery and coping.

Although international students are considered attractive to Singapore for both short- and long-term reasons (e.g. boost economy, ease labour shortage and address population issues) scarce research is available to understand the kind of considerations they factored in their decisions and their experiences in settlement and transition to work in Singapore.

Hence, this study aimed to explore the experiences of student migrants’ early settlement including their ‘push and pull’ factors in decision-making and their transition to work life in Singapore by using Sri Lankans as a case study. The findings indicated that apart from financial affordability, students chose their study destinations and institutions based on their pre-existing academic qualifications and their eligibility for admission. In making these decisions education agencies have played a significant role, thus suggesting further research on the role of such agencies and students’ perspectives on their services so as to improve marketing efforts of educational institutions in widening their outreach programmes overseas.

After arriving in Singapore, accommodation search and financial barriers were the most significant issues encountered by students and various coping strategies such as part-time work were adopted to minimise them. Significant differences in the ‘type’ and ‘frequency’ of part time work were identified across polytechnic and university students, depending on their study workload and motivations. Furthermore, part-time work was beneficial in helping students’ settlement and personal growth in their new environment. In general, students overcame most of their settlement issues within a year—thus, contrary to the literature findings, had least affected their post-study plans.

All graduates remained in Singapore upon study completion mostly due to the Tuition Grant bond fulfilment and began their job searches during the final semester. Similar to the current findings this study also revealed that employment policies coupled with the visa status of the graduates had a significant impact on their job search and transition experiences. Additionally, educational qualifications and specialisations also had an impact in their job search. For instance, the tightened employment policy measures implemented since 2011 seem to have mostly affected the job search of recent polytechnic graduates. For the same reasons significant differences in job search expectations were also identified across graduates. For example university graduates were more focused and confident of their job searches compared with polytechnic graduates, who placed more emphasis on securing ‘any’ job. Hence, it may be necessary to review existing employment and immigration policies pertaining to international students who are recipients of the Tuition Grant so as to ease their transition to work.

The graduates did not specifically attribute challenges faced upon job commencement to their ‘foreign’ status, but rather to that of being a ‘fresh graduate’. However, their work-visa status affected their decisions to remain or quit the company if they were dissatisfied with the job. In conclusion, the findings of this study suggest the need for further studies on international students’ experiences on the above aspects with further differentiation such as different nationalities and students’ qualifications. This is because the settlement and transition to work experiences could vary across students from different backgrounds, as revealed in this study. This would help to better understand their unique needs and expectations and to identify gaps especially in existing policies that may directly impact the final outcome for these individuals. The findings of this study would be useful for policy makers, government authorities, educational institutions as well as prospective international students to gain an idea of what may or may not work in a student migrant’s journey.