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Navigating desire, despondency, disconnectedness, and disillusionment: International students' emotional turmoil amidst COVID-19 pandemic
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Type
Book chapter
Citation
Yang, P., & Lu, Y. (2022). Navigating desire, despondency, disconnectedness, and disillusionment: International students' emotional turmoil amidst COVID-19 pandemic. In Y. Cheng (Ed.), International student mobilities and voices in the Asia-Pacific (pp. 121-136). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3675-3_9
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic, by causing disruptions to the temporalities and spatialities of international student mobility on a scale previously unimaginable, triggered heightened emotional reactions from international students. In this chapter, we examine and comment upon the emotional turmoil experienced by four international students amidst the pandemic as witnessed in their “letters to the coronavirus”. By unpacking and analyzing the narratives of these four differently situated international students, we shed light into how they have navigated—each in their own ways—educational desire and despondency, familial and social disconnectedness, and sometimes senses of self-doubt and disillusionment. We also draw attention to their coping strategies, in particular their exercise of emotional labor which involved heroic acts of resilience, hope, and optimism in the face of great adversity. Ultimately, we argue that both the emotional experiences of international students and their ways of emotional coping are topics worthy of greater attention in future research on international student mobility.
Date Issued
2022
ISBN
9789811936746 (print)
9789811936753 (online)
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
DOI
10.1007/978-981-19-3675-3_9