Feelings of Safety among International Students in Ireland
1.INTRODUCTIONMy research mainly concerns about the perception of safety among international students, because people in different ages, with different experience or from different cultures, have different experiences of adapting to a new life of study abroad. Even the feelings of people who have the same basic elements above (age, nationality, etc.) may have very different experiences. How to let students know that they are safe is the main purpose of this study. As more and more international students choose to come and study in Ireland, the impact of different cultures and national social situations is becoming more apparent on Irish third-level campuses. Though Ireland has a reputation as a relatively safe country. This view is not always well accepted by each international student. Partly this is because people will commonly feel unsafe in a foreign country. On the other hand, a lack of the common knowledge and life experience of a specific country is a main complication for international students. (Sei-Ching Joanna Sin, 2015). Each international student takes his own society with himself here. Everything they experience is framed through their prior experience back in their homelands. Although international students can be very different from each other, it is still possible to find some useful basic elements to measure their feelings of safety. Factors including cultural background, social situations, government policy and common life style, or even the currency may also cause distress to the new international students due to their unfamiliarity with them. If the student failed to feel safe on campus in any reason, they would make efforts to seek to amend this situation. Hence, what their behavior will be in the next period is hard to predict (Ugur Eray Tahta, etc, 2015). As a result, such students often fail to focus on their studies and important campus time. The most effective way to help the international students focus on their important campus time is to offer them the safety feeling. But the safety feeling seems to be quite hard to provide to students with different nationalities ( Rongqin Yu, etc, 2015). As individuals are different and have their own ways of determination of what makes them feel safe or not, there might be troubles to provide the same level of feeling of safety to each student. But it is still useful to help the student to feel safe and enable them to focus their limited energy on the valued campus life.
2.METHOD
As this project focuses on the feeling of safety among international students studying in Dublin, it is essential that as wide as a set of responses as possible was obtained. In order to do this, a sample constituting variety of nationalities was assessed. A set of 26 questionnaires that asked questions related to feelings of safety in different social situations was sent to the 26 international students. These questionnaires were designed as simple as possible within only 10 questions aiming to the subjective feeling of safety.
As there might be so many individual differences among international students, it is nearly impossible to design such a huge questionnaire to contain and express all the elements of an individual. Because of the space constrains of a questionnaire is there. But the solution can be simple. To let the group of elements function themselves and reduce the interference between each element (such as nationality, sex, culture and individual experience, etc) naturally might be the right way.
Before the questionnaires are given out, firstly, a clear-organized introduction shall be given for international students. Four elements shall be stressed.
•focusing on the feeling of safety
•life comparison between the hometown and Dublin
•a set 5 levels for measuring the different extent of students’ feelings on safety shall be developed
•give a clear idea of the safety, defining the meaning of this word and limiting the meaning of safety
Secondly, a well-designed questionnaire will be used in investigating the real feelings of international students about their safety.
•5 different level answers will be given with an explanation for each level
•contains the main reasons people feel safe or unsafe
•contains the main description for different reasons
Lastly, an official proposal will be given after the data analysis. Data will be stored for a further study.
•a well-designed excel
•accurate data
•a wide and large capacity of interviewees if it is possible
•a graphical representation of results will be shown
3.RESULTS
3.1 General information
The first part of the questionnaire, general information, includes two basic questions. Graph 1 shows the percentage of the sample`s nationality ( China, 77%; Brazil, 15%; Saudi Arabia, 8%). Graph 2 shows the percentage of the sample`s ages (age 18 to 23, 65%; age 24 to 29, 19%; age 30 to 35, 15%). Usually the age 18 to 23 covers the period that people study in college. The age 24 to 35 covers the period that people have had more extensive social experiences.
3.2 FEELING OF SAFETY IN DIFFERENT SITUATIONS
The second part of the questionnaire
3.2.1 Difference between feelings of safety on campus and on the streets outside the campus.
Graph 3 shows the percentage of different levels of international students` feeling of safety on campus. Graph 4 shows the percentage of different levels of international students` feeling of safety on streets. The comparison of feeling of safety between on campus and on streets shows a significant trend. The level of international students` feeling of safety decreased when international students were on the streets instead of on campus. It means they feel safer on campus.
3.2.2 Different familiarity levels generate different feelings of safety
Graph 5 shows the percentage of feeling of safety between Dublin and in the students’ hometowns. Graph 6 shows the percentage of different reasons of to feel unsafe (not familiar, 67%; safety situation is worse, 17%; other, 13%; people don`t seem nice, 4%).
Graph 7 shows the percentage of different levels of familiarity to Dublin. Graph 8 shows the percentage of witness of crime in Dublin. Nearly a half of the international students said they had seen or been involved in crime in Dublin.
To compare Graph 2, Graph 6 and Graph 7, the result shows the low familiarity level correlates to a low level of feeling safety in Dublin.
To compare Graph 2, Graph 6 and Graph 7, the result shows the low familiarity level correlates to a low level of feeling safety in Dublin.
To compare Graph 6 and Graph 8, the result shows that seeing or being involved in any crime did not correspond to the first reason of feeling unsafe (I am not familiar with the city, 67%).
People are more familiar with their hometown than Dublin, and, perhaps predictably, they feel safer in their hometown than in Dublin. Levels of feelings of safety may depend on the familiarity levels.
People are more familiar with their hometown than Dublin, and, perhaps predictably, they feel safer in their hometown than in Dublin. Levels of feelings of safety may depend on the familiarity levels.
3.3 IMPACT OF LACK OF SAFETY
The final part of the questionnaire is designed to calculate the mental result of lack of safety.
Graph 9 shows the percentage of recovering time from a unsafety situation ( 3 to 6 months, 40%; more than 6 months, 28%; less than 3 months, 32%). Graph 10 shows the percentage of possibility of unsafety causing anxiety ( yes, 48%; no, 27%; no sure, 27%).
As most of the students are taking their one-year program in Dublin, according to these results there will be anxiety effect on at least 48% of them.
4.DISCUSSIONAs the international students become more familiar with life in Dublin, their feelings of safety may also improve, like they did in their hometown. But to reduce the time it takes to achieve this level of comfort and familiarity is still necessary. It can help students to focus on their studies instead of spending their limited energy harbouring feelings of anxiety. Hence, the solution is to guide the international students to become more familiar with Dublin as soon as possible.
5.CONCLUSIONThis study examined the reasons causing unstable feelings of safety among international students. The element of familiarity has a statistically significant effect on international students` lives in Dublin the most. In other words, to lead them to feel familiar with Dublin will make international students feel safer. The way to make the international students familiar with the life in Dublin can be seen as the most important part of providing feeling of safety. The reason to provide feeling of safety is to satisfy international students and let them feel as safe in Dublin as they did in their hometown. As a result, it is easy to maximize their satisfaction and minimize their anxiety. Finally, it may help the international students to gain a good beginning of their valuable campus life.
REFERENCESRongqin Yu, Susan Branje, Loes Keijsers, Wim Meeus, (2015), “Associations between young adult romantic relationship quality and problem behaviors: An examination of personality–environment interactions,” Journal of Research in Personality, Volume 57, August 2015, Pages 1–10
Sei-Ching Joanna Sin, (2015), “Demographic Differences in International Students' Information Source Uses and Everyday Information Seeking Challenges,” The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Volume 41, Issue 4, July 2015, Pages 466–474
Ugur Eray Tahta, Sevil Sen, Ahmet Burak Can, (2015), “GenTrust: A genetic trust management model for peer-to-peer systems”, Applied Soft Computing, Volume 34, September 2015, Pages 693–704
The final part of the questionnaire is designed to calculate the mental result of lack of safety.
Graph 9 shows the percentage of recovering time from a unsafety situation ( 3 to 6 months, 40%; more than 6 months, 28%; less than 3 months, 32%). Graph 10 shows the percentage of possibility of unsafety causing anxiety ( yes, 48%; no, 27%; no sure, 27%).
As most of the students are taking their one-year program in Dublin, according to these results there will be anxiety effect on at least 48% of them.
4.DISCUSSIONAs the international students become more familiar with life in Dublin, their feelings of safety may also improve, like they did in their hometown. But to reduce the time it takes to achieve this level of comfort and familiarity is still necessary. It can help students to focus on their studies instead of spending their limited energy harbouring feelings of anxiety. Hence, the solution is to guide the international students to become more familiar with Dublin as soon as possible.
5.CONCLUSIONThis study examined the reasons causing unstable feelings of safety among international students. The element of familiarity has a statistically significant effect on international students` lives in Dublin the most. In other words, to lead them to feel familiar with Dublin will make international students feel safer. The way to make the international students familiar with the life in Dublin can be seen as the most important part of providing feeling of safety. The reason to provide feeling of safety is to satisfy international students and let them feel as safe in Dublin as they did in their hometown. As a result, it is easy to maximize their satisfaction and minimize their anxiety. Finally, it may help the international students to gain a good beginning of their valuable campus life.
REFERENCESRongqin Yu, Susan Branje, Loes Keijsers, Wim Meeus, (2015), “Associations between young adult romantic relationship quality and problem behaviors: An examination of personality–environment interactions,” Journal of Research in Personality, Volume 57, August 2015, Pages 1–10
Sei-Ching Joanna Sin, (2015), “Demographic Differences in International Students' Information Source Uses and Everyday Information Seeking Challenges,” The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Volume 41, Issue 4, July 2015, Pages 466–474
Ugur Eray Tahta, Sevil Sen, Ahmet Burak Can, (2015), “GenTrust: A genetic trust management model for peer-to-peer systems”, Applied Soft Computing, Volume 34, September 2015, Pages 693–704
