Transnational Friendships and Supportive Practices: An Introduction

Abstract

When the interviews with 35 international doctoral students from 20 different nationalities in Germany were conducted to hear about their experiences studying abroad, their activities and practices, all of them were as blunt as Teresa about the fact that friendship is not just about the other person’s nationality or ethnicity, but that there must be something else, something common on which to build the relationship. But what is this ‘something else’? What causes individuals to make friends in this increasingly mobile world if it is no longer just about nationality? How do individuals ‘do’ friendships across borders?