Abstract
Over the past decade, international or migrant faculty researchers have explored the work roles, academic experiences, and identities of this community, while a new body of research has begun to draw on insights from migration studies to investigate to what extent and how they are integrated on campus. This paper seeks to extend these discussions by considering on-campus support for international faculty, their integration into the host society, and the relationship between these factors. Focusing on Japan and drawing on both a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews of recipients of the prestigious Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Post-Doctoral Fellowship, this study reveals that on-campus support is associated with higher levels of integration in Japanese society, but there are notable deficiencies in the linguistic and social support offered by universities. These findings indicate that universities seeking to attract and retain international talent should initially invest in language learning support services and reflect on the intermediary role they play between international faculty members and the local community.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
A cleaned and simplified dataset from phase 1 of the study is available on request directly to the authors. It is not possible to share data from phase 2 of the study to protect the identity of participants.
References
Abla, Z. W. (2012). Portraits of successful African immigrant faculty on U.S. campuses [Doctoral Dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. https://www.proquest.com/docview/1266238073/abstract/48B125BA259B4579PQ/1
Antoniadou, M., & Quinlan, K. M. (2020). Thriving on challenges: How immigrant academics regulate emotional experiences during acculturation. Studies in Higher Education, 45(1), 71–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2018.1512567
BERA. (2018). Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research, fourth edition. British Educational Research Association. https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/ethical-guidelines-for-educationalresearch-2018
Bingham, A. J., & Witkowsky, P. (2022). Deductive and inductive approaches to qualitative data analysis. In C. Vanover, P. Mihas, & J. Saldaña (Eds.), Analyzing and interpreting qualitative data: After the interview (pp. 133–146). SAGE Publications.
Bookman, B. (2021). Foreign-born faculty’s perceptions and experiences in a turbulent sociopolitical climate. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Higher Education, 5(1), 52–75. https://doi.org/10.32674/jimphe.v5i1.2726
Brislin, R. W. (1970). Back-translation for cross-cultural research. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 1(3), 185–216. https://doi.org/10.1097/00006199-200109000-00008
Brotherhood, T., Hammond, C. D., & Kim, Y. (2020). Towards an actor-centered typology of internationalization: A study of junior international faculty in Japanese universities. Higher Education, 79(3), 497–514. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00420-5
Burford, J., Koompraphant, G., & Jirathanapiwat, W. (2020). Being, adjusting and developing satisfaction: A review of ajarn tangchart (non-Thai academics) within the Thai higher education system. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 50(5), 656–675. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2018.1544482
Chen, L. (2022a). How do international faculty at Japanese universities view their integration? Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00803-7
Chen, L. (2022b). Key issues impeding the integration of international faculty at Japanese universities. Asia Pacific Education Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-022-09764-7
Chen, L., & Chen, L. (2023). To stay or to leave: The turnover intentions of international academics at Japanese universities. Journal of Studies in International Education, 10283153231164842. https://doi.org/10.1177/10283153231164842
Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2018). Research methods in education (8th ed.). Routledge.
Collins, J. M. (2008). Coming to America: Challenges for faculty coming to United States’ universities. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 32(2), 179–188. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098260701731215
Dedoussis, E.-V. (2007). Issues of diversity in academia: Through the eyes of ‘third-country’ faculty. Higher Education, 54(1), 135–156. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-006-9024-6
Djikhy, S., & Moustaghfir, K. (2019). International faculty, knowledge transfer, and innovation in higher education: A human resource development perspective. Human Systems Management, 38(4), 423–431. https://doi.org/10.3233/HSM-190614
Duru, A. V., & Akinro, N. (2020). Navigating academia away from home: Exploring the challenges of African-born academics [Chapter]. In Multidisciplinary Issues Surrounding African Diasporas. IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-5079-2.ch004
Emeriau, M., Hainmueller, J., Hangartner, D., & Laitin, D. (2022). “Welcome to France.” Can mandatory integration contracts foster immigrant integration? [Preprint]. SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/ha3jd
European Commission. (2020). Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. European Commission Action plan on Integration and Inclusion 2021-2027. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/uri=CELEX:52020DC0758&from=EN
Favell, A. (2014). Immigration, integration and mobility: New agendas in migration studies essay 1998-2014. ECPR Press.
Flick, U. (2018). Doing triangulation and mixed methods. SAGE Publications Ltd.. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529716634
Froese, F. J. (2010). Acculturation experiences in Korea and Japan. Culture & Psychology, 16(3), 333–348. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X10371138
Froese, F. J. (2012). Motivation and adjustment of self-initiated expatriates: The case of expatriate academics in South Korea. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(6), 1095–1112. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.561220
Gahungu, A. (2011). Integration of foreign-born faculty in academia: Foreignness as an asset. The International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation, 6(1), 1–22.
Gaitanidis, I., & Shao-Kobayashi, S. (2022). Polarized agents of internationalization: An autoethnography of migrant faculty at a Japanese University. Higher Education, 83(1), 19–33. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00582-7
Garcés-Mascareñas, B., & Penninx, R. (2016). Integration processes and policies in Europe. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21674-4
Gilmartin, P. M., & Dagg, D. J. (2018). Immigrant integration and settlement services in Ireland. Irish Research Council. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/297029884.pdf.
Gońda, M., Pachocka, M., & Podgórska, K. (2021). Measuring the cultural dimension of migrant integration and integration policy in the European context: Dilemmas and discussions1. International Migration, 59(1), 241–262. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12757
Gore, T. (2021). Regionalism and bilateralism post-Brexit: The effects of UK leaving the EU on higher education. In The Evolution of Transnational Education. Routledge.
Gress, D. R., & Shin, J. (2020). Perceptual differences between expatriate faculty and senior managers regarding acculturation at a Korean university. The Social Science Journal, 0(0), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/03623319.2020.1813863
Harder, N., Figueroa, L., Gillum, R. M., Hangartner, D., Laitin, D. D., & Hainmueller, J. (2018). Multidimensional measure of immigrant integration. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(45), 11483–11488. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1808793115
Harris, S. M., Sandal, G. M., Bye, H. H., Palinkas, L. A., & Binder, P.-E. (2021). Integration is correlated with mental health help-seeking from the general practitioner: Syrian refugees’ preferences and perceived barriers. Frontiers in Public Health, 9, 777582. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.777582
Huang, F. (2018a). Foreign faculty at Japanese universities: Profiles and motivations. Higher Education Quarterly, 72(3), 237–249. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12167
Huang, F. (2018b). International faculty at Japanese universities: Their demographic characteristics and work roles. Asia Pacific Education Review, 19(2), 263–272. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-018-9536-7
Huang, F., Daizen, T., & Kim, Y. (2019). Challenges facing international faculty at Japanese universities: Main findings from the 2017 national survey. International Journal of Educational Development, 71, 102103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2019.102103
IOM. (2023). Migrant integration measurement toolkit: Offering a multi-dimensional approach to measure migrant integration. International Organization for Migration https://www.iom.int/migrant-integration-index
Jenkins, J. (2013). English as a Lingua Franca in the International University: The Politics of Academic English Language Policy. Routledge.
Jiang, X., Di Napoli, R., Borg, M., Maunder, R., Fry, H., & Walsh, E. (2010). Becoming and being an academic: The perspectives of Chinese staff in two research-intensive UK universities. Studies in Higher Education, 35(2), 155–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070902995213
Jones, P. S., Lee, J. W., Phillips, L. R., Xinwei, M., Zhang, E., & Jaceldo, K. B. (2001). An adaptation of Brislin’s translation model for cross-cultural research. Nursing Research, 50(5), 300–304. https://doi.org/10.1097/00006199-200109000-00008
JSPS. (2023a). International fellowships for research in Japan 2023. https://www.jsps.go.jp/file/storage/j-inv/pamphlet/fellowship_2023_EN.pdf
JSPS. (2023b). Postdoctoral fellowships for research in Japan | Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. https://warp.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/12367425/www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-fellow/index.html
Kano, A. (2018). Womenomics and acrobatics: Why Japanese feminists remain skeptical about feminist state policy. Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, 2(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc.201806
Kellem, H. (2020). Being a foreign professor of EFL in Japan: Administrative work and internationalization of higher education [Unpublished Doctoral Thesis]. University of Liverpool.
Kim, D., Wolf-Wendel, L., & Twombly, S. (2011). International faculty: Experiences of academic life and productivity in U.S. universities. The Journal of Higher Education, 82(6), 720–747. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2011.11777225
Kim, D., Wolf-Wendel, L., & Twombly, S. B. (2013). The role of citizenship status in intent to leave for pre-tenure faculty. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 6, 245–260. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034719
Kim, Y., & Sato, M. (2021). Junior female academics: Experiences and challenges. In P. Snowden (Ed.), Handbook of Higher Education in Japan (pp. 234–246). Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1zckxc3.23
King, R., & Collyer, M. (2016). Migration and development framework and its links to integration. In B. Garcés-Mascareñas & R. Penninx (Eds.), Integration Processes and Policies in Europe (pp. 167–188). Springer International Publishing.
Kunwar, J. (2020). Assessing the level of immigrant integration in Finland. In S. Przytuła & Ł. Sułkowski (Eds.), Integration of Migrants into the Labour Market in Europe (Vol. 25, pp. 171–186). Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1877-636120200000025012
Li, J., & Xue, E. (2021). Mapping the education policy of foreign faculty for creating world-class universities in China: Advantage, conflict, and ambiguity. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 53(14), 1454–1463. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1863213
Mamiseishvili, K. (2013). Contributions of foreign-born faculty to doctoral education and research. New Directions for Higher Education, 2013(163), 89–98. https://doi.org/10.1002/he.20068
Mamiseishvili, K., & Lee, D. (2018). International faculty perceptions of departmental climate and workplace satisfaction. Innovative Higher Education, 43(5), 323–338. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-018-9432-4
Manrique, C., & Manrique, G. (1999). Multicultural or immigrant faculty in American society. Edwin Mellen Presshttps://mellenpress.com/book/Multicultural-or-Immigrant-Faculty-in-American-Society/1071/
Maxwell, R. (2012). Ethnic minority migrants in Britain and France: Integration trade-offs. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511792427
McNeill, D. (2007). Still foreign after all these years. The Chronicle of Higher Education https://www.chronicle.com/article/still-foreign-after-all-these-years/
MEXT. (2022). Schools basic survey [gakkou kihon chousa]. Ministry for Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Japanese government https://www.e-stat.go.jp/stat-search/files?page=1&layout=datalist&toukei=00400001&tstat=000001011528&cycle=0&tclass1=000001168726&tclass2=000001168727&tclass3=000001168728&tclass4=000001168736&stat_infid=000032224815&tclass5val=0
Miller, R., Ong, K. I. C., Choi, S., Shibanuma, A., & Jimba, M. (2020). Seeking connection: A mixed methods study of mental well-being and community volunteerism among international migrants in Japan. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 1272. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09381-2
Mills, D. (2022). Decolonial perspectives on global higher education: Disassembling data infrastructures, reassembling the field. Oxford Review of Education, 48(4), 474–491. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2022.2072285
Mittelmeier, J., Lomer, S., Al Furqani, S., & Huang, D. (2022). Internationalisation and students’ outcomes or experiences: A review of the literature 2011-2022. AdvanceHE.
Morley, L., Leyton, D., & Hada, Y. (2019). The affective economy of internationalisation: Migrant academics in and out of Japanese higher education. Policy Reviews in Higher Education, 3(1), 51–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322969.2018.1564353
Munene, I. I. (2014). Outsiders within: Isolation of international faculty in an American university. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 19(4), 450–467. https://doi.org/10.1080/13596748.2014.955637
Navarro, F., Lillis, T., Donahue, T., Curry, M. J., Reyes, N. Á., Gustafsson, M., Zavala, V., Lauría, D., Lukin, A., McKinney, C., Feng, H., & Motta-Roth, D. (2022). Rethinking English as a lingua franca in scientific-academic contexts: A position statement. Journal of English for Research Publication Purposes, 3(1), 143–153. https://doi.org/10.1075/jerpp.21012.nav
Ota, H. (2018). Internationalization of higher education: Global trends and Japan’s Challenges. Educational Studies in Japan, 12(0), 91–105. https://doi.org/10.7571/esjkyoiku.12.91
Ota, H., & Horiuchi, K. (2018). Internationalization through English-medium instruction in Japan: Challenging a contemporary Dejima. In The Future Agenda for Internationalization in Higher Education. Routledge.
Rappleye, J., & Vickers, E. (2015). Can Japanese universities really become Super Global? University World News https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20151103154757426
Rodríguez-Izquierdo, R. M., & Darmody, M. (2019). Policy and practice in language support for newly arrived migrant children in Ireland and Spain. British Journal of Educational Studies, 67(1), 41–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2017.1417973
Rose, H., & McKinley, J. (2018). Japan’s English-medium instruction initiatives and the globalization of higher education. Higher Education, 75(1), 111–129. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0125-1
Sakurai, Y., & Mason, S. (2022). Foreign early career academics’ well-being profiles at workplaces in Japan: A person-oriented approach. Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00978-7
Sakurai, Y., & Mason, S. (2023). Work environment factors affecting foreign early-career researchers’ intention to stay, sense of belonging, and stress. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 0(0), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2023.2198159
Seggie, F. N., & Çalıkoğlu, A. (2023). Changing patterns of international academic mobility: The experiences of Western-origin faculty members in Turkey. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 53(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2020.1868975
Skachkova, P. (2007). Academic careers of immigrant women professors in the U.S. Higher Education, 53(6), 697–738. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-005-1976-4
Spencer, S. (2022). The contested concept of ‘integration’. In P. Scholten (Ed.), Introduction to Migration Studies (pp. 219–232). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92377-8_14
Suzina, A. C. (2021). English as lingua franca. Or the sterilisation of scientific work. Media, Culture & Society, 43(1), 171–179. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720957906
Takeda, H. (2018). Between reproduction and production: Womenomics and the Japanese government’s approach to women and gender policies. Journal of Gender Studies, 21(38), 49–70.
Teng, Y., Takemoto, K., & Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University 41 Kawauchi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8576, Japan, & Department of Physical Therapy, Aino University, Osaka, Japan. (2022). Associations between psychological conditions and social capital among Chinese international students in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Disaster Research, 17(1), 136–143. https://doi.org/10.20965/jdr.2022.p0136
van den Broek, D., Harvey, W., & Groutsis, D. (2016). Commercial migration intermediaries and the segementation of skilled migrant employment. Work, Employment and Society, 30(3), 523–534.
Van Der Wende, M. (2015). International academic mobility: Towards a concentration of the minds in europe. European Review, 23, S70–S88. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1062798714000799
Webber, K. L., & Yang, L. (2014). The increased role of foreign-born academic staff in US higher education. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 36(1), 43–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2013.844671
Wilkins, S., & Neri, S. (2019). Managing faculty in transnational higher education: Expatriate academics at international branch campuses. Journal of Studies in International Education, 23(4), 451–472. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315318814200
Wu, X., & Huang, F. (2018). International faculty in China: Case studies of four leading universities in Shanghai. Asia Pacific Education Review, 19(2), 253–262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-018-9535-8
Yudkevich, M. (2016). International faculty in higher education: Comparative perspectives on recruitment, integration, and impact (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315543437
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the team of research assistants (Momo Yamamoto, Ayuka Yamamoto, Mio Oike, Kimika Kato, Goki Hibi, and Kohei Fukushima) for their help with identifying participants.
Funding
This research was supported by Prof. Futao Huang and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS Grant Numbers: 19H01640, 22K13732).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Brotherhood, T., Patterson, A.S. International faculty: exploring the relationship between on-campus support and off-campus integration. High Educ (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-023-01124-7
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-023-01124-7