Multiple Difficulties Upon Reentry

Most international students return to their countries of origin at the end, and obviously both going overseas and returning home involve cross-cultural transitions. However, while there has been extensive research on the cultural adjustment of oversea students to a foreign culture, there has been a dearth of literature examining the adjustment of returning to home culture (Reentry). Thus most international students are given cross-cultural orientation course and training before going aboard and they anticipate difficulties and adjustment process; by contrary, most of them they would view reentry as returning to a place familiar and fail to expect difficulties upon reentry. Yet the limited research, both anecdotal and statistical, confirms that in fact most expatriates find readjusting back home, commonly know as reverse culture shock, even more difficulty and stressful than adjusting overseas, partly due to incorrect expectations and lack of preparation.The primary objective of this thesis is to clarify and classify various difficulties Chinese returnees, those retuned from abroad, encountered during their reentry process, based on the believe that normalizing reentry difficulties is a key to make the readjustment process smoother and possibly shorter for the returnees. After that coping strategies to alleviate the difficult feelings are suggested and the final goal of becoming an international person is proposed. The research investigated into the life experiences of 30 Chinese returnees through face-to-face in-depth interviews from June to November, 2008. The sample, accessed through a snowballing technique - although by no means representative of all returnees in China, - nevertheless provides an indicative account of the reentry experiences of Chinese returnee students. The analysis of their responses, derived from semi-structured interviews, provides a valuable barometer against which further studies can take place. Accordingly, limitations of this study and recommendations for future research are elaborated as the final remarks.