Microaggressions International Students Experience at Workplaces

By: Prathma Sharma & Kira McElwain

We created an infographic to help international students learn to identify microaggressions in their workplace or at their internship site. Our hope is that it provides some validation to those who have experienced microaggressions and tried to brush them off as unimportant. We also provided some information regarding the multitude of ways that microaggressions can impact an individual’s life. There are some suggestions for steps to take if you have experienced a microaggression as well as some additional resources to offer more support. 

Social Justice Needs: Identifying and Addressing Microaggressions International Students Experience

Currently, there are over 1 million international students studying in the U.S. (Institute of International Education, 2018). This number appears to growing larger and larger with each passing year, even increasing by 1.5% from 2017 to 2018, with the U.S. being the top host of international students in the world (Institute of International Education, 2018). Penn State Harrisburg alone reports having students from over 25 different countries. Unfortunately, along with all of the good things that go along with studying abroad, being an international student also comes with some downsides. International students typically endorse higher levels of homesickness and perceived discrimination, as well as experience linguistic difficulties, cultural barriers, a lack of social support, social isolation, educational system differences, loneliness, homesickness, racial discrimination, and financial hardship (Lian & Wallace, 2018; Poyrazli & Lopez, 2007) 

Microaggressions are subtle verbal and nonverbal exchanges that communicate discrimination towards non-dominant racial or ethnic groups and traditionally oppressed groups (Sue, 2010). As international students report higher levels of perceived discrimination, it seems likely that they would be experiencing a greater amount of microaggressions than a traditional, domestic student. Sue and colleagues (2007) identified common themes from marginalizing experiences of international students. Some of these themes were: pathologising cultural values and communication styles of international students, invalidating international issues and perspectives, assumption of homogeneity, exclusions and social avoidance at workplaces/schools, invisibility, and environmental and systemic microaggressions. The negative messages behind these microaggressions were that international students do not belong in the mainstream American culture, that they have limited contribution to the society, and that their needs are not important enough to addressed on a systemic level.  

In the workplace international workers will, in an attempt to adapt and fit in with their host culture, often go without reporting the microaggressions that they experience for fear of it being labeled petty, trivial, or nonracial (Shenoy-Packer, 2015). Additionally, specifically in an internship setting, some international students have identified that their supervisors were not culturally or racially sensitive and made comments that were demeaning and centered around stereotypical assumptions (Constantine & Sue, 2007).  

As international students appear to be a particularly vulnerable group, we decided to create a easy to access infographic that would provide them with resources to help them learn to not only identify microaggressions, but explain why it’s important to not just brush them off, steps they can take to address the situation, and additional resources they can use in order to seek more information. 

Theoretical Rationale: Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT)

We felt that the concerns of international students could be best understood and explained by the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent et al., 1994). SCCT draws heavily from Bandura’s social cognitive theory (1986), as it extends the concepts of self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations, and goal attainment to career development. Self-efficacy refers to a person’s beliefs in their performance capabilities. A person’s self-efficacy beliefs are influenced by their past accomplishments, learning by observation from others, social persuasion, and their physiological states. These self-efficacy beliefs affect a person’s outcome expectations, which are beliefs about consequences of a particular action. More specifically, SCCT’s interest, choice, and performance models (Lent, 2013) explain that our career interests are predicted by outcome expectancies and self‐efficacy beliefs. These career interests predict career goals, which in turn lead to behaviors related to choosing and practicing activities, which then contribute to performance attainments. 

With regards to international students, microaggressions may negatively influence their self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations (Figure 1). For example, a qualitative study on experiences of African-American college students found that racial discrimination and microaggressions lowered their self-esteem, had negative impact on their sense of self, and led to negative perceptions of their campus environment (Harper et al., 2011). International students are also at risk for internalizing negative stereotypes and beliefs which are directed at them (Sue, 2010). These negative internalizations may in turn impact their self-efficacy (Korgan et al., 2013). Furthermore, experiencing microaggressions can often cause international students to feel invisible, invalidated, and excluded (Houshmand et al., 2014; Sue at al., 2007). They may experience high personal and environmental distress (Smith et al., 2011). International students are also at a higher risk for experiencing real/perceived personal and professional barriers (such as work restrictions, language/communication difficulties, racial discrimination, and lower growth opportunities). Experiencing lower self-efficacy coupled with the above mentioned personal and professional barriers, could predict narrower range of professional interests and lower outcome expectations in international students. Microaggressions may also contribute to reduced sense of accomplishment and negative perceptions of work environment, which would eventually affect international students’ goal attainment and persistence capabilities at work. Because self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and career choices and performance are intrinsically linked, negative experience in one aspect spills over to rest of the aspects. Taken together, microaggressions have the potential to cause unfavorable personal and professional outcomes for international students; therefore, it becomes imperative to aid international students in recognition and management of these marginalizing experiences. 

Based on SCCT, our change mechanisms for this project are aimed at increasing empowerment and decreasing help seeking stigma in the international student population. We are hoping to raise awareness of the pervasive and unintentional racial microaggressions experienced by international students on campus by providing psychoeducation on how these experiences are harmful at individual, interpersonal, and systemic levels. We are encouraging self-reflection in the students about microaggressions, to challenge any negative internalized beliefs they might have as a result of their marginalizing experiences. Moreover, we are hoping to validate their experiences which might have left them feeling isolated, invalidated, invisible, and distressed. We wish to convey that there’s hope and that they can seek for support; they should not feel guilty or responsible for these negative experiences. Finally, we are proposing quick and simple strategies or approaches to constructively address racial microaggressions they might experience at their workplaces. We are encouraging international students to seek support and advice from role models/guides/counselors to prevent and minimize the negative impact these microaggressions could have on their sense of self.

Resources Needed

Following is the list of required resources for successful completion and distribution of this infographic:

• A graphic designing software/tool is needed if any changes need to be made to the infographic or if someone wanted to re-create it. For this project, we used Canva, which is freely accessible from canva.com. 
• Access to colored printing services is required for printing the infographic. 
• The infographic can be displayed across campus announcement boards; hence permission to post on announcement bulletin boards is required. 
• Website and social media accounts are required for e-distribution of the graphic.
• Collaboration with other departments/offices (such as career services, student engagement, student affairs, graduate studies, counseling and disability services, and health services) is encouraged for a wider circulation of infographic to international students. 

Delivering Services

The office of International Student Support Services (ISSS) oversees a variety of programs and events for international students; therefore, they are the first line of contact for many international students. We originally intended for our product to be in the form of a trifold pamphlet that could be distributed across campus through the ISSS office at Penn State Harrisburg. They could have printed colored copies of the pamphlet and have it displayed on announcement boards across campus, where it would have been easily accessible to the student population. Additionally, ISSS would have collaborated with other on-campus departments/offices (such as career services, student engagement, student affairs, graduate studies, counseling and disability services, and health services) for a wider circulation of infographic to international students.

Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to alter our plans and instead format our infographic to be an image that we provided to the ISSS office coordinator. Our infographic can be easily distributed via e-mail and/or uploaded to the ISSS’s website or their various social media platforms. Nevertheless, it is our hope in the future that ISSS might distribute our infographic in the form that it was originally intended so that students would have access to it without needing to be able to access the internet.   

Expected Outcomes

We are hoping that international students at Penn State Harrisburg will find comfort in the infographic that we created. They have the information which they could use to take the suggested steps or utilize the additional resources we provided. Moreover, we want them to feel validated and supported, and to know that they are not alone in their experiences.  For measuring the expected outcomes, in future, the ISSS office could provide a survey assessing level of satisfaction with our infographic and the information it contains. Based on the results/feedback, they could update it to reflect information that the students identify as pertinent. There is scope to edit the infographic and tailor it to meet the needs of international students if they do not feel that the infographic is detailed enough or if there is a more specific topic that students wish more information on. Additionally, the ISSS office could even build off of our product and host a panel discussion regarding microaggressions at the workplace/internship site for students to be able to attend and ask questions in real time. Through these panel discussions, students could discuss the reasons why it is important to develop their abilities to recognize and acknowledge racial microaggressions as pervasive biases​. They could also learn and practice more helpful approaches to manage these experiences.

Looking ahead, there are few more suggestions which could be done to better address the experiences of microaggressions in international students. For instance, on a larger level, training workshops could focus on raising critical consciousness among campus faculty and staff around racial microaggressions international students experience. These workshops would provide a safe space where faculty and staff could engage in personal and professional reflections on their evolving racial awareness, frequent occurrence of racial microaggressions, and sensitivity to international students’ experiences​. Besides training workshops, ISSS could create a safe space/blog online where international students could anonymously share their experiences of microaggressions directed at them. It could help in increasing awareness about the prevalence of these marginalizing experiences, and foster empathy towards the international student population. Lastly, ISSS in collaboration with CAPS could run support-groups for students which aim at increasing self-efficacy, compassion, and sensitivity towards each other.

Finished Product: The Infographic

References

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs.

Constantine, M., & Sue, D. W. (2007). Perceptions of racial micro-aggressions among black supervisees in cross-racial dyads. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 54, 142–153. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.54.2.142 

Houshmand, S., Spanierman, L. B., & Tafarodi, R. W. (2014). Excluded and avoided: Racial microaggressions targeting Asian international students in Canada. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 20(3), 377-388. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035404 

Institute of International Education (2018). Number of International Students in the United States Reaches New High of 1.09 Million. Retrieved from https://www.iie.org/Why-IIE/Announcements/2018/11/2018-11-13-Number-of-International-Students-Reaches-New-High 

Korgan, C., Durdella, N., & Stevens, M. (2013). The development of academic self-efficacy among first-year college students in a comprehensive public university. Higher Education in Review, 10, 11-37. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315729807_The_Development_of_Academic_Self-Efficacy_among_First-Year_College_Students_in_a_Comprehensive_Public_University

Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (1994). Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45(1), 79-122. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1994.1027

Lent, R. W., & Brown, S. D. (2013). Social cognitive model of career self-management: Toward a unifying view of adaptive career behavior across the life span. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 60(4), 557-568. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033446 

Lian, Z. & Wallace, B. C. (2018) Prevalence of past-year mental disorders and its correlates among Chinese international students in US higher education. Journal of American College Health, 68(2), 176-184. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2018.1538147

Poyrazli, S., & Lopez, D. (2007). An Exploratory Study of Perceived Discrimination and Homesickness: A Comparison of International Students and American Students. The Journal of Psychology, 141(3), 263–280. https://doi.org/10.3200/jrlp.141.3.263-280

Shenoy-Packer,S. (2015). Immigrant professionals, microaggressions, and critical sensemaking in the US workplace. Management Communication Quarterly, 29(2), 257-275. https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318914562069

Smith, W. A., Hung, M., & Franklin, J. D. (2011). Racial battle fatigue and the “Mis”education of Black men: Racial microaggressions, societal problems, and environmental stress. Journal of Negro Education, 80(1), 63-82. www.jstor.org/stable/41341106

Sue, D. W. (2010). Microaggressions and marginality: Manifestation, dynamics, and impact. John Wiley & Sons. 

Sue, D. W., Bucceri, J., Lin, A. I., Nadal, K. L., & Torino, G. C. (2007). Racial microaggressions and the Asian American experience. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 13(1), 72-81.  https://doi.org/10.1037/1099-9809.13.1.72

Sue, D. W., Capodilupo, C. M., Torino, G. C., Bucceri, J. M., Holder, A. M. B., Nadal, K. L., & Esquilin, M. (2007). Racial microaggressions in everyday life: Implications for clinical practice. American Psychologist, 62(4), 271–286. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.62.4.271