On Partying with White People, Deconstructing Gender, and Being Called "Exotic" by Trisha Bhaya

“My frst week at UCU, there were white people partying in my unit, and all I could say was ‘woah’,” said Rania, a second-year student from Pakistan, with a short laugh.

For Rania, being born and raised in Pakistan meant that arriving in Utrecht and being surrounded by white people was incredibly alien to her. Not to mention the fact that they were partying where she lived. This newfound awareness of diferences between home and this new place underscored many other aspects of her experience moving abroad.

Leaving behind familiar rural landscapes and urban streets, friends she’d grown up with, transport she knew how to navigate, and rich, spice-laden food associated with home, to settle into an unfamiliar environment, completely alone, was not easy. But this is the experience of many international, especially brown, students that come to the Netherlands for higher education.

One such place where international students come to is University College Utrecht (UCU). It's known for a diverse student body, made up of students from 67 diferent countries, as advertised in their 2020 Annual Review. In academic institutions such as UCU, conversations centred around topics of diversity, inclusion, belonging, and decoloniality have become the norm, no doubt spurred on by such high international student numbers.

With these important, fundamental issues circulating the campus, it can be easy to overlook how often minoritized, international students feel and experience everyday life here. Being an international student at UCU means being defned as a foreigner, as someone from somewhere else. Perhaps listening to these student’s experiences can lead to a better understanding of how best to help them feel more at home, especially somewhere that is decisively unfamiliar to them.

class, [the teacher] said we were not going to discuss anything outside of Western art, except for in our own fnal papers,” said Prerna, a frst-year student from Pakistan. While there has been an evident efort to make course curriculums at UCU more inclusive, in many courses, just like in Prerna’s experience, it doesn’t seem to be quite enough. Even when conversations centre around broader, pertinent issues, there does seem to exist, in some way, a gap. “Like, in my class we’ll talk about deconstructing gender, right, but practically that concept is so diferent here than it would be back home,” said Rania. “It can be discussed super theoretically, but how do I even conceive of this idea over there?” lonesomeness, isolation, alienation, feeling divorced from the reality of other students, whether it is fnancial or ethnic or cultural,” Prerna said. “There seem to be microsocial networks that are already existent and somehow I slip through all of them.”

It appears that even in an attempt to consider diferent issues and topics, and broaden the curriculum, there exists some kind of disconnect between classroom theory and the reality for many international students.

These issues, unique to the academic environment, are not the only experience these students have had that have made them feel alienated. It appears that being on a university campus does not excuse some international students from encountering stereotypes during their interactions with other students.

“I’ve even been asked ‘You’re from Pakistan? But your English is so good!’,” said Prerna. Such a question comes completely by surprise to her, having grown up speaking English and having attended a British school in Pakistan. “I’ve even been called exotic,” said Kanrani, another frst-year student from Pakistan. Even an environment flled with educated and critically engaged students appears susceptible to stereotyping and asking inane questions, such as the ones asked during the interactions that Prerna and Kanrani expirenced.

On the surface, diversity and inclusivity conjure up images of a harmonious, inclusive utopia but it seems as if even in the microcosm that is UCU, many brown students still feel isolated. Prerna, Kanrani, and Rania even all agreed that there was a social disadvantage that came with being a brown student on this campus. Through no fault of their own, the new community international students enter simply is not built with their needs in mind, and eforts to help sometimes come across as paying lip service.

Outside of tangible, physical diferences, for students of colour, being on such a campus means acutely experiencing the difference between the culture you’ve left at home, and the culture that you’ve entered. It also means being exposed to incredibly novel ideas, situations, and people, and can make some students feel out of sorts.

“In my art history course, in the very frst

Despite some potential faws in overarching curriculum plans, discussions, and structures, Kanrani and Prerna both had positive things to say about their professors, agreeing that they were considerate and do deserve credit for trying to teach more broadly. Outside of the classroom, these students face the challenge of making this new place feel like ‘home,’ while often feeling completely foreign to it. Settling in, fnding their place, and navigating new social situations pose similar challenges to them.

“Some of the words recurrent in conversations with friends tend to revolve around

“There seem to be micro social networks that are already existent and somehow I slip through all of them.”

So, what can actually be done to help?

Neither Prerna, Kanrani, nor Rania were unoptimistic about the fact that steps can be taken in the right direction, and it seems that it’s quite simple, really.

“Listen. They just need to listen,” said Prerna. Allowing the experiences and perspectives of these students to infuence support systems and plans, making space by showing empathy and understanding for students with diferent backgrounds, and being respectful of diferences are all things that can be improved upon. But ultimately, removing the veneer of inclusivity and diversity in order to really listen to student experiences is of utmost importance. Maybe this way, everyone parties together.