







































Emerging Perspectives 
ep.journalhosting.ucalgary.ca 
 

 
 

Introduction from the Lead Editor of the Special Issue: A Spotlight on Newcomer 
Graduate Students’ Research 

Lena Barrantes 

University of Calgary 

The number of newcomer students in Canadian universities has increased significantly over 

the last two decades. This population grew over 99% between 2000 and 2011 (Anderson, 2015) and 

the Canadian Bureau of International Education (2018) reported that by 2017, the percentage of 

international students in Canadian universities increased 17%. It is anticipated that this number will 

continue to grow as higher education institutions seek to keep their programs competitive in a 

globalized market (Zhou & Zhang, 2014). Such a scenario makes the understanding of 

internationalization of key interest in order to enrich the newcomers’ and host country’s journey 

together. De Wit, Hunter, Egron-Polak, and Howard (2015) explained internationalization as: 

the intentional process of integrating an international, intercultural or global dimension into the 

purpose, functions and delivery of postsecondary education, in order to enhance the quality of 

education and research for all students and staff, and to make a meaningful contribution to 

society. (p. 29) 

With this in mind, newcomer students in postsecondary education in Canada come with a wide 

array of contributions. They bring intellectual and cultural capital in the form of strong connections 

between different countries, opportunities for communication with people from all over the world, 

cultural richness to host institutions, and substantial revenues in the form of higher tuition fees than 

domestic students. Additionally, their diverse cultural perspectives, backgrounds, and worldviews 

add to the conversations on diversity and inclusion in education and in their respective fields. 

Newcomer graduate students have many different reasons to undertake a rigorous program in 

a different country and in a different language. Their reasons include the pursuit of high academic 

goals, in-depth immersion in academic life, acquisition of specialized knowledge, the development 

of strategic research skills, and broader employment opportunities. Once in the host country, they all 

carry distinct life history that informs their decisions prior to their arrival and their participation in 

the new country.  

During their immersion process, their social integration experiences are situated within 

complex in-school and out-of-school practices where they usually deal with homesickness and 

difficulty in coping with day-to-day particularities of the new country, such as weather conditions, 

transportation, and financial and health care systems. Added to these, social-cultural behaviours like 

culture shock, discriminatory practices, loss of identity and confidence, and new social customs may 

influence newcomer students’ experiences. Guo and Guo (2017) identified discrepancies between 

internationalization policy and practice and reported students’ challenges in academic and living 

environments. Difficulty in making friends with local students, little internationalization of the 

curriculum, and problems dealing with stereotypes and racism are difficult barriers to break.  

As a diverse group that is ever increasing on Canadian campuses, understanding newcomer 

students’ experiences deserves attention in order to create a comprehensive picture of their challenges 



Barrantes / Emerging Perspectives (2020)  iii 

and successes. As a newcomer student myself in Canada, I felt that one way of doing this was to 

open a space where research that results from newcomer students’ initiatives could find a way of 

bonding with the Canadian land. As such, I led the creation of this special issue, entitled “A Spotlight 

on Newcomer Graduate Students’ Research”. Just as the Tree of Togetherness on the cover of this 

Special Issue reflects the similarities and nuanced diversities of newcomer students’ stories, research 

shared in this issue traces authors’ home roots and invites attentive listeners and readers to see how 

they put down new roots in Canada. 

For the readers of EPIGREP, some themes in the articles may be unfamiliar, as this Special 

Issue covers research done in three different faculties: Social Work, Education, and School of 

Languages, Linguistics, Literatures, and Cultures. We invite our readers to be perceptive as these 

articles can enrich their understandings of newcomers’ research interests and contributions. Each 

article in this Special Issue draws on different aspects of social science research in the form of a 

research brief. 

What is a Research Brief? 

For EPIGREP Journal, a research brief is an opportunity for authors to share what they consider 

to be an interesting aspect of their research project. We believe research briefs are an opportunity to 

share a brief summary of completed or in-progress study. This type of manuscript does not report the 

full study findings and does not undergo the full peer-review process. For this Special Issue, the five 

research briefs navigated different topics that include experiences of immigration in Canada, re-

integration to the home country, repatriation, and French language teaching and learning.  

Authors in this Special Issue represent a variety of cultural backgrounds whose diverse 

nationalities represent the common rich diversity present in Canadian universities. The authors come 

from China, Ghana, Uganda and Kosova. In this list of countries, Costa Rica, my home country, adds 

to the diversity as well as Canada, the nationality of the two editors supporting this initiative. 

Overview of the Papers 

 The first two articles are studies conducted in Canada while the next three are situated in the 

newcomer students’ home country China, Uganda, and Kosova, respectively. 

The first article Weaving Identities: Experiences of Bereavement among Chinese Immigrants 

in Calgary by Qianyun Wang and Christine Walsh address the lived experiences of spousal 

bereavement among older Chinese immigrants living in Calgary. Their research findings, interwoven 

with Qianyun’s own grief stories, resulted in understanding how migratory grief may contribute to 

vulnerability to mental health issues. This study contributed by calling for culturally appropriate 

bereavement supports and family/community involvement. 

 In the second article, The Experiences of Ghanaian Male Immigrants in Canada, Benedict 

Kojo Otoo shares his personal struggles as an immigrant to Canada and explores the stories of 

Ghanaian men in Canada looking for professional work. This paper contributes to the newcomer 

experience of Ghanaians by calling for changes and improvements for immigration reform for skilled 

immigrants.        

 In the next article, Ling Lei authors Returning “Home”? Exploring the Re-integration 

Experiences of Internationally Educated Chinese Academic Returnees and identifies competing 

powers of recognition in China that value cultural knowledge differently from Canada. Her 

contribution suggests that for sustained academic development, China’s higher education 

internationalization should focus attention on working on local academic community-building that 

recognizes and supports returnee academics’ ways of knowing and doing.  



Barrantes / Emerging Perspectives (2020)  iv 

 Next, Harriet Haggerty in her article Integration of Culture in the Teaching of French as a 

Foreign Language at The University Level in Uganda uses a case study approach and shares that 

language and culture are interdependent and interrelated so teaching the two separately may lead to 

losing the essence of either language or culture. Her study made a contribution to the realization that 

the teaching of the French language may enable the students to appreciate the French and 

francophone culture(s) and to identify the differences between the French/francophone culture(s) and 

their own culture(s). 

           In the final article, The ‘In-betweenness’ of Emerging Newcomer Scholars, Kaltrina 

Kusari explores how the identity of emerging newcomer scholars is shaped by transnational research. 

Her article is informed by personal experiences when navigating tensions that emerge from living a 

transnational life. She suggests that the hegemony in this context relies on colonial practices that 

uphold Western dominance, and she invites readers to be reflexive about their role in perpetuating 

and/or resisting hegemonic ways of being.  

Conclusion 

Combined, these five articles comprise the special issue of EPIGREP Journal A Spotlight on 

Newcomer Graduate Students’ Research, which provides what we believe is, a window to see the 

contribution newcomer graduate students bring to Canada and to their fields. Their contributions 

attain the internationalization purpose of enhancing the quality of education and research to make 

a meaningful contribution to society. The articles speak to the myriad opportunities that exist for 

other graduate students. 

As you engage with the work in this special issue, I hope you will consider the context in 

which the articles, the various methodologies, and this body of knowledge are taken up and 

applied, and bring your critical reflective practice to the process of international integration and 

global dimension learning of post-secondary education. 

References 

Anderson, T. (2015). Seeking internationalization: The state of Canadian higher education. Canadian 

Journal of Higher Education, 45(4), 166-187.  

CBIE (Canadian Bureau of International Education) (2018). International students in Canada. 

Ottawa: CBIE.  

de Wit, H., Hunter, F., Egron-Polak, E. & Howard, L. (2015). Internationalisation of higher 

education. Brussels: European Parliament. 

Guo, Y., & Guo, S. (2017). Internationalization of Canadian higher education: Discrepancies 

between policies and international student experiences. Studies in Higher Education, 42(5), 

851–868. 

Zhou, G. & Zhang, Z. (2014). Study of the first year international students at a Canadian university: 

Challenges and experiences with social integration. Canadian and International Education, 

43(2), Article 7. 


