The perception of African students towards the host population in Pune, India

Abstract

Student's migration, like any other migration involves a continuous process of interaction through which members of different social and cultural background come in contact with one another and together, with the new socio-cultural situations. In the University of Pune, students of different social, ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds from different continents and countries come in search for academic knowledge. This paper about African students in Pune city, deals with their perceptions towards the host population and the inter and intra racial relationships and cross-cultural interactions. In this study both qualitative and quantitative data have been used. In order to gather information about the African students' community life: and their national and religious association, a quasi-participant observation technique was employed. In order to cross check the reliability of the observational data, many informants were interviewed. It is found out that due to many pull and push factors African students move to India. The push factors include, the shortage of higher academic institutions in Africa, and a certain extent political instability in African countries. The pull factors include, the relatively affordable educational expenses in India, the fast and less complicated University and College admission procedures in India.

Keywords: integration, ethnocentrism, perception, stereotype, race, Pune

IFE PsychologIA Vol. 14(1) 2006: 40-59