Understanding friendship formation between international and host-national students in a Canadian university

Canada is known for its multiculturalism and is a major receiving country for international students. The successful integration of international students relies to some extent on positive social interaction and friendship formation with host-national students, which has been linked to a variety of positive outcomes. Nevertheless, consistent with existing research, we discover that international students develop their closest friendships with co-nationals and other international students. Based on survey responses and in-depth interviews with international students at one Canadian university, this study explains why international students are not taking advantage of opportunities to form friendships with host-national students, and/or why the friendship opportunities available are inadequate for deep friendship formation. Students’ responses might best be explained in terms of a cost/benefit analysis. Although interaction opportunities at Canadian universities exist, interaction constraints that are seen as costly to international students reinforce cultural boundaries and create barriers to intercultural friendship formations.