Intercultural Adjustment, Belonging, and Career Perceptions in International Higher Education Mobility: Evidence from Türkiye

Abstract

International education mobility is more than enrolment in an academic programme. It is a relational experience shaped by language, social contact, belonging, and the imagination of a professional future. This study examines how international students and mobility participants make sense of intercultural adjustment, belonging, active participation, personal development, and career perception in Turkish higher education. Two complementary qualitative sources were used: 67 open-ended written responses from participants with current or previous experience in Turkish higher education, and 15 face-to-face semi-structured interviews with international students at a state university in Türkiye. The data were examined through reflexive thematic analysis, with Young Yun Kim’s theory of cross-cultural adaptation serving as a sensitising framework. Mobility did not automatically produce adjustment, belonging, or career development. Instead, participants’ experiences were shaped by language competence, academic expectations, faculty support, peer networks, campus participation, and the responsiveness of the local community. The analysis identifies a cultural proximity paradox: Türkiye may be perceived as culturally familiar, safe, or religiously recognisable, yet students still encountered linguistic, academic, and everyday differences after arrival. A sense of belonging developed through sustained social and academic relationships, and career perceptions were reinterpreted as students linked their future professional roles to communication skills, social networks, diplomacy, civic engagement, and social contribution. This work contributes to higher education research from a non-Western but regionally significant host context by expanding the mobility-career debate beyond employability to include professional meaning-making and cross-cultural identity development.