INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AS A TOOL FOR INTEGRATION OF CAMEROONIAN STUDENTS ABROAD

The fragmentation of states, the quest for supremacy by some European and African nations is now than ever evident. Racism, discrimination and clash of culture, are aspects which scholars keep addressing in different regions during peace and security conferences. Intercultural communication is a vital tool for integration in Europe, as well as in Africa. This paper explores, integration of Cameroonian students in the U.S. It equally reviews Cameroon’s culture based on Hofstede and Hall’s classification of culture.

Keywords: Intercultural Communication, Communication, Culture, Integration

Introduction

Globalization has given a new shift in communication prism, intercultural communication is not left out. People are inter-connected than ever before, and communication is much easier than in the past decades (Behbahani, 2013). Innovation in communication technology and transport sector has facilitated the deployment of connections and as well helped the decision of migration more feasible. One of the most significant faces of globalization is migration. Long time ago people had only heard of international trading (Goldin, 2006) but migration and movement among people crossing borders has become a tangible procedure of globalization. People migrate to different countries and with a variety of aspirations and reasons and under diverse conditions (King, 2002). Castles and Miller (2009) claim that mobility has become much easier due to cultural and political changes making migration into a central dynamic within globalization.

We now live in a rapidly changing time and in such a climate intercultural communication takes on special significance since it offers tools to help negotiate about religious and ethnic differences, hate crimes and many other related issues (Martin & Nakayama 2010). There are two main issues accompanying migration which is under great consideration in the multicultural societies; integration of immigrants and intercultural communication. While immigration to new homelands has become frequent the process of integration has reached the higher positions in the host countries’ policies for dealing with ‘foreigners or non-nationals’ in order to have a coherent and a stable society.

Nevertheless, integration prone for tolerance and respect to other cultures which in turn creates a high position for ‘intercultural communication’ in diverse societies. In other words, what makes the process of integration possible and is of great importance in facilitating the hard procedure of integration is ‘communication’ being as crucial as integration itself.  Flam and Beauzamy (2008), revealed that, every foreigner encounters several challenges with ‘natives’ which affects the way immigrants perception, which shows how quality of communication can affect a multicultural society.

The definition of globalization is often associated to trans-boundary flow of people, capital and information (Asgari et al., 2010). Migration to Europe is not a new process but as Koser and Lutz (1998) believe the recent flow has a character that distinguishes it from the previous form and referred to as ‘new migration’. The new migration consists of people with dissimilar cultures with different individual capital and reasons other than only economical reasons for migration. The growth of cultural diversity in the receiving countries has caused a situation where certain researches as Vertove (2005) call it ‘super diversity’. One of the areas that is internationalized to a great extend is the universities in mainly developed countries. The influx of international students in different Western countries during the recent decades has brought diversity into universities and consequently raised problems of communication among these culturally diverse students (Guo & Chase 2010). Two main topics intertwined with migration are ‘integration’ of the newcomers and ‘communication’ among culturally diverse groups of people. Though Allwood (1999) has a different narrative on communication among people of different cultures, for him it could mount to misunderstandings due to the expected patterns of communication based on one’s own culture on the behavior of others.

Operational concepts and definitions

Communication

Allwood (1985) defines communication as the sharing of information between people with different levels of awareness and control. The word ‘awareness’ and ‘control’ carry an important feature of this sharing of information which at times may not be intentional and may have roots in cultural patterns and practices but can lead to understandings or misunderstandings. The other definition belongs to Martin and Nakayama (2003) that communication is a symbolic process where reality is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed. Oetzel (2008) believes that cultural differences produce differences in communication style that can vary across cultures and can lead to misunderstandings and misinterpretation of communication behaviors. These misunderstandings can also occur due to expectations of communication in a certain culture which is not fulfilled by the counter party.

Culture

Li and Karakowsky (2001) define culture as the collective deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, roles, relations and material objects acquired by a group of people through generations. It is a way of life of a group of people and the beliefs and values that they accept without thinking and are passed to them through communication and imitation from one generation to another.  One of another phenomenal definition is  that of Zimmermann (2012),  ‘culture is the characteristics of a particular group defined by language, social habits, cuisine, religion, music and art’.

Intercultural Communication

According Allwood (1985) in Behbahani (2009) intercultural communication is defined as the sharing of information between people of different cultures with different levels of awareness and control. For Teng (2005), intercultural communication is the ability to effectively interact with people of different cultures. Meanwhile Bennet (2003), talks of the ability to interpret communication styles which include verbal and non-verbal language, signs and gestures and customs.

Integration

A phenomenal phrase adopted by Germans is, ‘integration takes place locally’ and this appeals to integration of immigrants in Germany (Shubert et al. 2010). However, integration in contemporary times is focus on the incorporation with equal rights of all ethnic groups. Olwig (2011) believes that integration of immigrants into the new societies helps a newcomer enjoy social and economical mobility and therefore as Castles and Miller (2009) claim most modern states and societies have made considerable efforts for immigrants to achieve cultural integration.

Cameroon’s Culture based on Hofstede and Hall’s classification of culture

Based on Hofstede’s (1983) classification of cultures we can analyze Cameroon culture as a strictly hierarchically structured culture where power distances are clearly visible and those who are powerful are more respected and usually have the right to make the final decisions. It is a collective society and people usually feel responsible towards friends and family. People feel safe since they feel themselves in a supportive community that is expected to give a hand and be supportive even without requesting for help or support. When it comes to uncertainty avoidance it is more likely to say that Cameroonians try to avoid uncertainty through rules and regulations though not always strictly obedient to rules! The Cameroonian culture is structured in such a way that, gender roles are clearly visible and men are expected to be tough, material oriented and more powerful socially and legally.

According Behbahani (2013), there is a variation in cultural orientation, whether to be considered short term and long term. Cameroonian culture is mostly considered as long term oriented and it is usually the stable future which is important rather than getting quick results. On the other hand, based on Hall’s (1976) high context and low context categorization of cultures we can consider Cameroon as a high context culture.

 The Cameroonian culture is not attached detailed information and the information is received based on the understanding of the receiver and it could be known as more implicit in this category. Based on Ting Toomy’s (1998) classification of cultures to direct / indirect cultures we can place Cameroonian culture in the indirect class for the communication culture is more implicit and preferred to be more indirect. In other words being direct is at times considered to be rude and impolite and information especially negative answers or views are often preferred to be indirectly shared or not at all mentioned.

With the increasing number of foreign students in Cameroon, particularly in University of Buea, one can easily imprint the fact of integration around the world, particularly the department of health science and Advanced School of Translators and Interpreters.

German and Australian culture

Drawing from Fareed Zakaria’s program ‘Culture is Destiny’ an interview with the former prime minister of Singapore Lee Kaun in 1994, who express the revolutionary change of his country even after United States of Amnerica, minimized his agenda, has the perspective of integration. According to Barinaga (1999), the choice between choosing to look after ‘one self’ or taking care of the ‘other’ positions is a culture within the line of ‘Collectivism and Individualism’. Based on Behbahani (2009) several countries are known for their extremely individualist cultures, like Germany and Australia. Former Singapore’s response to Fareed correlates with Allwood (1999) claims that such countries patterns of communication and cultural behaviors, reveal a high degree of self-sufficiency which leads to personal independence.

Cameroonian Students’ Experience in United States of America

In Sub Saharan Africa, there is a perception that studying in the developed countries is much better than homeland. It helps enhance learning and education due to developed facilities and updated scientific literatures, and more the socialization of students. Upon return, with renowned certification and cultural associational life, helps create better opportunities for achieving better positions in the society. Cameroon students are not exceptional to this pattern and usually leave their families and homeland to create such opportunities for better living either back in their homeland or somewhere else in the world.

Through several opportunities like fellowships and admission for postgraduate programmes, most universities in the world enrich their campuses with different cultural perspectives which will automatically change the practices and dominant beliefs that define the life of those institutions (Reyes 2013). However, this claim is evident as most students are allowed to practice their ethnic and cultural identity is under consideration. There are also certain instances where people do not want to communicate interculturally and simply consider themselves as ‘different’. Due to these dynamics many students can have negative intercultural experiences ranging from misunderstandings to physical violence (Martin & Nakayama 2010). In fact, there exist a negative perspective about intercultural communication, which could be frustrating, confusing and distressing. The aspect of integration relays also on the educator, who need to facilitate issues of culture and diversity for students during discussions in classrooms (Singh 2009). Intercultural communication helps newcomers find themselves more wanted and accepted which leads to higher motivations rather than being avoided and neglected which can cause segregations and inefficient performance.

Conclusion

Intercultural communication contributes in the integration of immigrant students, though in certain instances people of different cultural backgrounds may have different understandings and patterns of communicating with others. These differences usually leads to misunderstandings leading to ethnocentrism and xenophobia with stereotyping ideas about other cultures. Most international students encounter several challenges and barriers in integrating into the new academic milieu, such challenges are but not limited to language and believe (Guo & Chase 2010).

Reye (2013) narrative on the feel of belonging to a school is challenged often students of minority show decline in academic motivation and achievement. This correlates with Olwig (2011) narrative that integration into the new societies helps a newcomer enjoy social mobility.  Intercultural communication facilitates understandings, belonging and familiarities with different ways of living and thinking.

Critically Mallet et al. (2011) perspective about sense of belonging could result to lack of social connection and two main factors which leads to racial and ethnic identification. However, Shubert et al. (2010) narrative of ‘integration takes place locally’ and in the most basic levels where joint culture life is discussed and agreed upon, then we can understand how intercultural communication can raise understandings and lead to this basic level of integration. Nonetheless, Fareed Zakaria’s ‘Culture is Destiny’ an interview with the prime minister of Singapore in 1994, is reminiscent to Costoui (2008) regarding integration is no more the removal of differences between minorities and the bigger society but incorporation with equal rights.

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