Acculturation Stress and Depression among International College Students

Acculturation Stress and Depression among International College Students

America has become an important center for world learning over the last century. Many well known professionals from foreign countries are known to have had their studies in a university in the US. Although many people would focus on their success stories, such foreign students experienced numerous challenges as a result of acculturation in their new environment. Lifestyles, beliefs, and cultures in general vary from one continent to another. This gives a challenge to foreign students who are going out of their countries for the first time in their lives.

The adjustment to the new environment, culture, and people can take a big psychological toll on a human being and often leads to stress and in extreme cases, depression (Oberg, 1960). Although the US has tried to make the environment to be friendly to her foreign students, many of them still find it difficult to adapt since they get pressure from various parts of life. Furthermore, presence of counseling services has not been fully appreciated by the foreign students because they find it difficult to open up about their situations. Some even do not realize that they are stressed and they end up getting depressed without notice. Something, therefore, ought to and must be done about the high cases of depression of foreign students in American learning institutions occasioned by acculturation issues.

Background of the problem

Overview

In the 2002 Robert Ludlum novel, Janson the protagonist asks a foreigner why the world hates America so much yet America loves the rest of the world or in the very least is indifferent. The foreigner replied that it is not possible for America to understand why others find her unique yet the people are as average in character as any other country. Many of the foreign students who come to the US are under scholarship and from developing countries with some coming from the rural areas of their home countries. A higher percentage of them have never seen the lifestyle manifested through spending and leisure that the American people are accustomed to. The high living standards of many Americans makes the foreign students who come from developing countries feel below par. This negative perception makes them unable to accept their new environment hence ending up with stress and even depression. Further, Americans have unique character that a foreigner who perhaps has lived in a marginalized state where everyone is docile is not able to match with (Oberg, 1954).

Risk factors for depression for international students

Language Barrier

Language is one of the risk factors that make many college foreign students end up getting stressed and even depressed. A higher percentage of them have learnt English as a second or third language hence finding it difficult to understand standard American English. When one is in a foreign land for the first time, everything is mysterious and strange which creates the need to make continuous enquiry; this calls for a need to consistently communicate with the hosts (Gardner, 1985; Yu et al., 2014). Over and above the embarrassment of having to ask questions that sound simple, is the element of inability to communicate properly both when asking the question or receiving the answers. Once the foreigner realizes that communication is an issue, even the well understood things will be doubted which creates extreme confusion. The confusion will overstretch the patience of the host further increasing the problem. Finally, this individual is here to study, all the lectures, the group discussion, and the literature materials are in English, which the foreigner barely understands. In this manner, language barrier is a serious stress factor for foreign students.

Acculturation and acculturative stressors

When a human being is born, a psychological element in the genes enables the child to be able to automatically collect information from the environment through the sensory organs and practical translate the same and adopt it into knowledge (Kashima & Sadewo, 2016) . The knowledge so acquired creates and develops the character and culture of the child through the process involved as the child grows into an adult. A similar process occurs during the acculturations and it takes time and patience which is available to the child as it gradually grows in its environment (Desa, Yusooff & Kadir, 2012).

However, acculturation can be seen as a transformation of the culture that an individual took time to develop as a child and adopting the new culture of the new environment that individuals find themselves in. The foreign student will need to be used to the new environment and this will appear like undergoing the process of both losing personality and developing a different personality (Berry, 1997) . By its very nature, this is a potentially depressing transformation.

Prejudice

Prejudice can be defined as judging something or someone based on what they are expected to be rather than what they actually are. It generally happens when there is a general impression about something or a kind of classification where the character of individuals within that classification is anticipated even when the reality may be different. For foreign student, the prejudice is common with the foreign student having the notion that the Americans are better than them while the locals will have the assumption that the foreign student is green, uncultured, and uncivilized. Further, some foreign countries are reputed for different things. Popular American movies about the Far East create the impression that all Orientals are aggressive artists, another form of prejudice. The foreign student who is already a victim of personal prejudice when it comes to American citizens will seemingly have the prejudice confirmed as the same meets the common prejudicial feelings by the locals. This scenario will create an underling unfriendliness that worsens the situation and increases chances of stress and depression.

Social Life

It has now been psychologically established that a good social life such as interpersonal relationships, is essential to the well-being of a human. Further, when a person experience a difficult moment in life, a good social life becomes important. Transition from one’s homeland is sometimes a life-changing moment in an individual’s life and creates a serious need for the kind of support that a good social life provides. Unfortunately, it is at this very moment that the foreign student will have no friends and no easy means of getting them. The lack of social support and interaction in times of great needs causes loneliness and an individual becomes withdrawn, hence contributing further to stress and eventual depression (Oei & Notowidjojo, 1990; Lee, Koeske & Sales, 2004).

Statement of problem

Like all ailments, early detection and proper treatment are key to the control of depression. The ability to detect signs of depression, have the courage to admit the fact, availability of proper treatment facility, and making the proper use for them should therefore be the automatic and unconditional answer to the issue of acculturation stress and depression among international college students. However, due to various varying factors, real and imagined, foreign students rarely seek professional assistance and even when they opt for it, it is either unavailable or inadequate hence the depression dilemma becomes highly possible. International college students experience additional pressures as a result of adjusting to a new culture and language that can result in feelings of depression, however, this student population often suffers in silence due in part to the lack of counseling interventions geared toward overcoming negative cultural perceptions of mental health treatment (Nolem-Hoeksema, 1991; Rice, Choi, Zhang, Morero & Anderson, 2012).

Purpose of the paper

The purpose of this paper is to establish the extent of the problem of the stress and depression relating to the acculturation of foreign students as enhanced by the unavailability and lack of access to proper psychological support and psychiatric assistance in America. It also seeks to establish the ways and means for the resolution of the problem.

Theoretical Orientation

The preferred theoretical orientation is Reality Therapy developed by Glasser William in 1965. This therapy is widely used in the education sector since it focuses on how an individual chooses to solve issues facing them. Most of the issues facing the foreign students are inevitable thus their solution lies not in the behavior of other people but their own choices on how to view the problem. This therapy will help the student to change their negative perceptions on the new environment hence making it easy to overcome the challenges they face. When the student feels that they do not have family and friends to communicate with, they tend to get a mental distress that can be solved through the reality therapy.

Literature Review

Introduction: Increasing Number of International Students and Diversity in Higher Education

Unlike the 1960s when foreign students were countable, the current situation has drastically changed as the number of foreign students in America has exponentially increased in recent years with the public taking special notice of the same in the year 2014 when the total number stood at eight hundred and eighty six thousand and fifty two students (Haynie, 2014). By 2015 however, the record breaking trend increased to one million and fifty thousand students with the numbers continuing to increase with every passing day (Hookstead, 2015).

As the students increase in numbers, they also increase in diversity; among the main contributors to these numbers are China and India, perhaps the most populous nations in the world. A great number of students also come from Canada, Africa, South America and Europe. Further, the students are spread out as the number of universities has also increased in different parts of the US. Therefore, the increase in the number of students has not reduced the dilemma of acculturation and the resultant stress and possible depression. This implies that as days go by, the problem increases, stretching further the little resources that are currently available. Therefore, this entry of students has had a multiplying effect on the issue of acculturation stress and depression relating to relocation to America and seeking to adapt to its way of life.

Depression Literature: International Students as a vulnerable student population

There is nothing new in the issue of acculturation; indeed the subject has been scientifically studied since the year 1918 from a psychological, social, and sociological perspective with regard to immigrants, refugees and also indigenous people. However, the initial studies focused both on how indigenous people were affected by immigrants even as they studied how immigrants acculturated to the locals. This has however, changed with studies largely studying the effects on those who immigrate, especially in the US since the immigrants are far less than the populace with the culture of the populace being dominant compared to that of the immigrants.

It is, therefore, clear from the modern literature that acculturation is about dominance with the predominant culture of the resident seemingly lording over and overturning that of the immigrant student who is overcome with the necessity to fit in and thrive in the new environment (Westwood & Barker, 1990). Many of the foreign students from developing countries who are not under scholarship also seek to pay their tuition and upkeep through part-time employment, which creates a deeper need to fit in and be accepted so that they can find jobs. This clearly shows another reason for the piling pressure to fit in (US Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2013).

Racial issues also cannot be ignored especially in the contemporary America where racial animosity, an issue that was thought to have been settled has arisen with fervor first in relation with the November election campaigns and getting worse with time. American citizens of African, Oriental and Hispanic origin are constantly victims to racist tendencies yet they have a better capacity both to blend in and defend themselves. The foreign student stands out like a sore thump, with their conduct, their accent, and mannerisms telling them apart and making them victims to innocent pranks (Wei, Heppner, Ku & Liao, 2010).

Risk factors for Depression among International Students

Depression usually occurs when stress is mishandled or not handled at all. Indeed, clinical depression is described as a psychological condition and denotes a situation where an individual has been highly affected by stress to the point of insanity (Guyton, 1986). It is worthy of notice that basically, acculturation may not create depression per se, as the issues and problems emanating from it` can be resolved through counseling and therapy. It is the laxity to seek this help that has created the prevalence for depression (Rice et al., 2012). There are many factors that contribute to the creation and exacerbation of this stress including the following:

Social Interaction

Man is a social being who cannot thrive in seclusion; he constantly requires a form of connection with fellow human beings who share similar tastes and opinions in life. From a practical perspective, if a cross section of individuals were to be placed together in a singular place without any form of order, they will tend to form certain grouping after some time. Each individual will find a group they are comfortable in and within no time, friendships would be made and conversations begin; social interaction is a primal character ( Berry, Galyapina & Lebedeva, 2016) . However, if a singular individual is placed in the same room with people who are already acquitted, unless the majority have the courtesy of going out of their way to make the stranger feel at home, the likely scenario will be the group continuing with their social interaction and the stranger feeling out of place. This is the fate of the foreign student who moves to strange nations and finds people who have a lot in common including football, politics, baseball, and other common topics unique to Americans. The lack of social interaction leaves the foreign student all alone and magnifies the absence of the friends and relatives who are in a distant land. This will saw seeds of stress and augment it into depression if not handled in time (Oei & Notowidjojo, 1990).

Communication Problems

The other consistently cited source of stress and the resultant depression is the lack of communication. The ability to comprehensively communicate and express oneself is a fundamental primal character for human beings. Whereas proper and comprehensive communication is important in one’s own comfort zone, it becomes much more critical when one is in a foreign land (Araujo, 2011). Experts and commentators give various scenarios where communication problems cause stress and depression to the foreign student. The initial issue is the availability and adequacy of basic needs. Under all circumstances, human beings require food, clothing and shelter. These are the first things to look for when a foreign student arrives in America. With many illegal immigrants also operating under limited resources which some of them top up through performing menial jobs for pay, there is a fundamental need both to hear and be heard. With English being a second language to many foreign students and American English being a specialized language, and the presence of many versions of localized slang, the students may be unable to communicate properly when asking for basic amenities (Gardner, 1985).

Names of foods, cloths, and other basics vary from place to place thus complicating the issue further. However, the most cited issue about communication problems is the constancy thereof; humans communicate almost all the time, during class, the tutor will communicate with the students and students will communicate with one another, the same applies away from class and at every juncture. The communication problem, therefore, becomes an unavoidable predicament, a cause for anxiety and stress (Araujo, 2011). Unfortunately, even seeking for support and help when one is stressed requires communication, and if this is the major problem, the stress continues unsolved leading to depression.

Parental Expectations

In many countries, traveling to the US is an opportunity of a lifetime. When this opportunity is coupled with the chance to study and work in the US, the issue goes beyond the students themselves since it is a family and societal dream come true. It is a common occurrence for big functions, fundraisers, and parties to be organized for individuals travelling to the US for study with great speeches being given regarding the expectations of the parents and the society at large in the same way that a politician who wins an election is given the expectations of the voters. As indicated, there are many foreign students who also double as employees who do menial jobs so as to pay tuition as well as for sustainability (US Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2013).

Commentators note that many of the parents of these individuals have an expectation that because their children are now working in the US, they should also be sending monies back home to sustain their now aging parents and siblings. Since the standard of living in the US is better than most of the indigenous countries, there is also the parental expectation that the foreign student will manage to acquire permanent residence, preferably citizenship status and create means for the siblings and even parents to join them in the ‘land of opportunities’ (Chavajay, 2008). Some countries, albeit rich like China have authoritarian government policies and very poor working conditions which also make parents to insist that once their children leave for the US for study, they should never return. This creates additional pressure on the students who are already suffering from the difficulties associated to acculturation which will lead to stress and eventually to depression.

Academic Pressure and Language Barriers

American academic certificates are recognized, accepted, and applauded all over the world, but they do not come cheap. Further, research has shown that most of the students studying in the US prefer the sciences and technical courses which are quite difficult and complex at best with the difficulty being augmented by language barriers (Westwood & Barker, 1990). There also exists the issue of recognition; technical and science courses are predominantly practical in nature where learning through practice is exercised. However, many of the foreign students especially those from developing countries and rural areas are not familiar with the nature and level of technology now available in the US. A foreign student will, therefore, find a tough course being studied through the use of unfamiliar material and paraphernalia, yet the same student is still going through the rigors of other areas of acculturation. The same student may also be holding two or three menial jobs, which are difficult to perform due to acculturation issue and this makes it easy to get depression.

Homesickness

As the adage goes, East or West, home is best. Even when a person has bad memories of home, they will still miss it. Home can also be a poor isolated place with poor governance or even war and individuals will miss the place with even refugees craving to return to their war-torn countries even when they now reside in safe countries since the desolate places are home. This phenomenon is however, a psychological connotation; the character and culture of an individual are practically developed through the cognitively collected data from the environment where the individual was raised (Kashima & Sadewo, 2016) . It is this factor that according to commentators creates the passion to return home and continue in the environment that the individual was empirically crafted to thrive in. Indeed, from one perspective, homesickness is a form of rebellion to acculturation; the conflict between the need to acculturate and the desire to return home is quite stressful and has a high tendency for the creation of depression.

Financial Barriers

It is virtually impossible for an American citizen who has not traveled to a developing country to understand the concept that some people live on less than one dollar a day as statistics show. Life in the US is relatively expensive as compared to most of the other countries in the world because American living standards are relatively high. Foreign students from most countries will find common life including basic and secondary needs extremely expensive and find it necessary to keep several jobs in an attempt to survive (US Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2013). Tuition is also very expensive. This super expensive way of life will however, be easily available to the foreign student’s colleagues who are either from affluent families, under comprehensive scholarships or having access to federal, state or commercial student loans. The foreign student will not only have to fight with the embarrassment of low level life but also have to suffer the stigma of not being able to live to the standards of colleagues in the same set up (Chavajay, 2008). A feeling of being left out or being discriminated upon is almost unavoidable when all other colleagues are engaging in activities and amenities that are beyond their capacity. The pressure, embarrassments and stigma emanating from this is a good recipe for depression.

Theoretical Framework

The Federal and State governments as well as private entities spend millions of dollars every year in research, development, and perfection of psychological and psychiatric amenities in the nation. Whereas is it a fact that psychiatrists are quite few in the US with the current ratio standing at one psychiatrist for over thirty thousand Americans, the reality therapy can be conducted by any qualified psychological practitioner which begs the question on why stress emanating from acculturation is developing into depression with minimum or no mitigation at all (Rice et al., 2012). Further, acculturation issues can be handled and resolved before they develop into stress factors since they are generally based on perception. The following are among the grounds for the same.

Underuse of Counseling Services

Counseling is defined as the professional assistance in dealing with personal crisis and is a good preemptor of therapy, which mostly becomes necessary when a problem has already been mismanaged. The proper use of counseling will prevent issues from developing into stress factors requiring therapy, or into depression thus requiring psychiatric care (Rice et al., 2012). Whereas counseling is always available in learning institutions as stated in their policies, it is ironical that the very same issues that make counselling necessary also act as hindrances to seeking it. These issues include language barriers that will discourage the foreign student from seeking counselling from the fear that he/she might not be able to express themselves well. Prejudice on the other hand creates a ‘me against the world’ mentality for the suffering foreign student who will tend to consider the counselor as a part of ‘them’ hence unreliable. Furthermore, the privacy culture that is found in many countries scorn counseling as divulging too much information to a stranger thus disdaining the procedure that could assist the foreign student with this mentality and at the same time suffers acculturation issues that need counselling (Akhtar & Kröner-Herwig, 2015).

Negative Perceptions of Mental Health Treatment

Mental problems have existed for several centuries and many people in the past associated it demon possessions. People who still hold this belief to date find it difficult to seek medical attention because they believe that the ailment can only be treated through exorcism. Furthermore, stress and depression cannot be easily confessed by a person who is suffering and this makes it difficult to justify that the mental illness has no relation with evil spirits. Although some people of different opinion may be well aware of the depression, they find it difficult to convince individuals who have a contrary opinion (Akhtar & Kröner-Herwig, 2015). Furthermore, some people have a perception that mental problems require patients to be admitted in mental rehabilitation institutions and this creates extreme reluctance upon persons who are clearly suffering the onset of mental disorder including depression to admit or seek psychological help.

Further, there has always been stigmatization and discrimination against people suffering from mental health issues with legal provisions that enable kinsmen to have people suffering mental health committed to asylums. Both factors affect the poor foreign student who is already anticipating and perhaps suffering discrimination and stigmatization due to other factors kindred to acculturation. Reluctance to admit having mental issues and seek help thus reducing early mitigation of stress is, therefore, diminished leading to predominant development of depression (Akhtar & Kröner-Herwig, 2015).

Social Support and Family Communication

Psychology practitioners and commentators indicate that social support and proper family communication could make the difference between proper mental health in the aftermath of stress and the development full clinical depression (Guyton, 1986; Glyshaw, Cohen & Towbes, 1989). The very nature of mental health issues creates inability on the part of the patient to assist themselves and on many occasion, the patient’s exertions towards self-help are counterproductive to the mental and general health of the patient (Glyshaw, Cohen & Towbes, 1989). It is at this point that the patient’s social circle and family becomes the pillar of support necessary for mitigation from adverse effect. Proper family communication ensures early detection and management of stress and stress factors while social support enables the individual to work out issues that are likely to cause stress and avoid or reverse depression (Lee, Koeske & Sales, 2004). The foreign student lacks both a family to communicate with and a social circle for support. Alone and lonely in a foreign land, the stress will not be noticed until too late with the depression having major advance consequences, including fatality (Oei & Notowidjojo, 1990).

Interventions

These are the measures set in place to mitigate acculturation related stress and depression among foreign students. Whereas many institutions, organizations, and authorities have gone to great lengths to provide for the same, the interventions have more often than not failed essentially due to the nature of the problem. The first problem that limits intervention is the perception that the foreign student through prejudice anticipates stigmatization and will react negatively to allegations as sensitive as psychological issues. Individuals tasked with the intervention roles will, therefore, prefer to err on the side of caution hence not able to stop the stress and depression related to acculturation in time (Nolem-Hoeksema, 1991). Secondly, foreign students are a complex lot for the intervention team; having come from a different culture and upholding a different way of doing things, it becomes increasingly difficult to differentiate between normal reactions to acculturation and depressive reaction to the same (Nolem-Hoeksema, 1991). Current research on psychological diagnosis all agree that it is not a perfect science even upon an individual whose normal conduct falls under well-established parameters, the variables increase exponentially when the subject is a foreign student from a country or society with cultures that are generally different from those upheld in the United States (Berry, 2003) .

Discussion

Implication

It is crystal clear that stress and indeed depression resulting from issues relating to acculturation by foreign students in the United Sates has continued to increase and worsen with the increase in the actual number of students immigrating to the US for their studies (Chavajay, 2008). The mitigating factors put in place in an attempt to resolve these issues have generally been ineffective thus allowing the situation to worsen. It is possible that it will continue getting worse until a comprehensive solution is sought.

Limitations

Inaccuracy

Psychological and indeed psychiatric diagnosis is premised on a myriad of changes making the results unreliable in some circumstances. The situation is made worse by the fact that due to the sensitive nature of the studies and the subjects thereof, it is impossible to conduct a laboratory-setting research thus limiting findings to interviews and records (Chavajay, 2008).

Test subject non-cooperation

Due to the prejudice well known to exist amongst foreign students, it is virtually impossible to find first-hand information from actual sufferers. Ironically, it is the same issue that the studies need to understand and solve to wit acculturation stress and depression that creates a barrier between the patients and the researchers (Chavajay, 2008).

Fluid Nature of the studies target group

Academia in America in general and particularly with regard to foreign students is extremely unpredictable and subject to continuous change, an issue that interferes with long term research programs. For instance, it is a fact that China is a high contributor of foreign students to the United States and very few people would have thought it possible in the recent past due to ideology differences between the two countries (Chavajay, 2008). In the same way, the culture in itself is fluid and keeps on changing both locally and internationally thus increasing the changes and by extension, error margins.

Conclusions

Acculturation of foreign students entails a mental process that raises mental issues, which create mental problems thus resulting in the possibility of mental illness. As mental clarity is fundamental to the resolution of the problems, the fact that foreign students are already mentally challenged by the time the stress becomes serious creates a reluctance and /or inability to seek assistance, a fact that almost always ensures that the stress develops into depression with the adverse kindred consequences thereof. Whereas the issue is clearly solvable, the metal capacity of the student by the time they need help incapacitates them from seeking help thus ensuring that the problem worsens.

Recommendations

It is clear from the foregoing that the politically correct system of erring on the side of caution in treating and/or handling the foreign students who seek counselling or intervention does not work and should therefore be discarded. Intervention needs to be handled in a manner that makes it mandatory for foreign students to be screened for stress relating to acculturation without this seeming to be the case. This can be achieved through the circumspect creation of panels that seek to evaluate the experience of the foreign students in the United States, with the evaluation cautiously turning into an assessment (Berry, Galyapina & Lenedeva, 2016) .

For the sake of ethics however, the evaluation should be real with the results thereof being used for policy creations and betterment but the specific information regarding particular foreign students being used to evaluate whether or not they need intervention for acculturation related depression. A campaign should also be carried out to lay bare mental health thus creating acceptance that it is well to seek psychological assistance as and when it is necessary (Araujo, 2011). Finally, foreign students lack families and social circles to support and communicate with in their times of depression and need, this can be handled if the local students, who make the overwhelming majority in the learning institutions went out of their way to make foreign students more welcome thus reducing the negative effects of acculturation (Berry, Galyapina & Lebedeva, 2016; Bai , 2016).

Conclusion

The United States has been a popular center for foreign students for over half a century now with various countries of the world sending their best brains into the country to acquire knowledge and certification. The number of students coming to the United States has increased exponentially in recent years with the current number being over 1 million students.

Among the countries sending a great number of students to the US to study include China and India, with the nature of studies being pursued inclining to mostly scientific and technical studies. There is great diversity between the culture of the United States citizenry and that of the nations the foreign countries come from and this creates the need for acculturation once the said students arrive in the United States. The initial acculturation of the foreign students as children and teenagers makes the second acculturation upon immigration for study quite difficult and complicated for the students with their original instincts rebelling against the transformation thus leading to a high tendency of stress and depression.

The issue is worsened by language barriers, acculturation and acculturative stressors, mutual prejudice, and the lack of a proper social life. Although these stress issues and factors causing them can be easily treated through reality therapy, they have continued developing into depressions due to the reluctance of the suffering foreign students to seek counseling or psychological assistance. International students are a vulnerable group in the Unites States, a factor that also increases the tendency for depression over and above acculturation.

Among the risk factors for depression among foreign students include, social interaction, communication problems, parental expectations, academic pressure and language barriers, homesickness, and financial barriers. These factors operate singularly and severally to enhance stress in the foreign students who develop stress and with time develops into depression. The well-established mitigation regimen have failed due to underuse of counseling services due to prejudice, inability to recognize need for the same as well as language barriers, negative perceptions of mental health treatment including the mythology that it is demon possession as well as stigmatization, the lack of social support and the absence of family members to communicate with, and finally ineffective intervention strategies. It is the combination of acculturation issues and the inability and/or refusal to seek help that has created the standoff herein. Among the limitations is inaccuracy in diagnosis and lack of capacity to seek direct information from the target group as well as the non-cooperation for the target group itself in various undertaken researches. The fluid nature of culture and the issue of foreign students is another limitation

As indicated earlier, although the United Sates is clearly the most powerful nation on earth, many people find it difficult to appreciate its uniqueness when it comes to culture and citizens’ character. Many people just have a feeling of fear due to its powerful nature given that the current major export from the United States to the rest of the world is the American Military might which has seen the nations set up base in all continents on earth with the capacity to attack and annihilate any enemy. At the same time, it has the capacity to defend itself from any and all enemies including perhaps the rest of the world’s armies combined.

Meanwhile, other countries such as China are busy having their financial might felt all over the world as they give massive donations to developing countries and make massive purchases in the developed country. India on the other part has set itself apart as a source of Information Technology related human resource while South Korea sets itself apart as a center for innovation and engineering excellence. This situation leaves the United States vulnerable for irrelevance if the issue of acculturation stress and depression is not well handled.

It is, therefore, imperative for the United States to use all means necessary to protect and safeguard foreign students and ensure their continuous entry and living with a part of the American culture, spirit, and ideals thus ensuring continued relevance and dominance of the United States. This calls for a change of policy and a strategic plan to ensure that acculturation of foreign students is made smoother, the foreign students who develop stress factors due to acculturation are detected early and assisted to stop the unnoticed depression that may cause the student flow to decrease.

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