Conditional Belonging

This book examines how international students navigate the intersecting systems of immigration policy, institutional practice, and financial constraint that shape their experiences in U.S. higher education. Drawing on narrative interviews with former F-1 visa students from a performing arts institution, the study uses a Critical Policy Analysis framework to explore how legal status, economic pressure, and institutional messaging influence students' sense of belonging and post-graduation opportunities. Findings reveal that many students experience conditional belonging, meaning, their presence dependent on strict compliance with visa requirements, financial stability, and cultural assimilation. The book highlights how these pressures are unevenly distributed across race and background, producing emotional strain, uncertainty, and limited mobility. By centering lived experience, this work identifies gaps between institutional commitments to diversity and the structural realities students face, offering actionable recommendations for more equitable policy, advising, and post-graduation support.