Mental health problems have become prevalent in our society, however, one particularly vulnerable group is the students without a supporting network. Luckily there is a project rearing its head. Kupferblau interviewed Dr. Fei Hong from the charity International Mental Health Network for Expatriates which provides psychological help for the foreign residents in the region.
Moving to another city and starting life anew, especially as a freshman, is a stressful time for everyone. Let alone, in a city like Tübingen. Because of the housing shortage, all students face problems with finding a place to stay. However, students arriving from far away find themselves in an especially vulnerable position. They neither know the German societal or university system nor necessarily possess good German skills. They find themselves alone in completely new surroundings and culture and become exposed to various struggles.
Accommodation is one of the first hurdles when arriving in Tübingen. With only 1.732 campus dorm rooms, most newcomers are obliged to search on the private market and attend WG castings. While this is without a doubt already very difficult for local students, international students face even further obstacles in finding a room. They possess neither the support of the family and networks, that benefit some local students in finding a room nor the knowledge about the system of WG castings beforehand. Discrimination based on prejudiced conceptions about tenants’ behaviors is not uncommon. In most cases the students are still located in their home country and thus only able to participate in castings via video calls, which isn’t always an option. Searching for a room from abroad in urgency but with limited knowledge about the system further exposes them to fraudulence, in worst cases leading to the loss of large amounts of money or identity theft. Sometimes it may come as far as arriving in Tübingen only to find out that the promised stay in the dormitory or shared apartment is unavailable. Now and then a student ends up sleeping on the street before finding a room. Some have no choice but to stay as far as in Stuttgart, having to commute to the university every day.
Language skills aren’t only limitations in the apartment search, but also in everyday life. While some international people do not show interest to learn German, others may not have time because of their studies, don’t get a place in the language classes, or struggle to find help with learning, such as a language buddy. Also, the German classes at the university cost 80€ for Master students and 140€ for PhD students. Most activities in Tübingen are offered in German, and getting in touch with local peers is not always easy. Encountering prejudices and racism is not rare. Not being able to find friends and access to the culture leads to problems with integration and further to isolation. Too often international students suffer from mental health problems ranging from depression to suicidal thoughts.
The Light at the end of the tunnel
Facing problems, students without good German skills still have a few offers to turn to. Here are a few offered resources: Support for international students (Betreuung für internationale Studierende) advises in accommodation search. Student Counselling Service (Zentrale Studienberatung) and Study counselling for international students (Studienberatung für internationale Studierende) help with studies and residence problems as well as with ones concerning personal issues. Psychotherapeutic counselling by Studierendenwerk offers professional help on a low threshold. There is also a telephone line called Nightline Tübingen with an ear for any kind of sorrow.
However, international students also face certain problems that often need deeper psychotherapeutic and intercultural knowledge to be dealt with. In 2022 a charity organization “International mental health network for expatriates” was founded in Stuttgart to provide help for international people. Its mission is to create a supportive and empowering community and offer accessible resources for coping with the challenges of living abroad. In addition, it strives to do preventative work against mental health issues.
The founding president, Dr. Fei Hong, has a long career both in psychological and commercial fields. Already in school, she became aware of the burdens her classmates were carrying. She was the agony aunt for the secrets of many pupils, except for a boy in her class who was known as a troublemaker. “However, one day he sat down to open up to me about his situation at home”, Hong explains. This encounter gave her a deeper understanding of the underlying reasons for his behavior and increased her urge to study psychology. Hong completed her undergraduate and graduate studies in the UK. As a psychology student, she noticed how the problems of internationals differed greatly from those who weren’t from other countries, e.g. Chinese people would hold back their worries. Completing her PhD in Germany from 2011-2016, she became aware of many looking for an organization to answer their needs for intercultural treatment. In 2019 Hong herself started a hotline – first with a prepaid contract and only among the Chinese expats, until it grew into a whole organisation.
The mental health network consists of three pillars, a Zoom hotline, public seminars, and hybrid groups, the hotline being the main offer. So far, public seminars have been held in Chinese about various topics such as non-violent communication. The free and anonymous soul hotline runs two times per week, but one can also request another time slot. The hybrid groups offer a safe space in the form of small groups. The international team consists of psychologists and people with psychological knowledge from China, USA and Germany, one of them being Hong’s Doctoral advisor, Prof. Dr. Martin Hautzinger. Most of them have thus first-hand experience about finding themselves in a new country. The organization was first funded from Hong’s pocket, but now it works by donations. Currently, there is a search for hotline counselors as well as interns for marketing and fundraising.
Still a long way to go
According to Hong, the biggest hurdle for internationals to receive help is the complicated and bureaucratic medical system. Further obstacles cause the lack of English skills of the staff, especially of the medical assistants. The importance of the network also lies in filling the gap of offers of intercultural psychology. International students come from different cultural backgrounds, with a different mentality, political situation, or expectations of the family. Psychologists need intercultural knowledge in order to offer the most effective counseling. For Hong, it is, among other things, important to work preventatively: “When someone lands in psychiatry, it is already too late.”
A list of further offers for mental health can be found here.
In urgent psychiatric cases please contact the emergency room at Universitätsklinikum by telephone 07071 29-82311, at Calwerstraße 14, or call the emergency service 112.
Beitragsbild: pixabay
