International faculty: exploring the relationship between on-campus support and off-campus integration

Over the past decade, international or migrant faculty researchers have explored the work roles, academic experiences, and identities of this community, while a new body of research has begun to draw on insights from migration studies to investigate to what extent and how they are integrated on campus. This paper seeks to extend these discussions by considering on-campus support for international faculty, their integration into the host society, and the relationship between these factors. Focusing on Japan and drawing on both a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews of recipients of the prestigious Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Post-Doctoral Fellowship, this study reveals that on-campus support is associated with higher levels of integration in Japanese society, but there are notable deficiencies in the linguistic and social support offered by universities. These findings indicate that universities seeking to attract and retain international talent should initially invest in language learning support services and reflect on the intermediary role they play between international faculty members and the local community.