Gendered Experiences of Student Living Spaces and Friendships: Narratives on Migration for Higher Education across Cities In Asia

Gendered Experiences of Student Living Spaces and Friendships: Narratives on Migration for Higher Education across cities in Asia

Seoul, Tokyo, Sanghai stand as best student cities in the world. Singapore in South East Asia, Delhi and Pune in South Asia are the other centres where students migrate for higher education. Certain studies reveal about 5.5 million students maybe classified as internal migrants for educational purposes within India.

Keeping the reality of student migration for purposes of higher education in the background, this panel proposes to look at the experiences of finding student housing, creating living spaces in new cities, away from families of origin. While within discussions in urban sociology housing, access to education, healthcare and transportation play and important role; specific focus on migrant students’ concerns around hostel, housing, paying guest accommodations, co-living spaces is necessary. This living space is much beyond an infrastructure; it is an emotional shelter where friendships and intimacies are nurtured and broken. Massive transformation in mobility and migration for purposes of higher education, has led to the need to document, interrogate, assess and analyse living arrangement patterns among students. Simmel (1903), Srivastava (2014), Yaffa Truelove and Sneha Annavarapu (2023) and others, form a theoretical point of departure to this session. The themes to be explored are:

• Experiences of residing in co-living spaces in cities of migration
• Building friendships and intimacies in these new living spaces
• Engagement with urban governance and policies around gendered housing and everyday practices