ABSTRACT
The literature on the experiences of overseas students has remained remarkably consistent in its content, conclusions and recommendations. One of the main conclusions drawn from these studies relates to the extent to which bodies of overseas students, however different in age or in background, tend to stick to each other, in a type of cultural ghetto. Students working overseas experience two influences. One is the realization of differences both obvious and subtle. The other is the sense of loss of the familiar, both at a level of the pragmatic, like family and friends, and at more complex levels. If much has been made of cultural 'shocks', it is because they are both easier to describe and more collective. Students travelling abroad feel their differences to the extent that they forget all the variations of their own multiple, adaptive, multi-cultural backgrounds.
