ABSTRACT
International students’ friendship networks have attracted research interest over the past decade, highlighting the significance and particular characteristics this temporary migratory group has. This chapter analyzes how the COVID-19 pandemic shaped and transformed the friendships of exchange students in Finland during the outbreak. Theoretically, we employ the concept of network capital (Elliot & Urry, 2010), which was developed further by Martin (2017) in the context of international student mobility. To understand how network capital was maintained and mobilized, we included eight interviews with exchange students studying in Finnish universities at the time of the COVID-19 outbreak, and later, applied abductive analysis. We argue that international students were unable to gain network capital in a similar way as the prior pandemic due to the closure of university facilities and limited possibilities to socialize. Furthermore, the network capital gained prior to the pandemic was mobilized to stay in Finland or return home.
