A Study on Underemployment Struggles Faced by International Students

This essay delves into the significant issue of underemployment faced by international students, examining the various challenges they encounter while studying abroad. The study highlights the financial pressures, mental health impacts, and academic consequences of being underemployed, where students are forced to take jobs that do not match their qualifications to meet their basic needs. The essay explores the struggles associated with underemployment, including the inability to achieve financial stability, social isolation, and the erosion of self-determination. Furthermore, it introduces design thinking tools like visualization, value chain analysis, mind mapping, customer co-creation, learning launches, journey mapping, rapid content development, assumption testing, rapid prototyping, and storytelling to address and mitigate the negative impacts of underemployment. By analyzing these tools, the essay aims to provide insights into how international students can better navigate the challenges of underemployment and improve their overall well-being. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need for support systems and innovative strategies to help international students succeed academically and professionally. The assignment is contributed by a student to be published on Desklib, a platform providing AI-based study tools for students.

UNDEREMPLOYMENT AND THE
STRUGGLES OF THE
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
Name of Student
Name of University

Introduction
• The recent decade has seen an increase
in the number of students going abroad
for higher education.
 Earning education outside of one’s own
comfort place is hard, and moving out of
one’s own country for higher education
gets tougher.
 Underemployment includes employees in full-
time jobs who cannot use all their skills.
Students studying abroad fall a prey to this.
They hardly realize that they are killing their
potentials and when they realize it, they get

International Students and some of their
issues
International students faces several issues while studying abroad. The
majority of the issues faced by them are as follows:
Underemployment and struggling to pay their bills
Communication
Language barrier
Cultural Shock
Financial problems

Underemployment- the main issue
• Underemployment after completion of college: The final peg in the
coffin would be not getting a job after the completion of the course.
Such instances not only degrade the mental status of the student but
also challenges the further sustenance in that particular country.
• Graduates represent a growing proportion of individuals entering the
workforce. They are forced to take up a job in order to meet their daily
needs, that does not match their educational qualification (Akanwa,
2015). They do not have any other option than entering a precarious
job market that is characterized by underemployment.
• Precarious work refers to low-skill, low-autonomy work , low wage that
undermines a person’s ability to fulfill their needs for survival and self-
determination.

Struggles associated with
underemployment
• Underemployed students lacked in the capability of
acquiring financial stability, strong social relations and self-
determination.
• Disgruntlement was reported, that their masters degree
experience contradicted previous messages about the
utilization of a degree from college in getting employed
(Mesidor & Sly, 2016).
• Being underemployed is depressing and moreover working
in an environment where everyone else has lower
educational level is difficult.

Financial status of family leads to
underemployment
• Sustenance in the foreign country gets difficult and is an added
expense for the family staying at some other country.
• The student opts for jobs irrespective of its nature that affects their
academic progress.
• Family expectations stop them from leaving the job though they are
not satisfied by the work environment.
• Underemployment highly demotivates the students and low income
often leads them to get involved in illegal jobs.

Underemployment- disturbs mind
• Affects the student mentally.
• Self-confidence gets broken.
• Leads the student into earning money by unjust or illegal means.
• Opting for illegal ways lands the student into legal charges.
• Legal charges leads the student into unpleasant stay in the
foreign country (Le, LaCost & Wismer, 2016).
• Understanding problems between the student and his/her family
due to the expectations of jobs after the completion of the
course.

Design Thinking Tools
• Design Thinking is considered to be non-linear process
which is also considered to be iterative process associated
with seeking for understanding the users along with
challenging the assumptions and refining the problems so
as to create innovative solutions for the prototype as well
as for the tests (Jackson & Bridgstock, 2018).
• The various tools of design thinking are: visualization, mind
mapping, value-chain analysis, customer co-creation,
learning launches, journey mapping, rapid content
development, assumption testing, story-telling and rapid
prototyping.

Design thinking tools- Visualization, and
underemployment
• Visualization is the design thinking tool which is entirely
associated with discussing about the usage of images
however it is not about drawing. This tool is associated with
pushing the users beyond the usage of words or languages
alone.
• Visualization can be a tool in case of underemployment as
it is associated with working as a way by which it is
possible to unlock the different parts of brain which is also
associated with allowing the students in thinking
nonverbally which might not be used by the managers
normally.

Design thinking tool- Value chain
analysis, and underemployment
• Value chain analysis is critical analysis to identify the key
players in the value chain. It is relevant for upgrading the
industry recommendations and helps in the growth of an
industry.
• In value chain analysis each stakeholder has a certain role
to contribute in the development of the firm.
• In the underemployment case this analysis can help in
providing specific training to increase efficiency and
productivity of the students.

Design thinking tool- Mind mapping, and
underemployment
• Mind mapping is the design thinking tool that is used for
the purpose of presenting the ways in which the ideas or
the other items are linked to a central idea or each other.
• Used for the purpose of creation along with the
visualization.
• In relation to underemployment it can be an effective tool
to achieve success by inculcating tem spirit in the students.

Design thinking tool- Customer Co-
creation, and underemployment
• Associated with the incorporation of the techniques which
is linked with allowing the managers in getting engaged
with the customers during generation of a process or
during developing a new business idea having multiple
interest.
• This techniques is associated with the incorporation of the
techniques which is associated with allowing the managers
in getting engaged with the freshers during generation of a
process or during developing a new business idea having
multiple interest so that the student gets a scope to
showcase his skills.