Exploring the Lived Experiences of Ghanaian Immigrant Students in College: An Interpretive Phenomenological Study

Abstract

Ghanaian immigrant students are among immigrant students who constitute most of the population of students in colleges in the United States. Due to rapid growth in the population of Africans in the last four decades, African immigrant students have increased in numbers in schools throughout the United States. Gambino, Trevelyan, and Fitzwater (2014) asserted that African immigrants have higher educational attainments. In the background of their higher attainments, Rowland (2014) postulated that immigrant students face challenges that are unique to them because they are students who have come from different countries into the United States. Ipso facto, Ghanaian immigrant students, like all other immigrants who face different challenges, also face challenges and difficulties that are peculiar to them. In this study, the researcher studied the lived experiences of Ghanaian immigrant students, employing a Modified Van Kaam method as defined by Moustakas (1994) to analyze the data collected through a phenomenological approach, as used in Qualitative studies. The results revealed that Ghanaian Immigrant students face unique challenges in their educational experience: financial constraints, language issues, immigration issues and technology issues, and emotional stress which adversely impact their education.