Religious Identity And Intercultural Communication Among Yemeni Post Graduate Students In Malaysian Public Universities

One of the reasons that drive Yemeni students coming to Malaysia to further their study is the perceived social and religious closeness between Yemen and Malaysia. This study, therefore, investigates the social and cultural experiences of Yemeni post graduate students in Malaysian public universitie...

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Main Author:	Najib Saif Mubarak Al Aghbas
Format:	Thesis
Language:	en_US
Subjects:	Religion Social citizenship
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id	my-usim-ddms-13188
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spelling	my-usim-ddms-131882024-05-29T05:49:20Z Religious Identity And Intercultural Communication Among Yemeni Post Graduate Students In Malaysian Public Universities Najib Saif Mubarak Al Aghbas One of the reasons that drive Yemeni students coming to Malaysia to further their study is the perceived social and religious closeness between Yemen and Malaysia. This study, therefore, investigates the social and cultural experiences of Yemeni post graduate students in Malaysian public universities from the religious perspective. Yemeni students remain one of the biggest groups of international students in Malaysia. However, there have been reports of drop in Yemeni students’ enrolment in Malaysia in recent years especially in public universities. Overall, the issue of Yemeni students’ social and cultural experiences in Malaysia remains underrepresented in the literature and there seems to be limited resources that investigate the issue of Yemeni students in Malaysia. Thus, this study aims at contributing to the literature concerning Yemeni students and their social experiences in the Malaysian society. Based on Social Identity Theory, the study explores Yemeni students and their social integration into the Malaysian society and highlight the social identity expression of Yemeni post graduate students in Malaysian. Research enquiry includes three research questions which are: how do Yemeni students express their religious identity based on the process of categorization, identification and comparison? How do Yemeni students address their similarities and differences in their religious identity with Muslims in Malaysia and how that resulted creating the in group and out group mentality? And how do religious experiences of Yemeni students in Malaysia affect their intercultural communication with Malaysian. This study is conducted in four public Malaysian universities namely, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), University Malaya (UM), and University Putra Malaysia (UPM). Two qualitative approaches are used in collecting data for this study. The first is participant observation and the second is semi structured interviews. Findings reveal there is less interaction among Yemenis with Muslims in Malaysia. Many Yemenis perceive Muslims in Malaysia as the others and Yemeni identification still prevalent among most Yemenis who were observed and interviewed. Whereby, there are less Yemenis appear to perceive themselves as in group with other Muslims. Three groups of identities are prevalent among Yemenis which are "Clear", "Ambivalent" and "Transit". Findings reveal that the majority of respondents appear to be more allegiant to Yemeni culture. However, there are few Yemenis who have shown social integration with Malays. Findings also shows that many Yemenis especially women developed more openness towards the mainstream culture in Malaysia. This study suggests that religious closeness cannot necessarily guarantee integration in intracultural communication among people who confess the same religion particularly for those who come from different ethnic and cultural background. UNIVERSITI SAINS ISLAM MALAYSIA 2020-11 Thesis en_US https://oarep.usim.edu.my/handle/123456789/13188 https://oarep.usim.edu.my/bitstreams/53388458-3511-4009-855a-19f5b5562dd6/download 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 Religion Social citizenship
institution	Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia
collection	USIM Institutional Repository
language	en_US
topic	Religion Social citizenship
spellingShingle	Religion Social citizenship Najib Saif Mubarak Al Aghbas Religious Identity And Intercultural Communication Among Yemeni Post Graduate Students In Malaysian Public Universities
description	One of the reasons that drive Yemeni students coming to Malaysia to further their study is the perceived social and religious closeness between Yemen and Malaysia. This study, therefore, investigates the social and cultural experiences of Yemeni post graduate students in Malaysian public universities from the religious perspective. Yemeni students remain one of the biggest groups of international students in Malaysia. However, there have been reports of drop in Yemeni students’ enrolment in Malaysia in recent years especially in public universities. Overall, the issue of Yemeni students’ social and cultural experiences in Malaysia remains underrepresented in the literature and there seems to be limited resources that investigate the issue of Yemeni students in Malaysia. Thus, this study aims at contributing to the literature concerning Yemeni students and their social experiences in the Malaysian society. Based on Social Identity Theory, the study explores Yemeni students and their social integration into the Malaysian society and highlight the social identity expression of Yemeni post graduate students in Malaysian. Research enquiry includes three research questions which are: how do Yemeni students express their religious identity based on the process of categorization, identification and comparison? How do Yemeni students address their similarities and differences in their religious identity with Muslims in Malaysia and how that resulted creating the in group and out group mentality? And how do religious experiences of Yemeni students in Malaysia affect their intercultural communication with Malaysian. This study is conducted in four public Malaysian universities namely, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), University Malaya (UM), and University Putra Malaysia (UPM). Two qualitative approaches are used in collecting data for this study. The first is participant observation and the second is semi structured interviews. Findings reveal there is less interaction among Yemenis with Muslims in Malaysia. Many Yemenis perceive Muslims in Malaysia as the others and Yemeni identification still prevalent among most Yemenis who were observed and interviewed. Whereby, there are less Yemenis appear to perceive themselves as in group with other Muslims. Three groups of identities are prevalent among Yemenis which are "Clear", "Ambivalent" and "Transit". Findings reveal that the majority of respondents appear to be more allegiant to Yemeni culture. However, there are few Yemenis who have shown social integration with Malays. Findings also shows that many Yemenis especially women developed more openness towards the mainstream culture in Malaysia. This study suggests that religious closeness cannot necessarily guarantee integration in intracultural communication among people who confess the same religion particularly for those who come from different ethnic and cultural background.
format	Thesis
author	Najib Saif Mubarak Al Aghbas
author_facet	Najib Saif Mubarak Al Aghbas
author_sort	Najib Saif Mubarak Al Aghbas
title	Religious Identity And Intercultural Communication Among Yemeni Post Graduate Students In Malaysian Public Universities
title_short	Religious Identity And Intercultural Communication Among Yemeni Post Graduate Students In Malaysian Public Universities
title_full	Religious Identity And Intercultural Communication Among Yemeni Post Graduate Students In Malaysian Public Universities
title_fullStr	Religious Identity And Intercultural Communication Among Yemeni Post Graduate Students In Malaysian Public Universities
title_full_unstemmed	Religious Identity And Intercultural Communication Among Yemeni Post Graduate Students In Malaysian Public Universities
title_sort	religious identity and intercultural communication among yemeni post graduate students in malaysian public universities
granting_institution	UNIVERSITI SAINS ISLAM MALAYSIA
_version_	1812444744342568960

Religious Identity And Intercultural Communication Among Yemeni Post Graduate Students In Malaysian Public Universities

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