Building Trust in a Matrix of Distrust: Chinese International Students’ Experiences in the UK
Keywords:
Trust Construction, Social Practice, the Matrix of Distrust, Chinese International Students, Covid-19Abstract
This study investigates how trust is constructed among Chinese international students in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although much research addresses trust and migration, trust among international students remains underexplored. To address this gap, we propose a new theoretical approach of building trust within a matrix of distrust. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 70 Chinese international students who studied in the UK during the COVID-19 lockdowns from 2020 to 2021, we identify four main trust-relevant situations: performing public health rituals, learning during the pandemic, managing emotional well-being, and making sense of COVID policies. Our findings reveal that trust construction involved complex interactions with various trustees, challenging existing binary categorisations between generalised and particularised trust and in-group/out-group dynamics. We observed trust-building across ethnic boundaries and trust-contesting within in-groups, as well as shifts in political trust when exposed to alternative approaches. These findings demonstrate the limitations of existing trust categorizations and emphasize the need to consider trust as an evolving, context-dependent process. By focusing on building trust, this new theoretical approach not only allows us to uncover the sites and processes of trust construction but also to systematically map out how trustors and trustees interact in the matrix of trust-relevant situations.
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