Attachment of Foreign Students to the City of Famagusta

ABSTRACT: Place attachment is defined as a significant relation between people and their surrounding environment. It has certain characteristics about different aspects of people and place. The study tried to investigate about different dimensions of place attachment among foreign students who are living in Famagusta city during their undergraduate and/or post-graduate education. Famagusta is one of the most important city of Northern Cyprus since a high portion of its residence are foreign students. It is aimed to show in this study that how different groups of students from different socio-cultural background, develop different patterns of attachment to the city. In addition, it is attempted to find out influencing factors that increase attachment of students to their new environment. 150 students from the Eastern Mediterranean University have been surveyed by using a close- ended questionnaire. These participants were selected randomly from all of the Bachelor, Master, and PhD levels that were from Iran, Nigeria and Turkey. Through the questionnaire it is examined how length of residency, satisfaction from existing facility, sharing social and cultural elements, communication skills and etc. affect the attachment of students to the city. The evaluation of data indicates that development of attachment depends on many social variables and spatial dimensions. The findings showed that among these nationalities Turkish students have the highest degree of attachment to the city. Keyword: Sense of attachment, place identity, satisfaction, foreign students. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………