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to enable them to get harmony and to adapt to the new environment; otherwise, adapta-
tion process will become more complex and affect the other social aspects.
Adaptation is defined as the ability to convert the conflict between the individuals and
society in which they live (Tomanbay, 1999). By participating in a new society and settle
there, albeit for a certain period of time, this process can be stress-inducing for most of
international students because these students change their society, respond to the diffi-
culty in roles and expectations of their host countries, these students have come face to
face with various problems especially in terms of culture. In the most general terms, the-
se difficulties cause adaptation problems bringing out culture shock and accompanying
stress and, the lack of language, psychological problems, being exposed to discrimina-
tion and economic difficulties. Some students search for ways to adapt to host country’s
culture,on the other hand, some of them are extremely loyal to their own culture and have
tended to keep their culture more superior (Kuo, 1976, pp. 297-306; Doğan, 1988; Özçe-
tin, 2013). If an appropriate professional intervention does not take place in these instan-
ces, this may lead to the emergence of a process of intense stress, anxiety and academic
failure. Large cultural differences between the host country and country of origin along
with the language problems may conclude in the racial segregation of students. In additi-
on, housing problems increase stress and thus the severity of culture shock. For example,
according to the findings of a study on international students in Australia, the large gap
between the cultural background of the student and the culture of the host country as well
as the fragility of social support network and the problems faced by students become the
matters that lead to cultural stress and increase the cultural shock hence, they affect the
academic success of international students (Thomson et al, 2006).
Adjusting to new cultural and social environment is the most important problems of in-
ternational students. It can be described as one of the critical issues that could pose a
crisis for the young students in the new country. Providing psycho-social support and
counseling services for international students are very important issues because these
services reduce cultural shock of young students. The fragility of social support network,
or lack of it increase the importance of professional intervention with young people in the
new social environment. Hence, the intervention of social work is important in the field of
youth and multiculturalism, and they can play an important role in helping young people
for cultural adaptation and to overcome their problems.
The profession and discipline of social work that arises on the basis of social justice and
human rights carry out various activities to meet the needs of individuals. It also resolves
their problems and provides them with their social needs. Social workers who are working
with different groups of people (children, youth, women, families, the elder, the disabled,
etc.) in different levels (micro, mezzo, and macro), according to the properties of target
groups, benefit from different theories and approaches.
Multicultural approach can be considered as one of the most important approaches from
which social work practice may benefit its work with international students (Özgür, 2009).
