“They come and then they leave, so why involve them?”

Linguistic strategies and attitudes towards inclusion of international students at a Finnish university

To integrate a rapidly growing international student population at Aalto University in Finland, volunteer student associations implemented various strategies to include them socially. Through a survey and series of interviews, this article identifies linguistic strategies to include international students and examines attitudes towards them. More successful linguistic strategies were applied by senior student volunteers who aimed primarily to empower and include their new international peers, rather than teaching or requiring them to learn local customs as a prerequisite to inclusion.This finding highlights the importance of increasing intercultural understanding and awareness to facilitate network building between local and international students.