The ‘rich international student’ meme doesn’t quite match the reality

09 Apr 2018

The idea of the rich international student stereotype is not new. As long as studying internationally has been an option, students all over the world have generalised those who pay that bit extra to study away from home as being so rich they live for expensive branded items.

But many international students are keen to dispel this myth, to show domestic students they are not all from wealthy backgrounds and do not all buy into the designer brand culture.

The internet meme ‘rich international student’ cropped up at the beginning of this month after one Twitter user posted a photo of a box of ramen noodles. The twist? The box was branded with the Chanel logo and full of designer branded necklaces, being picked at with gold chopsticks. The meme took off after another Twitter user retweeted it with the caption ‘What international students have for lunch.’

https://twitter.com/eliesaaab/status/980187646910763011

What international students have for lunch https://t.co/yYR0UahvLv

— ∫e^x dx (@qtpi41) April 1, 2018

Over the course of the next few days a flurry of similar tweets cropped up:

Yummy designer branded eggs

https://twitter.com/hasanp_17/status/981139248681242624

Forget Shreddies or Cheerios – these students eat Gucci and Louis Vuitton

https://twitter.com/lighterature/status/981318927576858631

Even designer fruit

Fruits for international Students 🍌 pic.twitter.com/BFpv8qZtb9

— Mariam (@Maryftaddoh) April 4, 2018

Only drink water from a designer bottle

International students water bottle pic.twitter.com/MsNvBhjAYG

— Papicito (@DJ_InSanity) April 4, 2018

However, many international students have responded in frustration, claiming they go through the exact same struggles as any other student.

https://twitter.com/_araujo_vini/status/981532158052438016

I love the international students memes but also they make me cry cause i literally have no money at all

— Soldier F is James Cleary (@eng1nqueer) April 4, 2018

Gotta say, I can't relate to these international student memes as a non-rich international student. THIS IS POOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ERASURE.

— La Rainne is on hiatus (@larainnepasion) April 4, 2018

Others pointed out international students often pay much higher fees than domestic students, do not tend to benefit from the same student loans system and are not able to work as many – if any – hours to support their studies.

While students from a well-off families may have their studies and living costs funded by their parents, many students and their families worked incredibly hard to get them an education abroad, with many of them spending their entire life savings on their child’s education.

Other students may have only been able to afford to study abroad through securing a funded university place through a scholarship, meaning while their tuition and perhaps some of their living costs were taken care of, they still need to fund the rest of their stay. With extra hurdles regarding working, this can be tricky.

https://twitter.com/kristinazelnick/status/981512392617201664

I personally think the memes are funny but as an international student myself the struggle is real:
– no loans
– ridiculously high conversion rates
– not being able to work for more than 20hrs/week if outside EU https://t.co/jc3nyN2DVF

— Laura Y. Turpin (@itslauraturpin) April 7, 2018

Not only do international students face these financial hurdles, they are often expected to show they have all of their tuition money and enough money for living costs – and a return plane ticket – in the bank before they are awarded their visa.

“We can’t disguise the fact that kids need a lot of money to come and study [abroad],” CEO of the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) Dominic Scott told BBC Three. “There is always going to be a small, possibly loud minority who are going to drive their Lamborghinis through Mayfair, and they’re going to be highly visible.

“But the truth is that the vast majority of the 400,000 international students in the UK struggle to get enough money to come and fulfil their dreams. Usually, it’s the ‘bank of mum and dad’ who are paying – and sometimes it’s the whole family’s life savings that are put into it.”

Numerous international students told Twitter they seldom could afford ‘proper’ meals at university.

https://twitter.com/MARIAMIKXO/status/981507628839981056

https://twitter.com/nicss_lm/status/981272384786386946

“If you popped into any campus you would find one student in a Lamborghini, 50 on the bus, and 20 cooking baked beans over a cheap stove,” Scott said.

One Twitter user pointed out that the lucky few international students who are able to afford luxury brands have no doubt had their tuition and living costs paid for already… So while domestic students can laugh at memes and poke fun at them, international students can laugh at their debt.

us: laughs at memes about rich international students
international students: laughs at our student debt

— sag (@sagwah) April 5, 2018

Whether you find the viral memes funny or not, international students everywhere want you to know they’re not all sipping $30 cocktails, buying Gucci handbags on a whim and eating gold chains (okay – we’re pretty sure that one isn’t accurate for anyone).