Exploring motivations for intercultural contact among host country university students: An Irish case study

• I explore university students’ motivation for voluntarily seeking out intercultural contact on campus.
• The findings suggest that students’ intercultural contact is based on a pragmatic ‘perceived utility’ perspective.
• Concern for others, the idea of having shared future, and having an interest and curiosity in other cultures are identified as less relevant factors.
• Theoretical concepts of homophily, social exchange theory and sensation-seeking are used to contextualise the findings.

This article is concerned primarily with university students’ motivations for voluntarily seeking out intercultural contact on campus. It is based on a larger qualitative research project conducted in an Irish university. This project used a grounded theory approach to explore intercultural relations among students specifically from the perspective of the host culture student cohort. The findings indicate that host students’ decision to engage in intercultural contact is based primarily on a perceived utility associated with such contact, which is based on an informal cost–benefit analysis. Other, less prevalent motivational drivers, such as concern for others and the idea of having a shared future are also identified. Although the study focuses on a higher education environment, many of the ideas and theories discussed and questions raised may be applied to broader intercultural environments. In particular the article aims to highlight the current gap in literature relating to motivations for engaging in intercultural contact and also seeks to highlight the potential value of social exchange theory (Thibaut & Kelley, 1959) to understanding the dynamics of intercultural contact. It also emphasises the relevance of the concept of ‘homophily’ (Lazarsfeld & Merton, 1954) to the field of intercultural studies. As such, the article seeks to combine empirical data with extant theory in order to gain a deeper understanding into the dynamics of intercultural contact.