International education and multiculturalisms: the Harvard foreign student killings in a comparative perspective

Two kinds of multiculturalism are discussed, in relation to contrasting approaches
to international education represented by Harvard University and the Institute of Social
Studies in The Hague. Key issues are illustrated by a homicide-suicide at Harvard in
1995 that involved students of Third World origin. An American journalist investigated
the deaths and attributed psychopathology to political violence in the home country. She
indentified, as contributory factors, adjustment problems in the USA and inadequate
student support services. This paper argues for a different weighting among these factors,
and highlights how structural inequalities between and within societies influence
‘multicultural' interaction.