2.1 Research variables
In coming up with research variables this study was guided by most of the literatures from criminology studies, as they are the ones associated with influence on safety and security issues, we opted to choose this way of thinking because literature indicates that IS belong to special minority group that are socially vulnerable by applying the vulnerability theory which has been used in many safety and security studies from all over the world 33–35. Literature indicates that government policies, measures and actions are one of the major contributing factors that may influence safety and security of the country in general at a national level and of its citizen, furthermore, the policies may also influence foreigners safety and security perceptions in times of wars, epidemics and pandemics or any disasters 24,36–38, to the extents that if well implemented and followed they may even reduce the spread of pandemics like of that of COVID-19 infectious disease 38.
2.1.1 Safety and security perception
In this study, the first variable is perception or sense of safety and security of IS. Generally, from literature, these two concepts are defined as: Security; ‘the state of being away from hazards caused by deliberate intention of human to cause harm. The source of hazard is posed by human deliberately 39’. Safety ; ‘the state of being away from hazards caused by natural forces or human errors randomly, the source of hazard is formed by natural forces and/or human errors. 39’. Safety can also be defined as; ‘to the physical, social, psychological and emotional conditions of being protected against danger, risks, and harm 40’. Safety and security can be further grouped into personal and property, as it is noted from the definitions, safety and security are broad concepts on their own, as such for the sake of this study we will only focus on personal aspects of it which may be affected by the actions of the government during the pandemic period, i.e. physical harm, economic harm and psychological harm aspects. In this study IS’ safety and security perception were measured by questions that asked about satisfaction with personal safety and security in China in amidst of COVID-19 with NO representing 1 lower safety and security perception, or Yes representing 2 higher safety perception respectively and vice versa depending on the nature of the question being asked.
2.1.2 Information dissemination
Literature indicates that dissemination of information by those in authorities especially the local authorities in the host countries at an appropriate time have the impact of increasing knowledge level of the migrant’s people which has a positive impact in perception of their safety in the host country 41,42.
2.1.3. Social distancing measures
Literatures indicates that if implemented and followed properly lockdowns and other social distance measures may help to prevent the spread of infectious disease despite having disruptions of social economic activities and perceived both positively and negatively by people on safety and security 1,43–45.
Variables of information dissemination and social distance measures were measured by asking questions to the respondents which were in binary form coded as Yes =1 and No=0 which was later converted to means scores for further analysis.
2.1.4 Characteristics of people in the study
The other variables of the study were (i) gender where the literatures indicates that male have higher safety perception as compared to female, (ii) age where old people have high safety perception than younger ones, (iii) education level where those with high education level have high safety perception than those with low education levels, (iv) length of stay, where those that have more stayed have higher safety perceptions as compared with those with no more experience, (v) marital status where the literature indicates that those that are married have higher safety perception as compared to those that are not married 34,41,46,47, (vi) regional comparison, where the literature has indicated that even a location where people are located with an area, i.e. those that may be close to military base may feel high security than others, those that are located far from pandemics starts points may have higher security perception than others 30,41,48. The measurement of these variables was as follows, gender in binary 1 and 2 representing male and female, age in number of years, education level in ranks of undergraduate and postgraduate, experience as length of stay based on years of stay in China, marital status as single, married or divorces, and lastly regional comparison of universities measured those universities in Wuhan and those that were outside Wuhan. These variables were coded using numbers 1 to 5 in excel sheet before importing into the SPSS for analysis.
2.2 Study design and population
This study used exploratory methodology which relied both on reviewing the literatures online on official Chinese Government website, peer reviewed published articles and published Chinese school notifications, furthermore this study used a cross sectional design survey which was conducted on the first week of May 2020 in 13 selected universities in Hubei China (Central China Normal University, China Three Gorges University, China University of Geoscience, Huazhong Agricultural University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei University of Economics, Jianghan University, Jingchu University of Technology, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan University of Technology and Yangtze University). Hubei province is located in central China is one of the province that has many academic institution in China with many international students close to 21,371 15,49. We selected Hubei province because it was where the Pandemic started, within its capital Wuhan. The survey data was collected through using a Microsoft online questionnaire with main reasons being the restriction of physical contacts due the impact of COVID-19 by applying social distance and easy of collection, this method has proved to be effective in many studies that are currently being conducted during this time of COVID-19 7,50.
In this study we used a method applied by Yamane (1967:886)51 to calculate a sample size with 95% confidence level and P =.05 51. A total sample size of 392 was found using the population of 21,371 of total number of IS in Hubei Province of China.
Where N= Total number of Population Where n is the sample size, N is the population size, and e is the level of precision.
This study used a non-probability sampling methods of convenience sampling technique to identified and recruit its respondents from the selected university. After calculation of sample size, a total number of 392 respondents were targeted. A single Microsoft online form with a questionnaire was sent to the randomly selected universities through their representatives into their respective WeChat groups where everyone was responding there. Out of 392 targeted respondents, a final total of 300 respondents answered the questionnaires representing 76.5% response rate. The study only included the IS who were in China during COVID-19 pandemic all those IS that were evacuated or at home because of holiday were restricted to participate through a section which was put on the questionnaire.
2.3 Study Validation and Pilot study
In coming up with the final instrument, this study involved three experts in the field from universities of Bangladesh, Tanzania and China who assessed the instrument and gave their advice, thereafter all necessary adjustments were done accordingly. Further we conducted a pilot study involving 30 international students including undergraduate and postgraduate from Yangtze University to assess the instruments validity and reliability. We calculated the internal reliability with Cronbach's alpha of 0.62 from the results obtained.
2.4 Ethical consideration
This study was conducted by following the procedures laid down by the Helsinki agreement Declaration 2008 on procedures conducting studies that involves human beings 52, further, Yangtze University Internationals Student Office reviewed the ethics of the study (Approval Ref number: REF/YU/2020/07). The participation to this study was voluntarily and that all the respondents were communicated in advance with a clear written statement attached on the questionnaire that they could withdrew at any time without any problem.
2.5 Data analysis
Quantitative data was analysed by the software’s of IMB SPSS version 24, descriptive statistics were performed to find the frequencies, means and standard deviations of the social demographic data and research variables. Correlations (Pearson was put at significant at the 0.01 level 2-tailed) to test the Hypothesis. While qualitative data was presented after critically looking at the credibility of the journals and sites retrieved.