Am anglo USian who has worked in university context and currently also attending place with high amount of foreign students... From observation / interactions

Am anglo USian who has worked in university context and currently also attending place with high amount of foreign students... From observation / interactions it is all about motivation - You had a motivation to improve your English - Some, (Big note: not all!!!) of these students really don't give a crap about living in really 'experiencing' their host country, they are there because it gives them a convenient checkbox to tick on their 'international' credentials, enough of $host_country_language to manage with basic business transactions, and a way to network with other rich people from their own country, so when they go back home after completing their degree, they have a network in-country for their careers, etc.. The foreign degree it's a status symbol, and that only. No one is going to know how many locals you knew, how many host-country cultural events you experienced, etc, only that you attended and graduated. Some of these cultures are also internally elitist/narcissistic (e.g. our country is the best and other people are inferior), which while the same could be said of people not welcoming guest students, also can drive self-isolation; I am here only to look down my nose at you as some sort of specimen of curiosity while I obtain the credential which I will use at home in a nepotistic, insular way that you in your 'mere mortal', job-applying and needing-to-work-to-survive-way, will not. Being from the richest of the rich in countries with huge income inequality also facillitates this attitude.. Tell me that the kid in the article, some early 20's person, having the most expensive car in the entire city where his university is, doesn't create a hugely warped sense of self-importance.. why not 'capitalize' on that by being the coolest kid in your native circle than being the bizarre forigner that noone can relate to financially? Socioeconomically, it is like the richest people from Harvard/Yale/Cambridge/Oxford, etc. deciding to move to a small town.. many wouldn't mingle with the locals other than as a curio, and this factor is made more complex by the cultural barriers, esp. in cultures which are more introverted - clashing with US culture and also being biased towards self-isolation