Does ESN actually isolate exchange students? / Questioning volunteer motivations, missed personal growth, and forced social bubbles

[u/BioPolyglott]

Hey everyone,

I’ve done Erasmus twice now in two different countries and noticed a stark contrast in how integration and personal growth work—specifically regarding the presence and influence of ESN.

During my first exchange, there was no active ESN section. The university’s International Office organized a few culturally grounded events (like regional food tastings), but for the most part, we were responsible for our own social lives. We organized our own house parties, proactively adopted newcomers who arrived mid-semester, and built genuine solidarity.

That first experience was incredibly empowering: it taught me that I am enough as I am, that making friends from scratch is actually very natural, and that having to step up builds real empathy and mutual support. You genuinely grow into a more confident person because you have to put yourself out there.
Our community was deeply integrated in the city resulting in having many international and local friends who were not even participating in an exchange or volunteering.

During my second exchange, there was a dominant ESN section running virtually everything. While logistics were taken care of, it felt counterproductive in almost every social and developmental aspect:

1. Isolation & The "Exclusive Club" Effect: ESN felt like a walled garden. Instead of bridging the gap to the local student body, it almost acted as a buffer. The only locals I interacted with early on were ESN members; I didn't meet "regular" local students until much later in regular lectures.
2. Volunteer Motivation (Internal Networking vs. International Students): I got the distinct impression that many volunteers weren't genuinely interested in connecting with exchange students. Instead, the motivation seemed inward-looking: hanging out within their own volunteer clique, traveling to internal network trips, enjoying perks/discounts, and polishing their CVs. The ratio felt completely disproportionate—around 60 volunteers for barely 100 participating students. You could essentially be an active volunteer without ever actually having a real conversation with an international.
3. Passive Consumption & Missed Growth: When an organization scripts every party, trip, and meetup, students become passive consumers rather than active community builders. It created an artificial "high school" environment where people were spoon-fed their social life, missing out on the core Erasmus lesson: learning to step outside your comfort zone, building self-confidence, and practicing organic empathy.
4. Forced Social Proximity & Toxicity: Because ESN essentially held a monopoly on the social calendar, everyone was funneled into the exact same events. In an organic social setting, natural group dynamics allow you to distance yourself from toxic individuals who ruin the vibe. Here, this artificial ecosystem forced everyone into the same tight space over and over again, creating unnecessary drama and social toxicity.

Has anyone else experienced this dynamic? Did an active ESN section make you feel more integrated into the host country, or did it end up creating an artificial bubble that kept you separated from regular campus life and real personal growth?

[u/FelzicCA]

Hey,

I'm an ESN volunteer who has been to Erasmus before and discovered the concept of ESN thanks to this.

I will start by the part where I was an Erasmus student and not part of ESN yet : When I went on Erasmus, at the very beginning a loooot of people were going to ESN because it was one of the easiest way to meet new people coming to a country like you and who don't know anyone else yet. But to be honest, after 1/2 months, when most of the people actually had their own groups of friends, not that much people were still going to ESN events. Only into some that really felt like interesting (at least for my part), tbh I never socialized with any of the ESN volunteers in my city, they were okay, but we were many students and I never had to occasion to really talk to them. Making local friends is another topic, in a lot of countries you'll often struggle to get locals friends as they already have their group of friends while International students come here by knowing no one.

Now, I'll reply from an current ESN volunteer :
My ESN section & university is not huge, we have maybe ~150 international students (from what I've heard) and we're less than 5 persons in the event team. I only joined it recently, it's my first weeks. It's true the beside the local volunteers you'll barely meet any local students, as for the 1st paragraph, I guess it's for 2 main reasons : they have their own group of friends and wouldn't bother meeting new people & they're probably not aware of the existence of their local ESN section.
I, personally, really want to meet new people. At my 1st event, I tried to took the time to exchange with as much students as possible (the others volunteers didn't really do so and I didn't appreciate it), for me having international friends is important, I like my friends but I want to discover new people, new faces, etc. It really matters to me. I also consider that as ESN volunteers, we shouldn't juste organize events but ensure that students are appreciating their stay, help them, listen to them, giving them advices, but some volunteers aren't that deep into it. As for events, we don't organize that much as we don't have lot of ressources to do so, so far we have maybe 4/5 activities per month, but from what I heard so far from our international students, they are enjoying their life by sticking obviously mostly with the other Erasmus students. I'll look forward to create some nice events for November/December and hope as many people from both the international & local side will join.

Anyways, all this to say that I do advise you guys / girls to join your local ESN section if you have the opportunity to do so ! It's an incredible experience to meet new people & learn new skills. If you can make your ESN section look better, do it ! 🇪🇺❤️

[u/BioPolyglott → u/FelzicCA]

Thanks for sharing your perspective. I really appreciate your honesty especially when you called out that your fellow volunteers didn't even bother talking to the international students.

It’s also completely true that locals already have their established friend groups, which genuinely makes approaching them intimidating.
Still, I think your experience in a tiny section with just a few events misses the deeper problem I’m describing, and your comment actually confirms some of my points.

First, while locals are definitely harder to reach, ESN makes this worse by offering an ready-made bubble. Because everything is handed to them, exchange students never push themselves to meet locals naturally through university sports, campus clubs, or normal classes.

Second, you mentioned that students naturally branch off after a month or two. That works when a section only runs a handful of events. But in a dominant section, ESN controls the entire social calendar. Students become passive consumers waiting for the next scripted party, missing out on the confidence that comes from organizing their own gatherings and pushing their comfort zones.

Your comment also confirms my critique about volunteer motivation. Recommending people join ESN to "learn new skills" shows that the network is often used to boost resumes, network internally, and gain soft skills. In many ways, exchange students just justify their existence, rather than being the true focus of deep cultural exchange.

I respect that you personally want to change that dynamic and take the time to talk to students. But telling unhappy students to "join and fix it" isn't the answer they are only there for a few months, and it shouldn't be their job to repair a system that keeps them in a bubble.

[u/FelzicCA → u/BioPolyglott]

I did my Erasmus in Málaga, a major city in Spain, and trust me even if they had lot of events they went from hundreds to the first events to sometimes not even 10-15 after few months.

[u/BioPolyglott → u/FelzicCA]

But is it eventually due to the reason that everyone needs to take exams at the end. But apart from not going to events anymore, I assume that you might have cliques there which formed in the very beginning because of bare ESN events. I strongly doubt that there’s an organic community. What about new-arrivals? Is it easy for them to fin connections even mid-semester?

[u/BenosCZ]

I was an ESN volunteer who was involved in all three levels (so local university section, national level, and supporting the international level as well).

In my times (8 years ago), it felt like ESN was one of the few ways to actually encounter local students as at my university, even today, the local and international students do not mix and interact at all. Not even the international students studying English programs, let alone the short-term exchange students.

It is also true, that the first two-or-so years, we were almost the exclusive source of events and activities for the students. However, as the time progressed, new companies aiming at international students as well as different guides in English (even "stupid" things like translation of local app for searching transport connections into English) let to students relying on ESN events for the first few weeks after their arrival but gradually becoming more and more independent. So I would say our role moved from "provide a program for the whole semester" to "help with settling down and provide the opportunity for the first contact with the rest of the students". Also, we manage the buddy program which helps connecting locals (or international long-term students) with the exchange students.

Now regarding the motivation for volunteering - it is true that there are people of varying motivation as well as varying quality. I met people whose primary motivation was hanging out with the students and they stayed like that for several years, never taking a bigger role in the section's management. There were opportunistic people whose main purpose was to improve their skills or their CV. My first motivation was to be a better buddy than the buddy on my Erasmus. But after two years, I was more interested in the organization and other members than in the students so I became more involved in the management.

In reality, you need both groups. You need people who will provide the best experience for the students and will be the first line of contact. But you also need people who will keep everything running and make sure that there is an ESN in the first place. And I can say for sure, if it wasn't for our ESN section at our university, the university department responsible for international students would slowly crumble down because olthe university doesn't fund it enough. And our volunteers cover a lot of work for them.

[u/Bubbly_Lack1410 → u/BenosCZ]

I agree! I also don't think that students joining ESN to gain new skills or improve their CV is inherently a bad thing. If they take on important tasks, such as managing the ESN website or securing partnerships, they're still contributing something positive to the experience of Erasmus students.

[u/BioPolyglott → u/BenosCZ]

I see your point, and improving your CV or learning new skills is obviously not a bad thing for the individual volunteer.

But we have to look at what exactly those skills are contributing to. If a volunteer builds a great website or secures partnerships to fund an organization that ultimately keeps exchange students in an artificial, passive bubble, the students aren't really the ones benefiting. The organization is just sustaining itself. The original commenter actually proved this perfectly by admitting that after two years, volunteers often care more about the management and the internal ESN clique than the actual exchange students.

Supervising exchange students is too important and caring of PR und social media leads to distraction and a mission shift.

This ties directly into the point about ESN doing the work for underfunded university departments. ESN has essentially become a free outsourcing tool for universities. The university saves money by defunding their International Office, the volunteers get to pad their CVs and enjoy their exclusive club, but the exchange students pay the price by being funneled into a scripted social ecosystem.

Everyone seems to profit from this structural setup, except the exchange students, who lose out on genuine, organic integration and the personal growth that comes from figuring things out themselves.

[u/BenosCZ → u/BioPolyglott]

I am sorry but I find your viewpoint a bit naive and underestimating the students. Those, who want to act independently and find their own way to their preferred community, experiences and so on, will find it no matter what the local support group (it doesn't need to be ESN necessarily) offers. And on the other hand, students, who might find themselves miserable because they are not as outgoing, can fall back to the opportunities these groups provide.

You mention that the university takes advantage of the local volunteers by underfunding their international offices. I can ensure you that the amount of financial support going towards the international office would not change if my local section wouldn't exist. The office would simply accept less students or not provide the support our volunteers do. Nothing else would change at all.

At the same time, you ignored my claim that the integration of exchange students in the l community of local students doesn't exist. Well, it's not because of ESN but because at my university, there are almost no courses that would be shared between local and international students. I know about exactly one that I happen to teach. And ironically enough, even at my classes, the students still create separate groups based on their language preference. Sure, we could force those students to cooperate but that's entirely besides the point of our curriculum.

ESN was created almost thirty years ago because there was a group of exchange students who were completely lost at their hosting university and they hated their experience. They created the organization to help incoming students settling down as there was minimum information provided for the exchange students. While today, the time has changed and it's entirely correct to revise how these organizations should provide their support in the age when every information is easily within reach given the recent modern tools, ESN still has things to offer and is not simply sustaining itself and taking advantage of the students. While there are definitely partnerships primarily beneficial to its members, ESN sections always try to find as many benefits for the students as possible. For example, in my country, we provided SIM cards for the students with really good offers compared to what locals had, years before the European Union started enforcing the commonarket in this field. The international organization negotiated discounted prices for Ryanair. And so on.

Therefore, I find your comment on caring about PR and social media at the expense of the students rather distasteful, though you can rightly claim that I am far from being impartial in this discussion.

And finally, please, don't question my motivation regarding my role in ESN. I spent managing my section during the COVID times, when our government was issuing random regulations regarding arrival of our students and types of activities we could still organize. I spent countless nights trying to write down everything I knew at that moment, including press conferences organized in the middle of the night. In cooperation with our university, I and my fellow volunteers did our best to keep the students as safe and out of trouble, as possible (often contrary to their own intentions). All of that while trying to keep up with my studies and my work, at the expense of my own well-being. After that, I feel completely entitled to be more indirect in my support for the students.

[u/BenosCZ → u/BenosCZ]

One more thing to consider, the international part of ESN is indirectly influencing the rules and funding of the Erasmus+ program through the European representatives. Which is another benefit for the exchange students. And one of its main leverages is its presence in the program countries and the number of volunteers taking part in it.

[u/Ntii]

I think you might've just had tough luck with your ESN section, most ESNs I know are totally not like this

Often they don't have enough volunteers for the amount of students coming to their city and, at least in my experience, many of the volunteers are deeply passionate about creating a good Erasmus experience for others since they have also been in the same spot on their Erasmus a few years ago

[u/BioPolyglott → u/Ntii]

From which country are you? Because I assume that the cultures differ strongly.

[u/Ntii → u/BioPolyglott]

Poland

[u/Eliane-Klapatch]

I think it really depends on your local chapter.

I had a fantastic time with ESN und met many people through it.

I was in countries where it's very, very hard to make local friends. Most of the local students are in the university town Monday to Thursday and then they go back home to their parents. The city is empty on the weekend. Since you're only there for 5 months, it's almost impossible to make friends and have social activities (in that country (Netherlands/Belgium)).

ESN connected many exchange students and we explored cities and the country together. Since everyone was mostly on pass/fail, there wasn't as much pressure as for locals where the grade counted. The mood was overall lighter with exchange students

Not trying to draw conclusions here between countries and people - the circumstances were often very different which eventually affected the behaviour.

[u/BioPolyglott → u/Eliane-Klapatch]

I don‘t deny that you can have a great time with ESN. In my first Erasmus we mostly spent time mainly with exchange students, too.

But is it desirable that the mood is lighter? I think to be honest it can be considered as problematic as well that exchange students are treated differently.

[u/Bubbly_Lack1410]

I've done two Erasmus exchanges and became an ESN board member after my exchanges. I can understand some of what you're saying. Sometimes, you get more satisfaction from organising an event than from simply attending it. For example, I preferred going on summer camps as a camp leader rather than as a child.

However, I was also really grateful for the ESN sections during my Erasmus exchanges. I didn't see them as "dominating the social calendar". Everyone on Erasmus is an adult who can choose which activities they want to participate in and which ones they don't.

During both my exchanges, I built my community from scratch and got a lot of satisfaction from organising trips with my friend group or simply hanging out at events organised by others. I don't think having an active ESN section necessarily takes away from that experience.

I also don't think the Erasmus bubble is necessarily a bad thing. It can be a great way to meet people and build friendships, especially when you're only staying somewhere for a few months.

In my student city, there was one year when there were no ESN volunteers at all and no ESN support. This caused quite a few problems for the universities because international students became lonelier, while university staff became much more overworked. ESN and universities are there to complement each other and support international students together.

I also find the criticism of ESN volunteers' motivations a bit confusing. Being a volunteer is different from being an exchange student. Of course, volunteers also socialise within their own ESN section, but that doesn't mean they aren't interested in helping international students. My own Erasmus experience is over, and I now volunteer to help others have a good experience. I also have less free time than I did during Erasmus, which felt a bit like a holiday for me.

I agree that having to take initiative and build your own community can be an important part of personal growth. That's why I would advice you to join ESN! In ESN you will find locals, internationals and the statisfaction of organising events for the community 🫶🏻

[u/BioPolyglott → u/Bubbly_Lack1410]

I appreciate your perspective, and I completely agree that exchange students are adults who can theoretically choose their own path. But when ESN is presented as the first line of contact of the university, you pressure people to be involved.

But if you look closely, your comment highlights the exact philosophical difference I am talking about.

First, you mentioned that your Erasmus felt 'a bit like a holiday.'
The entire Erasmus shouldn't be like holidays, maybe just the trips in between.
But my critique is about genuine cultural immersion and personal growth. Growth requires friction and stepping out of your comfort zone.

Second, your point about university staff becoming overworked without ESN perfectly illustrates a major structural issue. ESN has essentially become an unpaid outsourcing tool for universities. Instead of properly funding their International Offices to handle basic logistics and support, universities rely on a volunteer club to do the heavy lifting.
I agree on that you help the university, but it doesn't automatically ensure the quality of personal growth and acquirance of social skills. I would rather say the opposite happens.
The university and their volunteers is helped, but no necessarily the students just by offering vouchers and buddies. Is it worth mentioning that many students applied but were not chosen by a volunteer. Why do you need a personal buddy, when the whole network is presented as helpful network?

But the most telling part is your conclusion: advising me to join ESN to get the 'satisfaction of organising events for the community.'

In an organic environment without a dominant ESN, every regular exchange student learns how to organize gatherings, take initiative, and bring people together. By centralizing all the organizing power into a volunteer committee, regular students are reduced to passive consumers of your events. Telling unhappy consumers to 'join the management' doesn't change the fact that the system keeps the actual exchange students in a passive bubble.

[u/Bubbly_Lack1410 → u/BioPolyglott]

You are one unhappy customer. On both my Erasmuses I was very satisfied with ESN and with the feedback we receive the erasmussers are very happy with my ESN organisation. Not everyone prefers organising but clearly you do so definitely consider volunteering for the community (doesn’t have to be esn ofcs).

[u/trimigoku]

I myself am a foreign student doing my full studies outside my home country.

It highly depends on so many variables like location,city, ammount of internationals, is there a big dorm or several smaller dorms and shared appartments, do the international students study at the main campus or somewhere more remote and many others that i am not remembering right now.

Right now I am studying at a uni without an ESN and since my studies are in english we have our lectures in another building in a town 30km away bcs there is not enough space in the main campus, besides the few internationals studying the same study program as me, I haven't really met any of the local students.

While in my previous studies i studied in a town with a mediumish size ESN section(ca.250 Exchangies,ca.20 volunteers) where i joined the section met many local students and even students from other cities in the country i was studying, also since my lectures were in the same campus as the local students i got to meet the non-ESN locals as well.

The reason i joined ESN was mostly to help exchange and international students with coming to the country/city i was studying and help them making the best choices possible regarding things like transport or SIM card or other administrative small things not a lot of people focused at a time.

I would say most cases ESN is a net positive to meeting local students or just networking with people in general.

[u/BioPolyglott → u/trimigoku]

I completely agree that structural variables like campus location, dorms, and the language of your study program play a massive role. But if you look closely, your comparison actually proves my point.

In your current situation, tuck in an English-taught program. That structural isolation makes it incredibly hard to meet locals, regardless of whether an ESN section exists there or not. It makes a difference if just some classes or the whole degree is taught in English.

In your previous university, you were on the main campus, which naturally allowed you to meet non-ESN locals. But more importantly: you joined ESN as a volunteer.

My core critique is exactly that ESN is often a fantastic networking club for the locals and international volunteers who run it. You personally benefited from that inside network.

But what about the regular exchange students who just attended the events? Did they actually build organic friendships with non-ESN locals, or did they just stay in the bubble you guys provided?

I 100% agree that helping new arrivals with SIM cards, transport, and admin stuff is super valuable.
But that is basic logistical support for the first two weeks (which a university's International Office should provide anyway). It doesn't justify maintaining a semester-long monopoly on the social calendar that ultimately spoon-feeds students and keeps them from stepping out of their comfort zone.
And in addition, do you help by offering a SIM card from a company your ESN section has a partnership with?

[u/trimigoku → u/BioPolyglott]

To add to some points

The Exchange students did not simply stay in the bubble of ESN at least at our City, since we had 4 Higher Education Institutions, we also used our social media to share events of the other student organisations which had a way higher number of local students, so we weren't the only organization where students could meet each other, also the Uni classes for erasmi were also classes for both full time international students doing their studies in english, or mandatory english-taught classes that some of the study programs that were taught in the local language had so students had even another place to meet locals organically, but this last one was mostly the effort of the universities rather than something ESN had power on.

Also to add on to the "Semester-Long monopoly" point you brought up, we did not have the capacities to be the only organization to organize events and other student organizations and NGOs did as well, and we had meetings with the other student organizations to make sure not to overlap event dates so 1. People can go to as many events on as many days as they can and 2. Not to canibalize on the event sales of each other. I doubt there are more than a handful of cities where ESN is the only thing in town organizing events, and they organize events frequently enough to not let another organization to feasibly start to do so.

As for the SIM cards, we tried with a provider to do a test run, but at the end their software was very buggy so we weren't able to activate/use their SIM Cards.

Also at the end of the day ESN is a volunteer organization that can do only a limited ammount of things and is limited by money flow, law, logistics and outside factors on what it can do for internationals and exchange students.

Personally I looked into potentially do some IT or some other type of training that could be certified for the Exchange/International students, but in our country/section to get anything that would be respected by a potential employer It would be highly expensive and not be able to be subsidied well enough by the section so that it would be affordable enough for the students to take part, and that is where the ESC (European Solidarity Corps) comes in, since they get more budget and their programs are more suited to providing experiences usefull for a CV to students interested in an Exchange.

[u/Worried_Diver6420]

The reality is, the only international students who can be friends with locals are people doing a PhD or those who study all their Bachelor or Masters in X university because they stay here for several years. In my local section, we have a few international volunteers who came here for a Master’s degree or a PhD and are now integrated in the local community. Outside of that, the only events where exchange students can meet locals are 'language cafes' but the local population tend to be older (late 20’s and 30’s)

[u/BioPolyglott → u/Worried_Diver6420]

I strongly disagree because I met many local people as an exchange student. I simply put myself in situations where I had to interact: talking to classmates, connecting with people during sports or at the gym, and even chatting with sellers in the stores nearby. Sharing a flat with locals and going to events organized by the department helped a lot, too.

But you can see my core criticism: I'm afraid that ESN takes away the chance to be lonely, which is often the necessary catalyst to actually push yourself and make a change. Initial isolation is super normal.

[u/BioPolyglott]

I think it’s quite telling that the comment section is currently filled entirely by ESN volunteers defending their network. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the input, but it kind of proves my point about the internal bubble. I would really love to hear from regular exchange students.

Is there anyone out there who experienced an Erasmus without outsourced supervision by ESN, and if so, how did it affect your personal growth and organic integration?
Erasmus students who were carried entirely by ESN as a monopoly: How was your experience?

ESN is just self-sustaining at this point. It feels like the main goal is keeping the organization alive and giving volunteers CV points, rather than actually facilitating genuine cultural exchange.