Ensino “Além Mar” : trajetórias e travessias de estudantes africanos no ensino superior em Juiz de Fora - MG

Abstract

The current research aims at gathering the path and crossings of African students migrating to the city of Juiz de Fora to take a college degree, notoriously students related to the ProgramaEstudanteConvênioGraduação – PEC-G. Assuming that student migration, beyond spatial displacement, brings in its core shifts regarding individual identity and carries itself out through social networking established between home country and destination country, we aim to think over on how African students settle at the bosom of schooling universe of the Brazilian society and in what ways the interaction amongst this new social reality contributes for individuals and groups formed by them to activate new identity categories, operating changes individually and socially-wise. “Being African” in the context of sociability living of a college youth, is an identity facet reassured daily. This facet is also celebrated through events which are organized by those students; through speeches of what is being African in the migration setting, a way by which some symbolic elements are triggered. We also intend to reflect on the project of student migration, the choice of migration to take a college degree, the arrival and experiences lived, as much as plans after graduation. For a method, ethnography was used, through the observation of participants and open interviews. Also, for a better understanding of those students’ original student universe and about the origins and implications of student migration, a research about the Brazilian-African relation was necessary; about the (re)setting of a black identity at the 20th century; the question of Portuguese-speaking African countries and Portuguese language as a common cultural inheritance; as well as governmental agreements moved by the Brazilian government and African countries in order to encourage migrations.