Chinese immigration, education and symbolic boundaries: chinese students in a catholic school in São Paulo

• Grant number: 11/19826-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): January 01, 2012
• Effective date (End): December 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology
• Principal Investigator: José Lindomar Coelho Albuquerque
• Grantee: Priscila Cristina dos Santos
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The objective is to analyze the phenomenon of recent Chinese immigration to São Paulo, especially during the Lula government (2003-2010), from the inclusion of young Chinese students in a traditional Catholic school in São Paulo. During this period, intensified political and economic relations between China and Brazil, as well as the increasing migration of Chinese into our country. The Chinese characters depicted are commonly found in large urban centers in Brazil, becoming part of the scenario "multiethnic" the city of São Paulo in particular. By focusing the analysis on one of the privileged spaces of sociability and socialization of new generations in our society, such as school, it is possible to apprehend how the interaction takes place between Chinese and Brazilian students immersed in a specific environment: the traditional religious school in Sao Paulo. Thus, it is possible to understand the meanings of cultural relations between Brazilian and Chinese, especially the concepts of education and how they form linguistic and religious differences in this area of interethnic relations. Through qualitative methods and strategies of research techniques such as field observation and semi-structured interviews with students and other school staff, will be observed discourse adopted by the college for the investment and maintenance of more than fifty percent of Chinese students, the possible relations of religious power, the figure of the priest and Chinese forms of cooperation and competition among students.(AU)