Higher education and refuge: a study from the trajectory of refugee students at the State University of Campinas

• Grant number: 22/04334-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2022
• End date: June 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Urban Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Regina Facchini
• Grantee: Larissa Docal Spina
• Host Institution: Núcleo de Estudos de Gênero (PAGU). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project's general objective is to advance knowledge about the trajectories of refugee students who are currently in higher education, in view of the issues faced by these students regarding access and also permanence at the university. The research focuses on the experience currently underway at the State University of Campinas, which has had specific places and policies for refugee students since 2019. This project further develops a previous Scientific Initiation, carried out with the support of PIBIC-CNPq ( 09/2020 to 09/2021), aimed at comparing documents that regularize access for refugees to universities in São Paulo and to know the profile of refugee students enrolled at Unicamp. The present proposal intends to advance particularly in this second objective, comprising conducting new interviews with refugee students and systematizing and analyzing previously carried out interviews, in addition to monitoring events related to refugee students at the university. It is interesting to better understand the ways in which nationality, gender, social class, race, and religion (among others) intersect in the access to higher education and in the daily life of these students at the university. At the same time, special attention will be paid to the impact of students' different migratory statuses on university admission and daily life. Finally, it is also expected to understand the different support networks accessed by students inside and outside the university while facing the challenges encountered in university education. (AU)