Unveiling the Potentialities and Paradoxes of South-South International Student Mobility: The Case of African Students at the University for International Integration of the Afro-Brazilian Lusophony, Brazil

In recent years, countries in the global South have emerged as alternative geographies for international education, with Brazil being an inbound destination for Latin American and African students. Because international student mobility has traditionally followed a South-North pattern, research focusing on South-South mobility for educational purposes remains rather scarce. This article aims to fill this gap, offering new insights into the under-researched circulation of international students within the global South. Guided by a theoretical framework encompassing decolonial and postcolonial theories, this study delves into the experience of African students at the Brazilian federal university, University of International Integration of Afro-Brazilian Lusophony (UNILAB), created to foster South-South cooperation by expanding the availability of higher education courses to African nations. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with 35 African students, this paper unpacks the potentialities and paradoxes of South-South collaboration in providing inclusive international education. It explores how at UNILAB the pursuit of inclusive and equitable international education coexists with power hierarchies shaped by coloniality and embedded in the Brazilian society. The findings of this study reveal that while the experience at UNILAB furnishes African students with global awareness, skills, and knowledge, and enhances their cultural capital, the epistemic inequalities and racism stemming from the interplay of existing historical, social, and structural asymmetries depict these students as inferior and in deficit. This article concludes with an alert and a call to the importance of continuous undertaking a decolonial approach to dismantle the enduring legacies of coloniality within the international educational landscape aiming at promoting an inclusive environment for international students.