Qualified Migration and Student Mobility to Brazil

Based on the reorientation of studies on qualified migrations (PEDONE, 2018), this paper aims to analyze some aspects of student mobility in two Brazilian universities established within the last twenty years. These institutions aim to welcome students from the global south, particularly from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Portuguese-speaking African countries. This study presents a subset of results from non-sampling research conducted with international students at the Federal University for Latin America Integration (UNILA) and the Federal University of the International Integration of Afro-Brazilian Lusophony (UNILAB). The main goal of the research was to understand, from an intersectional perspective (PEDONE, 2018, LUCHILO, 2018, PADILLA, FRANÇA, 2015), the student's profiles concerning gender, race, and nationality. Data were collected between 2021 and 2022 via Google Forms through contacts previously established via social networks and email. The study reveals that most of the interviewed students are African, male, with limited financial resources. Also indicates that men tend to engage and remain in mobility programs until an older age compared to women, and the respondents did not differ in terms of educational level. Concerning the inclusion of student mobility within the category of qualified migration, the data indicate that most of these students lack sufficient financial resources to ensure their complete survival. Thus, although they are university students, financial difficulties are present regardless of gender, ethnicity, or nationality, suggesting that it is impossible to generalize and homogenize this segment of migrants considered by various authors as qualified.