Refugees in Portugal and insertion processes in the university: An ethnographic inquiry

Abstract

This ethnographic work explores the processes of insertion of refugees in Portu-gal, focusing specifically on the university environment, from the perspective of the actors themselves. The field work, carried out in Lisbon during 2017-2018, was based on the selection of a sample of eight adult refugee men with complete or incomplete higher studies, to whom I conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews. The integration of refugees in the Portuguese higher education system still lacks a regulatory framework and a base of guidelines that allow the recognition of their academic qualifications; added to the structural obstacles and the deficit in the teaching of the language, their insertion processes are difficult. The instances of diagnosis and evaluation of the sectoral policies im-plemented should consider the voice of the actors who are the protagonists of these processes and the main recipients of the actions. Here is the contribution of this study.