Temporary migrants and students in the brazilian military institution of higher education: Experiences of human mobility

Abstract

This study aims to present the process of training students in their daily life, their difficulties in adapting to the local culture and aims to see how these elements interfere with the construction of their social and individual identity. The setting was the Naval Academy, a training institution for officers of the Brazilian Navy. This study was qualitative, documentary and bibliographical, using a questionnaire for those in charge and another for foreign students. The following concepts were explored: Migration, migrant, diaspora, human mobility, internationalization, international student, temporary and special migration, individual and social identity. Young migrants seeking a better quality of life in higher education, driven by an individual, family and political life project, have the future possibility of returning and assisting in the development of their native country. As a result, we observed that these migrants can become different people at the end of their Military Higher Education in Brazil, because the experience of migrating to and studying in another country has a significant bearing on the constitution of this identity in the research subjects’ training. Despite the maintenance of elements of their origins, their training pathways as citizens differed from those who remained in their countries of origin. New social relationships, knowledge and cultural aspects were incorporated into their identity.