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Educação e Pesquisa

versão impressa ISSN 1517-9702versão On-line ISSN 1678-4634

Educ. Pesqui. vol.48  São Paulo  2022  Epub 13-Set-2022

https://doi.org/10.1590/s1678-4634202248244344por 

ARTICLES

Integrating and welcoming: access for Haitian refugees and immigrants to universities1 *

Luise Bittencourt Peres2 
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8560-457X

Sebastião Ailton da Rosa Cerqueira-Adão3 
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3051-5809

Carolina Freddo Fleck3 
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1595-0100

2- Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. Contato: bittencourtluise@gmail.com

3- Universidade Federal do Pampa, Santana do Livramento, RS, Brasil. Contato: sebastiaocerqueira@unipampa.edu.br; carolinafleck@unipampa.edu.br


Abstract

Considering the growth of migrations and characteristics that involve the insertion of these people into the new country, especially in the labor market, this paper analyzes how this population gets welcomed and integrated into the educational context of Brazil. This study aimed to verify the process of accepting and integrating Haitian refugee and immigrant students into undergraduate courses of the Brazilian Federal Universities. The research focuses on the country’s southern region, universities that have an agreement with the Sérgio Vieira de Mello Chair (CSVM), and specific selection processes for immigrants and refugees. It questions whether the notices published by universities instituting a unique selection process for refugees and immigrants are sufficient to integrate these students into the educational context. Therefore, through multiple case studies, this qualitative research verified that universities have isolated actions of reception and integration, demonstrating that, however much these students gain access to educational environments, there is still a lack of policies that integrate them. Thus, some actions proposed may become unified among universities. If applied jointly, it will have more strength and guide new efforts, such as the provision of language accessibility programs before the beginning of the school year, activities aimed against xenophobic and discriminatory behaviors, and training on human rights and migrations for university employees. Finally, it presents a research agenda that suggests some points to explore in future studies.

Key words: Migration; Refugees; Immigrants; Higher education; Integration in higher education

Resumo

Diante do crescimento das migrações e das características que envolvem a inserção dessas pessoas no novo país e especialmente no mercado de trabalho, reflete-se sobre como essa população é acolhida e integrada ao contexto educacional do Brasil. Este estudo objetiva verificar o processo de acolhimento e integração dos estudantes refugiados e imigrantes haitianos dos cursos de graduação das universidades federais brasileiras da região Sul do país que possuem convênio com a Cátedra Sérgio Vieira de Mello (CSVM) e processos seletivos específicos para esse grupo, pois se questiona se os editais publicados pelas universidades instituindo um processo seletivo especial para refugiados e imigrantes são suficientes para integrar esses estudantes no contexto educacional. Por meio de um estudo de caso múltiplo, esta pesquisa de cunho qualitativo verificou que as universidades realizam ações isoladas de acolhimento e integração, demonstrando que, por mais que esses estudantes consigam acesso aos ambientes educacionais, ainda faltam políticas que realmente os integrem. Diante disso, foram propostas algumas ações que poderão se tornar unificadas entre as universidades para que, aplicadas de forma conjunta, tenham mais força e orientem novas ações, como a oferta de programas de acessibilidade linguística antes do início do ano letivo e atividades voltadas contra comportamentos xenofóbicos e preconceituosos, bem como capacitação em direitos humanos e migrações para os servidores das universidades. Por fim, apresenta-se uma agenda de pesquisa que sugere alguns pontos que poderão ser explorados em estudos futuros.

Palavras-Chave: Migração; Refugiados; Imigrantes; Ensino superior; Integração no ensino superior

Introduction

Since the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, migration has accelerated growth worldwide. In 2015, approximately 244 million migrants and refugees. Projections are that by 2050 will be 405 million displaced people (OIM, 2017). In Brazil, these numbers also draw attention. According to data from the International Organization for Migration (OIM), in the period corresponding between 2010-2018, the migrant population reached more than 700,000 people.

This population movement called migration concerns all displacements of people to another state or within it, regardless of their size, causes, and composition (OIM, 2006). Some terminologies derived from the word migration become relevant to the understanding of the discussion in this research: migrant, immigrant, and refugee.

The person who leaves his country voluntarily to settle in another in search of better economic conditions, for example, is an immigrant. In contrast, the person who left his country of origin for violence, conflict, and dangerous situations is called a refugee and needs international protection. The United Nations (UN) differentiates immigrant and refugee terms from political issues because it believes that, as refugees need international protection and are backed by various legal rights, engendering them in the concept of migrants could take away the credibility of their rights. For this reason, this research chooses to highlight the two images, but sometimes it is mentioned only the term migrant so as not to make the reading tiring.

The growth of migration indicates the necessity for greater attention to the issue of migration. Especially questions about how to act so that these people will have inclusion in society. In 2010, Brazil again became an international migration destination when it received thousands of Haitians after the earthquake that devastated Haiti (FARIA, 2015). Consequently, in 2018, Brazil assigned priority treatment to Haitians and stateless residents applying for an entry visa. This visa issued by the Brazilian Embassy in the capital of Haiti (Port-au-Prince) authorizes the granting of a two-year residency, subject to an extension for an indefinite period (BRASIL, 2018).

Given this panorama, it is understandable that this population can be inserted into social and political contexts, including education, because, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (ACNUR, 2019), only 1 percent of immigrants and refugees can enter universities. To promote education, research, and academic extension for people in refugee situations in Brazil, it was created in 2003 by ACNUR in cooperation with national university centers, the National Committee for Refugees (Conare), the Sérgio Vieira de Mello Chair (CSVM). The universities contracted to the CSVM establish objectives, responsibilities, and criteria for the insertion of initiative in their activities, such as actions to encourage and differentiate access to and stay in the university, revalidation of diplomas, and Portuguese language courses (ACNUR, 2019).

Recent information shows that the CSVM has 22 higher education institutions, of which twelve are Federal Universities (ACNUR, 2019). Analyzing only the south of Brazil, there are four convened universities. Three of them have, among their activities, the selection process of special admission for this population and, consequently, were the cases analyzed in this research: Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR).

Souza and Senna (2016) believe that, as much as the student can fit into the educational context, he still becomes excluded since he has already gone through a migration process, which, in the case of refugees, does not occur on his own free will. When he has the opportunity to return to school, he can suffer from the dynamics of the process that follows the dominant culture of that country and other social markers that may intensify exclusion.

Thus, it questions whether the notices published by universities instituting a unique selection process for refugees and immigrants are sufficient to integrate these students into the educational context. Moreover, what other actions are needed to welcome these students after earning their place in the institution? Thus, the objective of this research was to verify the process of accepting and integrating Haitian refugee students and immigrants from undergraduate courses at Brazilian federal universities in the southern region of the country.

According to the World Economic Forum (2017), institutions can promote and innovate conventional methods of access to education for migrants and their families. However, there is still a theoretical lack of studies on this share of the population in universities and higher education courses since most research on migration focuses on economic growth and remittances (FARIA, 2015; GHEASI; NIJKAMP, 2017; IFAD, 2017).

According to Bartlett, Rodrígues, and Oliveira (2015), most Latin American countries are committed to inclusive education for migrants. However, that access to education remains limited, and entering a university becomes difficult due to various factors, such as language and ignorance of local culture.

Inclusion has the characteristics of the monitoring and welcoming of the student, ranging from access to the institution to the psychological, emotional, and communicational expectations of the student, removal of physical and architectural barriers, and bureaucratic issues (FERREIRA, 2007). It is worth mentioning that another expression used, according to Carvalho (2005), is a word that composes the reflection on inclusion and integration.

It is possible to argue that the results generated by this study provoke the motivation necessary for universities to have a differentiated look at migrants and integrate them into their student staff. They also discuss new inclusion and reception policies and awaken further studies on immigrants and refugees in universities.

The theories that contributed to this paper are in the following topic from this introductory panorama. In sequence, the issues of the methodological path used by this research, and then present the categories of analysis—finally, the final considerations, the contributions of this study, and a plan for future studies.

Migration flows, education, and the reception of refugees and immigrants

Gamlen, Murray, and Overton (2017) supported the relationship between education and migration. These authors affirm that migration facilitates education through more extensive educational opportunities migrants can access. The labor market participation rate of migrants with higher academic levels is higher than that of less-educated migrants. It is argumentive that the more qualified the migrant is, the greater the chances that he has of getting a professional placement in the country of destination, besides being an essential channel of integration to assist him in socialization within the community of the country of origin (BATSAIKHAN; DARVAS; RAPOSO, 2018).

Although the number of refugees and immigrants with higher education is often more significant than that of the native population of the country in which they live, other data shows that they do not remain for long in educational institutions in the land of destination. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, 2019) in the Global education monitoring report states that immigrants generally abandon their studies early in the country of destination. Based on European Union data, 19 percent of young migrants who settled in the region dropped out of their studies in 2017.

There is also tricky when the migrant does not have formal education and is interested in qualifying in the destination country. The schooling process demonstrates the power of the State in its life and its choices. Barlett, Rodrígues and Oliveira (2015, p. 1167) state that:

As an object of desire constantly traversed and crossed by perceptions of race, ethnicity, nationality, language, and more, citizenship acquires a physical and intimate dimension that shapes migrant identities. These crossings are limited by regulatory regimes, such as international and national legal references, state bureaucracies, civil institutions, and social groups.

In addition, language is one of the barriers to access to education. In the case of countries that use the Portuguese language, such as Brazil, learning it is one of the main challenges because not being able to communicate can generate social losses, isolation, and difficulty in accessing the labor market and education. Not talking Portuguese also becomes a problem because the immigrant cannot recognize his rights and does not understand the laws, thus reducing the possibilities of this individual living in society and inserting himself as a citizen in the new country (SIMON; LAUXEN, 2017). Living in a different country, which has a foreign language, without family or friends, and being unaware of the legal norms that govern the principles of this society, customs, and local culture can hinder migrants’ access to education (SILVA; LIMA, 2017).

Generally, non-governmental organizations, institutions, and migrants already established in Brazil assume the role of the State in the aid and social insertion of newcomers. Some timid inclusion actions were observed, but the State must appropriate migration integration policies in all social spheres in such a way as to have tremendous success and scope throughout the country (SIMON; LAUXEN, 2017).

We see the effort of educational institutions linked to the CSVM in protecting the rights and local integration of immigrants and refugees because access to justice and the guarantee of rights are essential for the inclusion of this population. The actions of universities distribute in: teaching, research, extension, education for refugees and immigrants, and advocacy. Disciplines offered in undergraduate, master’s, and doctorate courses on International Refugee Law and other topics of this order and literary productions in individual research, research groups, and networks with other institutions (LAPA et al., 2020).

Universities affiliated with ACNUR also work to provide access to language courses and guides on labor rights. Also, provide psychosocial support and mental health services, access to university hospitals, and develop programs to support permanence in Brazil since immigrant and refugee students often do not have resources for study-related expenses, transport, food, and housing (SALA et al., 2020). Thus, universities offer scholarships, permanence grants, housing, and food, since the financial cost of access and permanence in higher education, in Bajwa’s view (2018), forces students to work in precarious and low-wage jobs to be able to afford academic life.

Immigrants and refugees need reliable and accurate information to access higher education and policies that allow them to overcome social gaps and inequality. It is necessary to develop guidelines for access and permanence in the university, creating a sense of belonging and identity (BAJWA, 2018). Higher education institutions linked to the CSVM work to enable access to education for refugees and immigrants through specific selection processes, revalidation of diplomas, offers of scholarships, and assistance policies (LAPA et al., 2020).

For a theoretical framework of this research and to respond to the objective, it was necessary to highlight the inclusion policies in Brazilian federal universities below.

Inclusion policies of Brazilian federal universities

The democratization of access to public universities is more significant than simply the inclusion of students historically excluded from the university; it is a fight against social inequality that weakens citizens’ belief in institutions. In the context in which democratization resumes the idea of access to the university through mechanisms that enable fair conditions of competition for all Brazilians, affirmative actions emerge as tools in the fight against inequalities (PEREIRA; GUTIERREZ; MAY, 2016).

At the beginning of the 21st century, when Brazil began to work to formally assume a commitment to combat racism with policies aimed at repairing historical damage, affirmative action became relevant to, in addition to combating racism, fight against the economic and social disadvantages of Brazilian society (GUARNIERI; MELO-SILVA, 2017). Through public policies legitimized by federal law, quotas emerged to eliminate the inequalities present in society and ensure that all people, regardless of their race and purchasing power, had the chance to participate in culture and community.

In 2012, to this end, the country enacted Law No. 12,711/2012, which provides instruction for admission to federal universities and federal institutions of secondary technical education. One of the mechanisms concerns the reserve of at least 50 percent of their vacancies for students who attend one of those characteristics: passed all school years in public schools; students from families with an income equal to or less than 1.5 minimum wage per person; blacks and indigenous people; and people with disabilities proportionally to the number of black, brown, indigenous and disabled people in the State where the institution has installation, according to the last IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística) census (BRASIL, 2012).

In addition to the university quotas for blacks, indigenous people, disabled people, and low-income youth, other groups in Brazilian society may benefit from the principle of equality expressed by the Brazilian Constitution according to their characteristics and possible difficulties with equal access to the university, such as refugees and immigrants.

After the theoretical explanation carried out in this chapter on Brazilian inclusion policies, the methodological path that supported the construction of this research is presented and aimed to guide this study towards achieving the proposed objective.

Methodological path

In this study, we proposed conducting qualitative research to verify the process of welcoming and integrating Haitian refugee and immigrant students in undergraduate courses at the Brazilian Federal Universities of southern Brazil based on students’ perceptions, CSVM coordinators, and documentary analysis. For Denzin (2006), qualitative research allows researchers to highlight the socially constructed nature of reality, establishes an intimate relationship between the researcher, the research problem, and the study’s limitations, providing solutions to various issues by the way the phenomenon is created and develops.

The research was conducted with a multiple case study method because this study treated the same phenomenon in different federal universities in southern Brazil. The numerous case study requires more time than a single study, and a theory replication logic should be used that, in the end, will help in the development of new cases (YIN, 2015).

For the choice of the units of analysis, the Federal Universities of the Southern Region were selected. Some rules were necessary to achieve a good research design; such as:

  1. To have specific selection processes for refugees and immigrants because, to verify the function of reception and integration, these students must be inserted in the academic community;

  2. Be at least in the second year of publication of a specific notice because, after one year of the process, the reception and integration actions can become more solid and straightforward;

  3. To have an agreement with the ACNUR through the Implementation of CSVM, considering that the deal validates and standardizes the actions offered by universities.

The universities that composed the analysis unit in this research were the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), and the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR).

The research subjects were: the coordinators of the CSVM from the universities; the responsible for creating specific selection processes for refugees and immigrants; and the refugee and immigrant students who entered the university for this process and made themselves available to participate in this research. It emphasizes that many students, because they were in the condition of refugees, did not feel comfortable talking about their migratory process and their insertion into the university. The interviews were with four UFSM students, five from UFRGS and four from UFPR. The names of the students interviewed presented in this research are fictitious, and only one entered Brazil with a request for refuge.

Initially, we attempted to access the list of students who entered through the selection process for refugees and immigrants. However, the coordinators could not pass on this information due to privacy issues, including issues related to the refuge, in which the individual needs international protection. The contact with these students was from social networks and study groups on migrations from universities.

Documentary analysis and interviews using the Delphi technique were used for data collection. The Delphi technique, according to Dalkey and Helmer (1963), consists of a set of interactive questions that repeatedly circulate among specialists in a particular area or people who have the same characteristics, in which the information initially obtained serves as the basis for new questions and a new round of interviews. This technique did two moments, in interviews with the coordinators of the CSVM of each university and the students who entered the universities through the specific selective procedure.

The documents analyzed were composed of public archives, for example, the documents existing in each university, such as the notices and resolutions of the specific selection processes, as well as news published on the websites of these institutions and other institutional documents that assisted in the verification of reception and integration actions.

Two different forms were necessary with different questions for the students and the coordinators sent by e-mail. After receiving the answers of this first round, we used the same analysis to construct the second script, characterizing the second round of Delphi. The authors Giovinazzo and Fischmann (2002) point out that the technique’s applicability in the electronic environment replaces printed materials and reduces the time of sending questions and receiving answers.

The interview forms were sent to the Coordinators of the CSVM of UFSM, UFRGS, and UFPR, and only the UFSM coordinator did not participate in the two rounds of interviews. Concerning the students interviewed, of the four UFSM students, three participated in the two rounds, the five interviewees from UFRGS participated in the two rounds, and, of the four UFPR students, two returned the second form.

Data triangulation was composed of documents from Delphi 1 (interviews with coordinators of the CSVM of the universities) and Delphi 2 (interviews with the students from each university). These data were analyzed based on content analysis dictated by Bardin (2011). The content analysis for this author concerns a set of techniques of analysis of communications that applies systematic procedures and aims to describe the content of messages through the inference of knowledge related to the data obtained by interviews and documents (BARDIN, 2011).

The data obtained went through three stages. The initial stage was a pre-analysis with the floating reading and choice of documents. The second was to transform the raw data to identify its primary characteristics and categorize them through analysis categories developed a posteriori (third stage) (BARDIN, 2011). These categories are presented below and have been divided between: the role of teaching, research, and extension groups; language welcomes; university support networks; and actions against xenophobia and prejudice.

The reception and integration of refugee and immigrant students

Initially, it is pertinent to contextualize the presence of refugees and immigrants in the universities analyzed to clarify the situation of foreign enrollment scans of the case studies analyzed. UFSM, UFRGS, and UFPR have in their student body 196 students distributed in several undergraduate courses that had their access facilitated through specific selection processes.

Of these students, 56 are UFSM students, divided among 13 women and 43 men from various countries, with an emphasis on 34 Haitians, followed by Congolese, Angolans, Ivorians, and Palestinians, among others, distributed mainly in the courses of International Relations, Dentistry, Law, Nursing and in engineering.

While at UFRGS, there are 23 students enrolled, eleven are Haitians, and the rest are Venezuelans, Guineans, Angolans, Syrians, Ivorians, Congolese, and Cape Verdeans. The distribution between the courses has more heterogeneity and includes students in different areas - international relations, pharmacy, collective health, history, music, economics, psychology, social work, engineering, and biomedicine.

At UFPR, we also see many Haitians occupying the vacancies offered by the university, with 65 of 117 immigrant and refugee students enrolled. Also in the spotlight, there are Venezuelans, Syrians, and Democratic-Congolese, distributed in courses: administration, agronomy, economics, engineering, law, dentistry, letters, biomedicine, and medicine, among others.

Within the totality of immigrant and refugee students enrolled in these institutions, it is noteworthy that, for the most part, they are students of Haitian nationality. The number of 110 Haitian students present at universities is due to the migration flow intensified since 2010 after the earthquake in Haiti and the assignment of priority treatment to Haitians in applying for a humanitarian visa for entry into the país (BRASIL, 2018).

Before presenting the categories of analysis and discussing the results, it is worth identifying the profile of the students who composed the unit of analysis of this study from table 1.

Table 1 description of students participating in this study 

Name Sex Age University Course and Semester Weather in Brazil
Hléley M 30 years old UFSM Chemistry Engineering - 4th semester Six years old
Bob M 24 years old UFSM Electrical Engineering - semester not informed Three years old
Jean M 30 years old UFSM Control and Automation Engineering - 3rd semester Six years old
Line F 24 years old UFSM Dentistry - 4th semester Three years old
Ely M 33 years old UFRGS Economic Science Four years old
Ricardo M 24 years old UFRGS International Relations - 1st semester Four years old
Lynn F 26 years old UFRGS Pharmacy Three years old
Mike M 20 years old UFRGS International Relations - 1st semester Two years old
Louis M 22 years old UFRGS Legal and Social Sciences One year
Celis M 27 years old UFPR Computer Science - 9th semester Six years old
Jeanlaure M 25 years old UFPR Law - 1st semester Two years old
Waist F 26 years old UFPR Medicine - 2nd semester Two years old
Cenatus M 26 years old UFPR Agronomy - 7th semester Five years old

Source: elaborated by the authors based on the research.

It is noteworthy that the students’ nationality was not pre-determined, and there are students from several countries in the three universities. Only Louis entered the país with a request for refuge, and none of them arrived in Brazil with complete higher education. The participants’ profile reflects the totality of the students enrolled in these institutions, primarily men and Haitians. Some of the UFRGS’s students are without the specification of the semester they are in because, until February 2020, they were not in any class.

Opening the discussions on this topic, we analyzed documents, records, information, and news published through institutional websites and interviews. So, this topic has four categories of analysis developed a posteriori.

The three universities observe that the actions aimed at students are carried out through the groups of teaching, research, and extension focused on migratory issues. The first category of analysis is presented, which consists of the role of the teaching, research, and extension groups.

The role of teaching, research, and extension groups

The three universities that comprise this research’s unit of analysis have study groups related to migration issues and migration policies. These groups have a strong link with actions developed by universities to promote the reception of refugee and immigrant students, so much so that the proposal of insertion policy for this population came from these groups.

At UFSM, the initiative to promote inclusion for refugees and immigrants started from the research, teaching, and extension group Human Rights and International Human Mobility (MIGRAIDH). The group began its activities in 2013 together with the Law School to understand the difficulties faced by people who decide to migrate to Brazil. Since 2015, the group has been responsible for the UFSM CSVM, linked with the ACNUR.

According to the coordinator of the CSVM of UFSM, the group proposed the entry policy and prepared an explanatory memorandum to create this affirmative action initiative aimed at local integration, instituting 5 percent of additional vacancies in each course for refugees and immigrants in vulnerable situations.

It was found that UFRGS has two research groups that act powerfully on this issue. The first is the Immigrant and Refugee Advisory Group (Gaire), which aims to devote itself to the matters related to the local integration of this population. Characterized as an extension group, GAIRE provides legal, psychic, and social advice to immigrants and refugees. The University’s CSVM works with GAIRE, working in teaching, research, and extension on the theme. The Center for Studies, Research, and Extension on Migrations (Nepemigra) was created in 2018 to coordinate the activities developed by Gaire and CSVM/UFRGS. The purpose was to solidify the knowledge produced.

Meanwhile, at UFPR, since 2013, there has been the Migration Policy Program and Brazilian University (PMUB), which has several projects. The PMUB has as its goal to serve and integrate students and assist the entire immigrant and refugee population of the region, having served more than five thousand people since its foundation.

According to the coordinator of the CSVM/UFPR, with the effort to understand that it is through education that a fair and supportive country builts itself, the university has taken the initiative to carry out actions for the entry of immigrants and refugees, considering that these people are minorities within public educational policies. Thus, through the PMUB, solutions no.13/14 were issued, which instituted the re-entry policy for immigrants and refugees, and no. 63/18 created ten additional vacancies annually through the selection process.

We saw the role that the groups play in the theme of migration and how they are involved with students. However, as Simon and Lauxen (2017) say, it is necessary to work together with the State so that there are integration policies in all social spheres and tremendous success in welcoming immigrants and refugees. This relationship becomes evident in the following categories since the teaching promoted all the reception actions identified in this research, research, and extension groups of universities.

The language welcomes

Language is perceived as one of the most significant difficulties faced by students. Therefore, according to the ACNUR (2019), the universities analyzed here to make up a group of 18 institutions that offer the Portuguese course for foreigners for enrolled students.

Three of the UFSM students claimed to have held Portuguese classes at the beginning of the first semester, and two of them cited the Language without Borders offered by the UFSM Language Center. MIGRAIDH also promotes conversation wheels with immigrants and refugees to stimulate language accessibility to assist in this issue.

UFPR has the Brazilian Portuguese project for Humanitarian Migration, developed by the Portuguese course and the Center for Languages and Interculturality (Celin). The project offers free training courses for Portuguese to any immigrant from the region. The importance of this course is perceived because, according to the ACNUR (2019), most immigrants and refugees have difficulties with the Portuguese, but not all can access language courses.

However, the difficulty with the language persists. The UFSM line student reports that she can understand better than express herself in Portuguese. She tries to adapt to the university and conducts the courses offered, even though she considers that “when teachers will speak, I will understand 40 percent in the explanations because the language of college is very different”. Simon and Lauxen (2017) state that it is challenging to learn the Portuguese language. Not being able to communicate can generate losses, as in the case of Line, who can not understand all the teacher’s explanations, which can harm his learning.

At UFRGS, for the registration, the student must prove proficiency in Portuguese through the Celpe-bras proficiency certificate. For those who do not have the certificate, the university links the undergraduate course but without activities during the first two semesters. This time should focus on the intensive course taught by the Portuguese Program for Foreigners (PPE), and the student must present his certificate of attendance and use it at each end of the semester for the maintenance of the link with the university, having up to one year to present the certificate of proficiency. On the contrary, it will lose the academic bond and the vacancy conquered.

For Ely, this preparation for UFRGS is what helped him understand the language. He says that “it is not easy even to know to speak Portuguese, it is also not so difficult if the person follows the studies of UFRGS.”However, for authors such as Rosa (2018) and Gonçalves (2019), conditioning the admission to the knowledge of the Portuguese language can cause an exclusionary effect, besides being one of the difficulties to access and adhere to the inclusion notices.

At UFPR, and according to the coordinator of the CSVM of this university, students take the language and academic reception course five weeks before the beginning of the academic calendar. This course also includes information about the university, visits to campuses, information on the preparation of abstracts, scientific articles, and other activities related to academic life.

In addition, the university offers the Course of Textual Practices for students to continue taking Portuguese classes throughout the course. Furthermore, according to the students, the most significant integration program is the Portuguese classes because they allow them to insert themselves within the university better.

It was verified that the preparation carried out by the two universities, UFRGS and UFPR, before the beginning of the first semester was essential for the learning of the students interviewed. Thus, differently from what Rosa (2018) states, this initial learning as a condition for the confirmation of the vacancy made the students feel safe about the language, being less a reason for the withdrawal from the course.

In addition to Portuguese courses, other actions contribute to the reception of students through the formation of a university support network that encompasses various activities.

University support network

It is perceived that there is an effort in universities to develop activities and programs for the integration of students within the university context. To assist these students, UFSM launched, through the Pro-Rectory of Graduation (Prograd) and the Coordination of Educational Actions, the Notice nº 024/2018, which offers the opportunity for undergraduate students to act as monitors of their fellow immigrants and refugees. The monitor should have weekly schedules to guide and assist the student in academic activities, assisting him in the use of the equipment and the acquisition of materials required in a class, as well as talk about the intellectual trajectory, always recognizing the identity, and culture and importance of intercultural dialogue.

UFPR students also have a teacher or fellow tutor appointed by the course coordinator, to which students must report monthly for follow-up. In addition, students must participate in the Migration and Subjectivation Processes project and the actions indicated by the Coordination with the help of the teacher-tutor or colleague-tutor.

The consequence of the existence of the monitors within the university may be related to what Bajwa (2018) says are educational policies and programs that prepare the immigrant for coexistence within the university, integrating him and creating a sense of belonging. It is also necessary to think of policies that contribute to the permanence of students as a form of integration in the academic community.

The students stated that one of the reasons they are not in the job market is the difficulty of fitting the job with the schedules of classes because most are during the day. UFSM has provided nine scholarships for research, teaching, and extension projects aimed at refugee and immigrant students. We believe that this action can create and strengthen the contact networks of these students and bring them closer to the university servers. The projects developed, creating a connection with the community.

In this sense, UFPR works in the search to facilitate internships for students by the University Employability Center and improve and translate curricula for referral to contact networks. These examples include the adaptation of institutions, as stated by UNESCO (2019), to help develop the potential of these students and is a way to help the students stay economically at the university (BAJWA, 2018).

Still, two projects are featured in UFSM and developed mainly by Haitian immigrants and refugees. The first is the Sauté pour Haiti, which studies the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) to implement a similar system in Haiti. The other is Energie pour Tous (Energy for all), which aims to talk about alternative energy generation through videos published on a YouTube channel. Four Haitian students who arrived in Brazil in 2017 participated in this project. One of them is Jean; he says that he saw the opportunity to bring information about sustainable energy to Haiti to contribute to its power generation through this initiative.

On the other hand, it became evident that UFPR returns its actions more to issues experienced by all refugees and immigrants, not only their students. An example of this is the Project Refuge, Migration and Hospitality, which carries out a work of legal advice with immigrants and refugees, the training course in information technology aimed at this population, and the course of History of Brazil for Foreigners offered by the Department of history. All these courses are offered to students enrolled in the institution and immigrants and refugees in the university.

The revalidation policy of diplomas is for those who wish to apply for university places by the PMUB. The students did not declare that they had the help of the university to revalidate their diplomas, including two students who said they did not know this action.

Creating better access to the university depends on reliable and correct information. Therefore, we highlight the educational policies and programs that can prepare immigrants for admission and permanence in the university, creating a sense of belonging and identity (BAJWA, 2018). When this does not happen, doubts and questions arise, as with UFRGS students. For them, it would be necessary actions that would better clarify the information to perform the validation process of diplomas, one of the most challenging items for participation in the process. Sometimes, the increase in vacancies for immigrants and refugees may not be enough because the vacancies do not get their entirety. One of the reasons is that several rejected processes may be the lack of requested documents.

However, one of Gaire’s actions is to carry out task forces to assist those who would like to apply for a place at the university and do not know how to proceed. Ely cited Gaire as a group that helps foreigners in the documentation and other rights, not only people who intend to enter university but perform such labor to assist all arriving in Brazil.

The author’s Silva and Lima (2017) believe that there must be a social restructuring to achieve equality, overturning the ideological obstacles that differentiate immigrants from the native population by changing their thinking. MIGRAIDH promoted the Training and Training course in Human Rights for Public Servants in Santa Maria. The system, offered to the university’s servers, was also destined for municipal, state, and federal servers and aimed to train the servers for the care, reception, and integration of immigrants and refugees present in the university and the local community.

The importance of this initiative concerns the fact that servers will, at some point, deal with immigrants on issues related to their rights and duties. So, it is necessary to know the scenario of migrations and the laws that permeate them to guide this population better. In the next category, actions against xenophobia and prejudice were addressed.

Actions against xenophobia and their concept

Students still experience inclusion difficulties and experience racist and xenophobic behaviors within universities. Even the impasse with the language can influence prejudice within the classroom. According to Line, when there is a need to create groups for work presentations, no one chooses it or another immigrant. She states that she did not integrate into the classroom, and her relationship with her classmates is limited only to exchanges of information when requested. The relationship of Hleléy, another UFSM student, with his colleagues “did not reach 50 percent; I am living some prejudices because I am black and foreign, but I do not want to elaborate too much on.”

Jean’s view is that there is a misunderstanding about the situation of immigrants and refugees and other markers that influence prejudice, “my deduction is: being a refugee is one thing, but being a black refugee is another.” Indifferently, Bob states that colleagues are friendly to him because they always offer to help with the language in classroom activities.

We see here the representations of immigrants that can be accepted more quickly. As Dornelas and Ribeiro (2018) claim, there is a division between refugees and immigrants who are desirable and those who are undesirable, taking into account race, ethnicity, and gender. These distinctions may reflect how they will receive different treatment in the new country.

According to student Talie (UFPR), the difficulty with the language is also why they are often not called to compose study groups or seminar presentations. Again, we see how the language is related to the reception of these students (SIMON; LAUXEN, 2017) because, just as it grants the recognition of their rights, it also generates social losses that will reflect on daily life and relationships. Asked how she proceeds in these cases, student Talie said that the teacher was exempted from responsibility in helping her integrate into the groups. In this respect, it observes that the university has a reporting channel for these cases, but the students did not mention this channel.

According to the Coordinator of the CSVM, every week, students should write down in their academic journal a positive fact and a negative. At this moment, the university detects cases of racism and xenophobia. It involves the psychology team to, if applicable, perform a psychological follow-up and, if it is in the interest of the student, carry out the intervention.

At UFSM, to assist in the various demands of students, the Representative Committee of Immigrant and Refugee Students of the university was created. To seek support and solutions to improve the integration of students within the institution, the students themselves met to have representative participation within the university. According to Bajwa (2018), all these actions allow the immigrant and refugee population to overcome social gaps and inequalities.

According to the coordinator of CSVM/UFPR, there is still a need to increase the hospitality and understanding related to them by students, technicians, and teachers. To stimulate this awareness, UFPR launched the Campaign Rebeginnings are possible, thinking about the challenges experienced by immigrants and refugees and demonstrating to the academic community the importance of student reception.

At UFRGS, concerning living in the classroom with Brazilian colleagues, no case of prejudice was identified. It may have occurred because three of the students were taking the preparatory course for the proficiency test and were not correctly comprehending the academic context. However, this may be a first step towards adapting them at university and living with other colleagues. As noted in Louis’s speech, the diversity of the classes caused these students, each from a country, to create bonds and support networks.

Final considerations

This research aimed to verify the process of welcoming and integrating Haitian refugee and immigrant students in undergraduate courses at the Federal Universities of southern Brazil that have ties to the CSVM and unique selection processes for the admission of these students. Through multiple case studies at UFSM, UFRGS, and UFPR, it was possible to verify how universities welcome students after acceptance in the particular selection process. Although this part of the population is gaining access to educational environments, there are timid reception and integration actions offered by universities in isolation, which prevents all students from being included.

The inclusion of refugees and immigrants in UFSM permeates relations within the university and has projects that aim to inform the population of the country of origin of these immigrants. It is believed that these actions perceived daily make the student integrate into the institution because he will have a support and protection network on which he can count. As much as the students interviewed have reported behaviors of prejudice and xenophobia, they feel happy at university and believe they have an opportunity to start over.

UFPR promotes actions to include immigrant and refugee students. It is observable that integration contributes to these students experiencing the migratory process in the best way, besides being one of the university’s responsibilities to provide access to qualifications. The university stands out for its pioneering efforts to be a reference for the inclusion of immigrants and refugees, including working against xenophobia and prejudice through campaigns and channels of denunciation.

While UFRGS does not have reception actions other than the study group’s activities as an aid in the revalidation of diplomas, 2019 was the first year to receive students effectively enrolled due to the requirement of proficiency in Portuguese and the two semesters of language preparation.

Considering inclusion is a continuous process that begins when there is easy access for the students in institutions, it was found that welcoming and integrating Haitian students in universities occurs through Portuguese courses, the creation of support networks, and actions carried out by study groups. However, there is still difficulty recognizing diplomas, although universities claim to assist them at this stage.

From the analysis of the interviews, we identified that the universities carry out different actions, and each stands out in an area of integration. Thus, some steps suggested that may become unified among them because it is believed that, if the activities developed by the universities presented here were applied jointly, the contribution to the reception and integration of these students would be more outstanding:

  1. UFSM could offer language accessibility programs before the beginning of the school year to provide initial contact with the Portuguese and with recurring activities related to graduation;

  2. The Training and Training course in Human Rights offered by UFSM to all its employees could serve as inspiration for the other universities because all the organs of the institution work simultaneously and would know how to deal with possible situations related to migration;

  3. UFSM and UFRGS could take action against xenophobic and discriminatory behaviors, establishing channels of complaints and campaigns against this type of behavior.

  4. Actions were taken to assist students in searching for employment through internship programs.

It is expected that the results found in this study contribute practically, serving as an example for the universities analyzed here to respond to the perceptions of students to improve their reception processes, aiming to make this inclusion more accessible to the entire migrant population.

In addition, it proposes some points that can be explored in future studies: the presence of refugees and immigrants and their access to education with a research agenda that identifies how the process of inclusion of refugees and immigrants in universities occurs. Analyzing the unique selection processes developed by universities; verifying how support networks, both university (which emerged in this study) and family or circles of friendships, help in the integration of these students within the university; and how some social markers (race and ethnicity), influenced by intersectional theory, take shape within the university context in the student adaptation process.

It emphasizes the importance of monitoring research that works with this same subject. Suggests expanding this study at the national level so that it is possible to identify how Brazilian federal universities are dealing with the presence of refugees and immigrants in the university context so that an overview can be established about the future of these migrants in the country.

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1- Data availability: all the data set that supports the results of this study are also indicated in this paper. This work had the support of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel - Brazil (Capes) - Financing Code 001.

Received: October 06, 2020; Revised: November 24, 2020; Accepted: March 18, 2021

Luise Bittencourt Peres holds a bachelor’s degree in administration from the Federal University of Pampa (Unipampa), a master’s degree in the Graduate Program in Business Administration at Unipampa, and a Ph.D. in administration from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS).

Sebastião Ailton da Rosa Cerqueira-Adão holds a degree in administration from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), a Master’s degree in administration (Politics and University Planning) from UFSC, and a Ph.D. in education (Administration and Supervision of Teaching) from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp). He received a post-doctorate in social anthropology from the University of São Paulo (USP); he is a research professor at unipampa’s Graduate Program in Administration (PPGA).

Carolina Freddo Fleck is a research professor at unipampa’s Graduate Program in Administration (PPGA), a degree in public relations from the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), and a Master’s degree in administration from UFSM and a Ph.D. in administration from UFRGS.

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The authors take full responsibility for the translation of the text, including titles of books/articles and the quotations originally published in Portuguese.

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