Mozambican Students in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: sociability and social networks

Abstract

This research’s subject matter is the presence of Mozambican students in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, focusing on their experience of temporary immigration. Our target is related to a certain extent to the work of other specialists in Human and Social Sciences engaged in studies of urban ethnography. In spite of following the same line, the present study faces a challenge, as the immigrant and/or emigrant himself is both an observer and an integral part of the study’s subject matter, that means, an immigrant reflecting on himself as well as on his fellow countrymen, using anthropological terms. The data and instances collected for this dissertation refer to: i) life projects and the choice of Brazil; ii) identity and classifying systems; iii) sociability and social networks and finally; iv) the expectation of returning home (in other words, how these students intend to apply the knowledge acquired in Brazil to the reality of the emigration country, Mozambique. This material has been gathered by means of interviews (composed of open and closed questions) with Mozambican students at public and private universities in Rio de Janeiro. This group constitutes an amplified network of relationships receiving also individuals of other nationalities, enabling not only face-to-face contacts but also the interaction through virtual networks. It is also worth emphasizing that the expectation of returning home is always present in our interlocutors’ speeches.