Social inclusion assessment of international migrants in the extension of Southern Brazil

Abstract

This article discusses extensionist practices in the context of the last decade international migration. Therefore, it investigates the forms of primary sociability established in Brazil by migrant people of different nationalities, participating in university extension. This project integrates extension, research, and teaching developed at a communitarian university in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, in Rio Grande do Sul. The research was conducted by the group Território Nômade: migration, transition, displacement in contemporary photograph. The objective is to evaluate the social inclusion perceived by a group of international migrants in university extension program. This interdisciplinary investigation in the Humanities and Social Sciences is basic research with a qualitative approach. Methodologically, the investigation was preceded by participant observation during the development of the extension activities. Then, the research group conducted individual semi-structured interviews with the participating migrants. Migration is understood as a social issue that produces the disintegration of social bonds. Thus, the investigation seeks the social insertion attributed by migrants in the process of arrival in local communities and in the extension project. It was found that the relationship with friends, co-workers and the participants in the extension program favored the social integration of international migrants in the social groups. Therefore, relationships of solidarity that recovered the primary sociability of migrants in the extension project were evident.