INDIGENOUS STUDENT YOUTH AND MIGRATION AND PUBLIC POLICIES FOR UNIVERSITY ADMISSION AND RETENTION

Abstract

Having observed the dynamics of the academic daily life of the indigenous students, I decided to follow certain paths of interpretation that concern indigenous belonging, the experience of youth, and affirmative action policies aimed at higher education and this population in Brazil. Articulating such perceptions led me to reflect on public policies for admission to and permanence in higher education and the consequent migration of indigenous youth to urban centres. The focus of observation - and consequently of analysis - is the students themselves and their protagonism in facing the vicissitudes of university life. The study bases itself in the supposition that from the phenomenon of migration the students will transcend to other realities of youth that they will come to experience through their own material and symbolic exchanges. Thus, my intention was to problematize the implications of indigenous student migration to Salvador upon acceptance to the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), identifying which strategies are used for the occupation of the city and which relationships persist with communities of belonging in maintaining community bonds. In Brazil and Latin America this new form of migration characteristic of student youth will shape a new format of city occupation by indigenous populations.