For the third consecutive year, Unifesp joins a movement that already involves 32 public and private institutions of higher education in the country and offers in its courses specific vacancies for refugees, stateless persons and people with humanitarian visas.
This year, the university’s medical degree, one of the most prestigious and disputed in the country, dedicated a chair to inclusive action.
The agreements with universities have been made possible through the Sérgio Vieira de Melo Chair, a program implemented by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), a tribute to the Brazilian diplomat killed in 2003 during a bombing at the United Nations Office Nations in Baghdad, Iraq.
There are several degrees and courses available, such as international relations, law, medicine and dentistry. The chair, which is present in 22 public universities, has already reached approximately 700 students between 2020 and 2021.
In 2021, 157 refugees, stateless persons or people with a humanitarian visa applied for 37 vacancies at Unifesp. In 2020, 168 applicants for 37 vacancies, most of them men, of Haitian nationality and aged between 28 and 33 years. In 2022, 50 vacancies were offered, including medicine.
“By making these vacancies available to refugees, stateless persons and people with humanitarian visas, we believe that we can give our share of contribution so that they have, effectively, an opportunity to start over and rebuild their lives in the country that embraced and welcomed them”, says LÃgia Azzalis, dean of graduation at Unifesp.
Haitian Hervens Ceridor, 38, arrived in Brazil in 2016, leaving behind his country’s serious social and political problems, and obtained a humanitarian visa. Graduated in law and with a technical course in social communication, he faced obstacles to revalidate his diploma.
Without speaking Portuguese, he got a job as a bricklayer’s helper with the help of his cousin, who was already living in Brazil. Gradually, he learned the language and managed to raise money to pay for an international relations course at a private university.
“The money was short and I didn’t know what to do. That’s when I received a message in a WhatsApp group from a human rights association informing me about the vacancy at Unifesp. I prepared myself, registered and participated in the contest”, he says. Ceridor. “There were 20 candidates for a vacancy, but, thanks to God and my effort, I managed to pass.”
In Haiti, Ceridor worked as a lawyer. Today, in Brazil, he teaches French and Haitian Creole. “To facilitate inclusion, institutions can consider facilitating the revalidation of diplomas for refugees, stateless persons and humanitarian visa holders, because it is a very complicated process. This would help a lot in the integration of these people”, he says.
According to the UNHCR, among the problems of revalidation are the high costs of the process and the lack of nationally standardized procedures.
According to Marina Reinoldes, pedagogical director of the Education without Borders Institute, the road to this standardization is still long.
“There has been a great advance, undeniable, which is free for the validation of diplomas, but universities are still trying to understand how this process is done. Each institution, each course has the autonomy to analyze this documentation.”
For UNHCR, there are also not enough processes for entry into higher education that take into account the specificities of refugees — documentation, for example. Universities associated with the chair fulfill this function, but other institutions still need to advance in public policies.
According to the UN agency, once they enter higher education, refugee people find it difficult to maintain themselves covering housing costs, food allowances, transport, among others. So there is a need to expand programs that support and make possible the university permanence of these people, according to the entity.
Unicamp has grants and scholarships offered by the Student Support Service for refugee students. Today, the university has 14 students in refugee status at the undergraduate level and one student at the graduate level, in areas such as civil engineering and dentistry, for example.
“The proposal lies in enabling coexistence, integration and a new perspective on life for the Afghan academic community at a time when it is threatened by the new Taliban government, which, in particular, makes the situation of women members of this community extremely vulnerable”, says Professor Ana Carolina Maciel, president of the advisory committee of the Sérgio Vieira de Mello Chair at the university.
Like Unifesp, the University of Minas Gerais also has a vacancy for refugee in medicine. The graduation is among the 76 vacancies opened by the institution last year.
The Federal University of Paraná also has a vacancy in medicine, in addition to administration, nursing, letters and accounting sciences. In 2019, the institution even offered an intensive Portuguese course for newly arrived students.
A pioneer in Brazil, PUC in São Paulo joined the Sérgio Vieira de Melo Chair in 2004. The university has a law course and a postgraduate degree in refugee law. The PUC of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro are also part of the professorship.
violence and protection
This year, two cases involving immigrants drew attention in Brazil. The first was that of Congolese Moïse Mugenyi Kabagambe, who was beaten and killed at the age of 24 in a kiosk in Rio de Janeiro on January 24th. The second was with the Venezuelan Marcelo Antonio Larez Gonzalez, 21, shot in the chest after an argument allegedly motivated by a debt of R$ 100, in Mauá (Greater São Paulo).
“[Violência contra estrangeiros] is increasing, yes. I don’t know if it’s a political wave, what it is. But seeing a guy get killed for R$100 is barbaric”, says Hervens Ceridor, who has heard the xenophobic cliché “you’re not in your country”.
“Before this situation I wouldn’t have taken it seriously, but after these things [os crimes] happened, starts to worry. I’m a little perplexed.”
As of August 2021, there were 61,660 recognized refugees in Brazil, of which 48,477 were Venezuelan refugees.
According to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, between 2019 and 2021 Brazil received 141,349 requests for recognition of refugee status. Among them, 56,719 were granted and, currently, 141, 349 requests are being processed. The main countries of origin are Venezuela, Syria, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Lebanon, Cuba and Angola.
