Percursos de integração de solicitantes de refúgio na cidade do Rio de Janeiro: a construção da cidadania refúgio

Abstract

The following research aimed to understand how the integration experiences of asylum seekers in the city of Rio de Janeiro are traced. Specifically, it aimed to analyze the different relationships that these actors establish with the public and private institutions involved in receiving them. The theoretical approach was based on the concept of citizenship, understood as a set of practices of access to rights and participation in the political community. Citizenship in modern times is linked to the nation-state and its population, with the refugee being a disruptive force in this nexus; the notion of refugee citizenship is a response to the upheavals caused by migration in the nationality-sovereignty-citizenship nexus. The investigation into the encounter between the refugee subject and the host society was carried out between 2023 and 2024, through biographical interviews with three refugee students from the Portuguese course of the Program for Assistance to Refugees and Refugee Seekers (PARES), offered by Cáritas Archdiocesan of Rio de Janeiro. The interview script was based on the literature on the field of local integration and its frameworks for analyzing public policies. Six spheres were selected for the analysis of the interviews: housing, education, health, social assistance, work and social ties in Brazil and with the country of origin. The interview script was based on the literature on the field of local integration and its frameworks for analyzing public policies. Six areas were selected for the analysis of the interviews: housing, education, health, social assistance, work and social ties in Brazil and with the country of origin. The experiences of the asylum seekers reveal a continuous tension between not being integrated, a precarious integration and access to a solid social protection structure. Not being able to speak Portuguese is a barrier to accessing different rights and experiencing social life. The barrier is also expressed by the erasure of their previous professional and educational experiences. Their movements around the city reveal the precariousness of their lives, but also signal hope.