This article discusses typical tendencies and tensions of the sociability of foreign students from African countries where Portuguese is the official language at 'Universidade de Brasilia' and at 'Universidade de São Paulo'. Our analysis is carried out through an ethnographic approach. We analyze the way students experienced the linguistic and pedagogical practices at the universities, the way they make sense the urban spaces they live as well as the Brazilian typical racial tensions and their most common patterns of integration and aggregation. The time they are involved in the migratory flow, the city they live in Brazil and their nationalities are variables playing important roles in their tendencies of socialization. Although still in a budding phase, , we explore some identity dynamics among the students. The meaning they attribute to their condition in Brazil is hardly the same. Some of them consider they are in diaspora, while others require tobe recognized as strangers/foreigners. The majority of them are surprised when they realize they are simply seen as Africans or black people in Brazil. The students move to Brazil under the Undergraduate Student Agreement Program (PEC-G). Such program supports the displacement of students from developing countries to Brazil in order for them to do their undergraduate studies.
international cooperation; PALOP (African countries where the official language is Portuguese); students; academic exchanges; socialization; tension