Student migration, information and difference: notes of virtual communities on Facebook

Abstract

Introduction: This present paper deals with the use of social media by foreign students. Objective: It analyzes the use of social media by these students having a focus on the processes of production, circulation of information, knowledge and experiences. Methodology: Conducts a virtual ethnographic exercise in eight virtual communities organized on Facebook with regard to the collection of data analysis on, national composition of the members of these communities with regard to the information that circulates through them and the production process of the difference. Results: It classifies virtual communities into four types: Mixed; Nationals, Students and Institutions. This also identifies the occurrence to the interactions predominance of the Portuguese language in all the virtual communities formed by foreign students and / or migrants. It shows that these students are affected by elements of Brazilian culture, especially by musical rhythms, dances, cooking and ways of talking and dressing. Conclusion: Understanding that the foreign student when in contact with new information, new knowledge and new ways of being will experience changes in their subjectivities, infocognitive baggage and identity. Then, it verifies that the difference resulting from this experience does not imply a rupture with the cultural and identity references of the country of origin, but results in the construction of individual and collective strategies of living in a space between here and there, mediated by information.