Refugee “calouros” during the Covid-19 pandemic: effects on Portuguese learning in higher education in Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper reflects on the problems faced by refugee students during the COVID-19 pandemic (summer semester 2020) as calouros, i.e. freshmen during their first year, in a public university in Brazil. Through a content analysis of their personal accounts, collected electronically by their teacher of Portuguese for academic purposes (the first author), we describe how five students (a Syrian, two Haitians, a Venezuelan and a Togolese refugees) (re)visit their experiences, in which several dynamics intersect: being ‘calouro’, being refugee students, learning the shelter language in loco, and experiencing social distancing due to the closing of universities. Because learning the language of the host country is not the only factor affected by the pandemic, we also observe how language learning (settings) intersect with other aspects characterising the refugee status: housing conditions, availability of learning materials, and the uncertainty attached to the present and future of their own lives and of other family members.