Beyond integration: the role of philia in the migration experience of language teachers in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

After pointing out mainstream migrant integration’s conceptual issues, we use communication theory to argue that researching migrants’ positive discourse about their trajectories depends on analyzing their establishment of philia in the host country. Then, we present a qualitative study with five migrants who work as teachers at a language school in Rio de Janeiro. We explore their experiences according to three categories: connection to Brazilian people, connection to brazility, and identity convergence to Brazil. This paper concludes that although interviewees cite some indicators used to measure integration in mainstream academia (e.g., language and employment) in their discourses about the country, the specific meanings of these factors are understood only by linking them to participants’ intersubjective exchanges and philia in Brazil.