Brazil is the main source of enrollments for South American students in Canada. In 2023, 15,615 Brazilian students were in Canada with study permits. Different bilateral agreements on education and culture between Canada and Brazil justify this scenario when compared to other Latin American countries. From 2011 and onwards, programs for technological development were created in Brazil, with the creation of CAPES and CNPq scholarships. Since 2012, Canada has been among the destination countries for these programs and due to the language possibilities in English and French. With regard specifically to Quebec, a French-speaking province, bilateral agreements with Brazil have existed since 1988, thus enabling internationalization partnerships, the development of highly qualified human resources and the implementation of tuition exemption measures for Brazilian students. It is worth noting that the number of students is higher in postgraduate, master's and doctoral programs. This is justified by the fact that all students at universities in Canada must bear tuition costs. In the case of foreign students, they must also pay an additional tuition fee that is inversely proportional to the level of study. This paper aims to present a portrait of the Brazilian academic diaspora at Laval University, Quebec City. To this end, official data from the university's student registration office were collected and the data was subject to a simple descriptive quantitative analysis. This portrait will discuss the sociodemographic data of Brazilian students enrolled at the university such as age, city of origin and legal status in Canada. In addition, data related to academic trajectory, such as level and study program, will also be discussed. When comparing these data with available research on the Brazilian academic diaspora in Canada, some findings were observed. The first observation refers to the continued restricted access to these international opportunities for certain social classes, which is even more intensified in the context of a French-speaking province. Although these international experiences make it possible to train highly qualified resources, it is observed that many of these students decide to settle in the country for the long term, which reinforces a phenomenon of "brain drain" in Brazil.
Lodetti et al. (Thu,) studied this question.