This work investigates an unexplored topic, that of the Latin American imaginary of students (Colombians and Mexicans) who follow postgraduate studies in Holland. Analyzing the stories requested of...Show moreThis work investigates an unexplored topic, that of the Latin American imaginary of students (Colombians and Mexicans) who follow postgraduate studies in Holland. Analyzing the stories requested of the students, the author evidences the components of the dynamics of self-representation, while describing essential elements of the context in which this phenomenon occurs: center-periphery, inclusion-exclusion, Latin America as Edenic vision and Holland as a Desired destination. In this sense, an important contribution is the description of the Netherlands and its functioning as a recipient country based on a critical interpretation of the stories of the interviewees. The image that emerges reveals the Dutch Academy as a space different from the one originally destined from the migrant imaginary. In the work on the dynamics of adaptation, it has also investigated the role played by the social spaces (e.g. student associations) of whose role and contribution in the construction of the feeling of community this work leaves record. Important is the fact that the student's reflection combines a topic of current debate -as the presence of international students- and a little-studied area: that of their cultural practices and their peculiar dynamics in the course of their adaptation process. At the same time, it records the way in which these processes, which take place in the West, generate modifications in the way of conceiving, seeing or projecting for the future of the students upon their return to Latin America. An innovative thesis not only in the subject but in the original application of the theoretical body and above all in the declared intention to participate, from the Academy, in the social debate.Show less
