Student movility to Europe: an unfinished colonial process

Abstract

This article analyzes and compares the mobility of international students who complete their university education in Europe, taking as models four countries identified by a shared colonial baggage: Spain, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Through the statistical and quantitative treatment of the UNESCO database, an analysis of the information based on the calculation of the Eligibility Index and the relationship of the mother tongue with the language of the place of destination is performed to indicate the presence of the factor Historical and cultural aspects of the movement of foreign students to Europe. These results offer a classification what is ordered in four stage or mobility models: according to the ranking of each country, there are two categories: center and periphery; according to the colonial origin of mobility: domestic and globalized.