According to the UNESCO, France is among the top five international study destinations for Mexican university students abroad (UNESCO 2019). The people involved in this type of mobility are given student visas and their enrollment in a foreign university is given as the reason for leaving their country.
However, the longitudinal, qualitative study of individual and social trajectories of 23 gay, upper-middle class Mexican men who came to France to study reveals the imbrication of official and unspoken, taboo motivations for mobility. This communication aims to show the correlation between study mobility and affective turning points in the life course trajectories of the participants. Furthermore, the longitudinal aspect of the study recorded the transition from student to worker in France.
Results show that a majority of participants remain in France, some go to third countries, and only a small minority returns to Mexico. Interview excerpts illustrate self-interpretations of the interlocking role of sexuality, education and economics in determining the mobility outcome of the participants. Lastly, analysis of different variables point to the importance of field of study and its imbrication with sexuality as a factor contributing to a post-study labour transition in France
Mots clés : Mexico|Sexuality|educational mobility|Life trajectories|Intersectionality
A105054GP