Right at the beginning of the project´s implementation, a big obstacle was the difficulty in starting the process of revalidation of diplomas. This was because the universities would request too many documents and those had to be consulate certified. However, refugees have no time to sort all documents before moving to another country, they were actually forced to hastily flee their home country seeking protection. Thus, almost none of the people whom we assisted had all documents, let alone their consulate certification.
A very shocking case was that of a Syrian young man, who had come to Brazil seeking refuge for being considered a deserter – which means, he refused to take part in the war. For that reason, in this case, gathering more documents or taking him to his consulate in Brazil was not an option! And because he didn´t have all necessary documentation, with all consulate certifications, many universities didn´t even accept to register his process of revalidation of his diploma.
The process of revalidation of degree diplomas in Brazil can only be carried out in public universities – which limits the quantity of revalidations. Furthermore, each process depends on the rules of each course and each university: for example, there wasn’t a pattern of documents that were requested, fees that were charged and a reasonable deadline for the conclusion, as well as the need to invest financial resources towards certified translations. This way, the whole procedure made it virtually impossible for the refuge applicants and refugees to access the admission of their diplomas in Brazil.
In June 2016 the Normative Resolution number 3 of the National Board of Education emerged, bringing uniformity to the process of revalidation of diplomas and made it easier for refugees who were recognized b CONARE (National Committee for Refugees) and didn’t have those consulate certified documents. This resolution gave these refugees the opportunity to do an exam so their knowledge could be analyzed and, if approved, their diplomas revalidated.
In December 2016 the MEC (Ministry of Education)’s Regulatory Decree number 22 was created and is still used as regulation standard for the revalidation of diplomas in Brazil, and based on these standards the universities were able to remake their internal resolutions to revalidate diplomas.
Because this change in the standards (which regulated the whole process of revalidation of diplomas in Brazil) is fairly recent, the universities tried to adapt, and for that reason many suspended the process of revalidation until March 2017. For many months, between the end of 2016 and beginning of 2017, most universities were not yet aware of the new Regulatory Decree. Thereby, Compassiva started to help the universities to elaborate their internal resolution of revalidation of diplomas, based on the MEC (Ministry of Education)’s Regulatory Decree number 22.
Another big problem faced in 2016 and 2017 was the mass adhesion of the Brazilian public universities to a national strike. At the universities where we had a good rapport and a focal point, in spite of the strike we managed to continue the processes and start new ones, but at those where there wasn’t such bond, no new revalidation process was initiated due to the shortage of staff.
Nonetheless, amidst such obstacles, still in 2017 Compassiva and UNHCR, in partnership with congressman Carlos Bezerra Junior, were able to create the first Estate law that granted exemption of fees for revalidation of degree diplomas for refugees in the State of São Paulo. The success of Act 16.685/2017 – São Paulo State – allowed it to be replicated in the State of Rio de Janeiro (Act 8.020/2019) and, thereafter, in the State of Paraná (Act 19.830/2019). The law in the State of Paraná is the only one that guarantees exemption to refugees and also to immigrants in situation of vulnerability, refuge applicants and stateless people.
In 2018 we noticed a great migratory flow of Venezuelans to Brazil and many of them had college degree, but didn’t have refuge migration status. We charted the universities in Brazil that would revalidate the diplomas of Venezuelans and we encountered the reality that no university would accept to do the revalidation of diplomas of immigrants that didn’t have all compulsory documentation or that was not a refugee recognized by CONARE – by and large, the universities didn’t even accept to register such request of revalidation of diploma.
And so, Compassiva started an arduous work of advocacy with the universities and, in 2019, managed to get 2 of them to go through the process of revalidation of diplomas of Venezuelans in Brazil, even though they didn’t have the compulsory documentation – which is the reality for most Venezuelans – nor their processes simplified, like that of recognized refugees in the country, or even their refuge migration status. Some time later, two other partner universities also started to revalidate the diplomas of Venezuelans. And it was at the end of 2019 that we had the first two diplomas of Venezuelans revalidated in Brazil, through our project of revalidation of diplomas. Currently, about 12 universities all around Brazil assist Venezuelans, extending the facilitations for diploma revalidation guaranteed to refugees who are recognized by CONARE.
Nevertheless, in 2020, the project of revalidation of diplomas had to go through some changes due to the pandemic of the new coronavirus. One of the first changes was regarding the assistance, which was face-to-face and over the year it started to be online.
To find out more about how 2020 went, follow our next article to learn how we managed to tackle a year full of hardships and crises, but through hope we found strength to keep being a refuge in the lives of thousands of people.
Read part 1 of this story here
Read part 3 of this story here
