Paper short abstract:

In the context of the knowledge economy and globalization, the number of students, travelling to other countries to have access to a quality higher education, is growing.In our research, we analyse the everyday life of students from sub-Saharan Africa, who are studying in Italy.

Paper long abstract:

In the context of the knowledge economy and globalization, the demand for higher education is growing and consequently the number of students, in this case, from sub-Saharan Africa, travelling to other countries to have access to a quality higher education.

In our research we focused on those who are studying in Italy, based on a sample of thirty in-depth interviews with students enrolled at the University of Turin and Trento.

These two universities were chosen because the academic year 2010/11 they have presented a proportion of foreign students enrolled that was exceeds the national average which stood around 3.6% and 5.2% and 7.4% respectively in Turin and Trento.

We have tried to understand how students build their self presentation and the difference between "us and them", and especially how these two dimensions have changed as a result of everyday interaction.

What emerges from the data is that their self-representation has changed, and in the everyday life more than 60% of respondents have experienced a situation of discrimination and the place where most students say they have experienced incidents of discrimination, it is the bus.

Our hypothesis to interpret the findings is that according to which that more the self representation is constructed through ascribed characteristic or easily recognizable, the greater the probability of perceiving situations of discrimination and consequently the existence of a potential conflict.