The author analyses Angolan students' higher education while studying in Portugal, by taking into account the symbolic, affective, cultural and economic aspects influencing the choice of studying that country. The analysis will also characterize educational and socio-economic routes defined by the students' families, as well as their relations to the current social changes taking place in Angola. One of these changes is the increased value given to higher education, specifically after independence. The national intervention in this area is related to the families' investment in a dialectic discussion between short-term individual actions and long-term structural changes. It is hypothesized that the value given to education depends on individual socio-economic and political positions. This idea is reinforced by the analysis of the way students interviewed conceive other groups of students who chose other countries for higher education, as well as the way they see themselves in relation to the current Angolan elite. Finally we discuss how they see their future and their expectations concerning their return to Angola, after obtaining their diploma.
advanced education; migration; elite; cooperation; Angola