Despite the popularity of international student mobility as a research topic and mobility pattern, gender differences among international students have been relatively neglected in the literature. Moreover, little attention has been given to the mobility to/within the Global South. Our study seeks to overcome these shortcomings. Evidence is drawn from a qualitative study carried out in April–May 2018 that included participant observation and in-depth interviews with 12 female students from Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP) enrolled at the University for International Integration of the Afro-Brazilian Lusophony, in Brazil. By taking a reflexive view, from a gender post/decolonial perspective, on the mobility experience of female students from PALOP countries, we unveil how female students embodied a combination of nuanced experiences ranging from emancipation and autonomy to racialization.

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