International connections in the Iguaçu cross-border urban agglomeration

Abstract

The intense relationships between the cities of Iguaçu cross-border urban agglomeration (ICUA) are established mainly from the trade of imported products, tourism, and, more recently, the increased Higher Education Institutes (HEI) activities. This paper aims to investigate the cross-border mobility and the international connections established between the cities of this region, primarily between Foz do Iguaçu (PR) and Ciudad del Este (PY), seeking to understand how increased offers to higher education services have reconfigured such connections. To this end, we analyzed information about medicine courses of private HEI and their students located in both cities, as well as cross-border mobility. From the results found in this paper, it is possible to infer that higher education courses offering, especially medicine courses, are an increasingly important element in this context.