Science in exile

(From "Horizons" no. 112 March 2017)​​​

They worked in the labs of Aleppo and in the research centres of Kabul; they had careers as mathematicians, biologists and philosophers. They suffered persecution, lost their jobs and were compelled to flee. What happens to academics when war and persecution force them to leave their universities, their cities and their countries, leading them all the way to Europe?

Universities in different European countries are increasingly concerned with offering opportunities to refugee academics. In this regard, Germany has taken on a pioneering role. Different programmes there are trying to provide exiled academics with access to research facilities. For example, the German Research Foundation launched a package of measures in 2015 to support scientists who had fled their native countries. The Humboldt Foundation's Philipp Schwartz Initiative is also offering financial support to scientists who are in danger.

Knowledge is lost

Other initiatives aim at establishing possibilities for interaction and at integrating refugee scientists in Germany. One example of this is the platform 'Chance-for-Science' in Leipzig, which offers refugees the opportunity to come into contact with scientists at German universities. Carmen Bachmann is a professor in business taxation at Leipzig University and the platform's initiator. She is convinced that such interactions are of great significance: "For scientists in exile, enduring a long phase of inactivity isn't just a human catastrophe. Such a situation also represents a loss of knowledge over time – because if knowledge isn't applied, you lose it". A similar approach is adopted by Academic Experience Worldwide, an initiative that enables students at the University of Frankfurt am Main to help integrate refugees in an academic environment. There, for example, refugee scientists are able to present their research topics to the Frankfurt public within the framework of a lecture series entitled 'Opening Academia'.

Compared to Germany, assistance for refugee academics in Switzerland is less well developed. Martina Weiss, Secretary General of 'swissuniversities', the new Rectors' Conference of Swiss Higher Education Institutions, believes that this is primarily because of the lower numbers of refugees in Switzerland. Walter Leimgruber is a professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Basel and President of the Federal Commission on Migration (FCM). He too confirms that the topic of refugees has not reached the same degree of attention in Switzerland as has been the case in Germany.

Nevertheless, measures have also been taken here to help persecuted scientists to get established at a university. There are eleven Swiss universities in the network 'Scholars at Risk', which was founded in Chicago in 1999 with the aim of protecting imperilled scientists, preserving academic freedom and upholding human rights. This network has over 400 member universities across the world that are working to realise its goals in different ways. For example, a member of the network can offer jobs to scientists who are in danger, or it can organise events and conferences to help spread information about the problem. The universities of Lausanne and Lucerne have already appointed refugee scientists to their staff. Other universities, such as Bern and Zurich, have thus far restricted their activities to propagating information and raising people's awareness.

Modest career perspectives

Despite these initiatives, opportunities are limited for refugee scientists to get a post at a Swiss university. Why is this? "Academic posts are often scarce, and competition for them is fierce. This certainly doesn't make things easier", says Christin Achermann, a professor in migration, law and society at the University of Neuchâtel and the project leader at the National Center of Competence in Research 'On the Move'. Martin Reichlin, the Deputy Head of Information and Communication at the State Secretariat for Migration, says that there are also practical aspects to the problem. For example, when people flee they are sometimes unable to take their degree certificates with them to their new host countries. Walter Leimgruber of FCM also acknowledges that there are language problems. And he sees a further problem in the significant professional and qualitative differences in training and education that exist in the various homelands of these refugee academics. "In order to integrate successfully, academics need the means to pursue further training. They have to be able to take appropriate language courses and acquire additional qualifications". And it is not the universities, but the cantons that are responsible for this. Leimgruber is critical of the cantons' attitude: "For them, a handful of academics is simply an irrelevance". This is why he proposes adapting integration services specifically to suit academics.

There are more opportunities for academic integration when it comes to students who have arrived as refugees in Switzerland. The Association of Swiss Student Bodies (VSS) has set up a project entitled 'Perspectives – studies to integrate refugee students into the Swiss university system'. Martina von Arx is in charge of it, and she is delighted at how much students are getting involved: "The big demand and the positive feedback about our current projects show that we are on the right path". At various universities – such as in Basel and Geneva – projects have meanwhile been established that allow refugees to attend lectures as guests. One disadvantage, however, is that these programmes thus far do not enable anyone to progress to a recognised degree, and they are also only available to a restricted number of students.

So, there are still several obstacles to be surmounted before refugee researchers can be integrated successfully in Switzerland. Just how important it is to set up specific support for refugee academics is proven by the historical experience gained from scientists who fled from the Nazi regime. They did not just escape with their lives; they also brought fresh knowledge and innovations to their new host countries. And academic migrants sometimes also bring fame and honour with them. Of the 21 Swiss recipients of a Nobel Prize in the natural sciences, ten of them were born in other countries.

Julia Richter is a journalist in Bern.