International academics in the peripheries. A qualitative meta-analysis across fifteen countries

ABSTRACT

This paper is a meta-analysis of qualitative studies on international scholars migrating to academic peripheries. In contrast to studies focused on relocating to the US and other global centers, or those focused on ‘star faculty,’ these studies reveal a different face of international migration. By examining 19 studies from all over the world, we identified eleven common themes centered around: institutional motivations to hire international faculty, individual motivations to seek employment in the peripheries, the specificity of migration and recruitment processes as well as various integration problems associated with choosing a career in less popular destinations. This analysis offers an overview of in-depth national cases, which is interesting for cross-cultural researchers and students of particular peripheral systems. We demonstrate that foreign-born scholars in the peripheries are very often motivated by factors that would be negligible in the analysis of academic migration to centers and face different challenges.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic peripheries
• qualitative meta-analysis
• international faculty
• foreign-born scholars
• academic mobility

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Interestingly, the term initially, in the 1960s, referred to ‘the migration of British intellectuals and scientists to the United States’ (Gaillard & Gaillard, 1997, p. 201).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Centre, Poland [UMO-2019/35/D/HS6/00169].

Notes on contributors

Kamil Luczaj

Kamil Luczaj is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszow, Poland. He graduated with a degree in sociology and philosophy. His research focuses on migration studies, higher education studies, and the sociology of culture.

Magdalena Holy-Luczaj

Magdalena Holy-Luczaj is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszow, Poland. Her research interests include posthumanism in contemporary philosophy, environmental philosophy, and cultural aspects of knowledge production.