What is it about?
This paper provides an overview of how the literature has defined expatriate academics, who is and is not an expatriate academic and why that matters. It then analyses the current state of the literature on this specific type of academic migrant.
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Why is it important?
There are many different reasons that academics may be internationally mobile, and each of these reasons is likely to have different outcomes. In the past, it has been more common to undertake more permanent academic migration; that is, to make the decision to move permanently to a new country (even if that decision doesn't stick), taking your academic career with you. Now, we are seeing much more temporary mobility - academics are still moving their lives and careers, but with the knowledge that they are likely to move on from this country and academic position within a few years. These conditions make the academic experience very different to moving with the intention of permanence, and thus we need to be sure, as researchers, that when we are researching internationally mobile academics, that we don't treat them as a homogenous group.
Perspectives
Having been an expatriate academic, I found myself trying to read up about my experiences, but was not seeing them adequately reflected in the literature, which at this point is still somewhat limited. This article is the starting point of my exploration of the gaps that I was seeing. It provides some explanation (although not a complete one) for why, when I used to read statements like 'expatriate academics are x', my response was often, 'But my colleagues and I are expatriate academics aren't we? So why can't we relate to this?'. If we think we're all talking about the same people, but we're actually not, our results will always be skewed. I hope this article can help other researchers experiencing similar issues with their data to find a way through that possible dilemma.
Jodie-Lee Trembath
Australian National University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The professional lives of expatriate academics, Journal of Global Mobility The Home of Expatriate Management Research, June 2016, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/jgm-04-2015-0012.
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