Opening Pathways, Building Bridges

List of Figures

Introduction

Figure 0.1. Mexicans in the UK. Estimations 2011–2013

Figure 0.2. Number of students with Mexican nationality in the UK. 2010–2011 and 2015–2016

Figure 0.3. Number of staff members with Mexican nationality in the UK. 2010–2011 and 2015–2016

Figure 0.4. The Brains. Qualitative interviews sample

Chapter One. Neither From Here Nor From There: Transnationalism, Identity, and Belonging

Figure 1.1. Sample’s details

Figure 1.2. The Brains in academia

Figure 1.3. The Brains in the private sector

Figure 1.4. Public/private university in Mexico (undergraduate degree) and current work sector of the Brains

Figure 1.5. Pull and anchoring factors to the UK

Figure 1.6. The Brains’ past and current lives in the UK and Mexico

Figure 1.7. Travel frequency to Mexico/Number of years abroad

Figure 2.1. Perceptions and realities: imbalances between the Brains’ scientific/professional activities in Mexico and the UK

Appendix

Appendix I. The Brains

Foreword

Globalised science in the early twenty-first century has been described as The New Invisible College (Wagner 2008)—where emerging information and communication technologies have facilitated networks and collaborations that would have been costly and time-consuming to enact just decades ago. As part of this new world of science, the role of the transient Knowledge Nomads (Day and Stilgoe 2009) presents itself as a familiar but changing part of the landscape of knowledge production. As Tonatiuh Anzures points out in the opening chapter of this book, intellectual mobility was a natural accompaniment to the rise of universities across Europe. In the twentieth century, the term ‘brain drain’ was coined and presented itself throughout the 1960s as a peculiarly British problem. This manifestation of concern about the ‘brain drain’ was triggered when the prestigious Royal Society issued a report claiming that around 12% of its postdoctoral scientists were emigrating, chiefly to the United States (Balmer, Godwin, and Gregory 2009). The ensuing public debate led to attempts by the British government to measure the scientific quality and numerical scale of the loss. On the other hand, from the perspective of many ‘drained brains’, the picture of Britain being deprived of its best talent looked rather less bleak. Oral history interviews with ‘drained brains’ suggest that many of the scientists involved were expected by more experienced scientists to spend time abroad and many were expected to return with new knowledge and skills (Balmer, Gregory, and Godwin 2013). Moreover, often these scientists ←xi | xii→embarked on their journeys not just as a calculated professional step, but also with a sense of adventure and excitement, often accompanied by a spouse and children, during a time when opportunities to travel and live abroad were far less common.

Beyond the statistics on migration, the work presented here echoes Cohen and Sirkeci’s observation in their study of the cultures of migration: ‘while the pull of relatively high wages in destinations is a strong motivator to move, people migrate for many and multiple reasons’ (Cohen and Sirkeci 2014, 14) and, moreover, these reasons almost always involve the emigrant’s household members. As such, the book contains a study that reaches beyond head counting of migrants and tries to tell their stories, as often as possible, in their own words. Tonatiuh builds this narrative chronologically, which enables him to cover his interviewees’ departure from Mexico, their decisions to remain in the UK, and how they see their future relationship with their home country. A key strength of building this narrative arc is that it allows a complex story to be recounted. There is, indeed, sadness and loss—in personal terms, in individual professional terms, and in terms of the Mexican scientific community. Yet there is also a more optimistic note to be sounded, as the interviewees were also given the space to recount how they remain Mexican. Again, this sense of belonging is articulated in personal terms, but also through the ways in which they are trying to construct and maintain bridges back. Back to the country that provided them with the education and skills that enabled them, in the first place, to step beyond its borders.

On a more personal note, when Tonatiuh first engaged in this research project with me as his mentor, he was extremely keen that this would not be an ivory tower academic study, and instead that it would be a policy-relevant piece of research. By ←xii | xiii→drawing out the multiple stories of Mexican émigré scientists in a deep, systematically painted portrait, and by focussing on the inter twining of both negative and positive elements of their journeys, I believe he has more than achieved his aims. My hope is that readers will find this book a valuable study on which to build further qualitative analysis that will inform policy intervention, not just with respect to Mexico, but across the dynamic terrain of skilled migration in the new invisible college.

Acknowledgements

This study was made possible by the generous support of the Mexican Science and Technology Council, Conacyt, the Ministry of Public Education, SEP, and the Bank of Mexico. Thank you all for the doctoral scholarships and loans.

It took me more than five years to complete this research. First and foremost, I am grateful for the guidance, support, and patience of my doctoral supervisor, Prof. Brian Balmer, who also contributed with the Foreword of this book. I would also like to thank all my secondary supervisors during my time at UCL, whose feedback and views helped me to refine my work progressively: Prof. Jon Agar, Prof. Joe Cain, Dr. Jack Stilgoe, and Dr. Inga Kroener. Special gratitude to Dr. Amparo Gómez, Dr. Mónica López, Dr. Héctor Hernández, and Dr. Carlos Cuevas for their reviews and insightful comments, as well as to all the researchers who agreed to talk to me to exchange views and ideas on skilled migration and the brain drain. This book was also influenced in many ways by the suggestions, views and moral support from my PhD fellows at the UCL STS Department. Thank you all STSers!

The adaptation of a thesis into a book could not have been possible without the push of Dr. Leandro Rodríguez, the support of Romina Czarniecki, and the ideas and hard work of my editor, Martha Baranda. Special thanks to Simon Landrein for his nice artwork, and Emma Clarke and all the team from Peter Lang Publishing for their interest in my research.