Changing patterns of international academic mobility: the experiences of Western-origin faculty members in Turkey

ABSTRACT

International academic mobility has gained widespread attention in higher education as new hosting countries have emerged in addition to traditional destinations. In this changing environment, little emphasis has been placed on international academics in emerging non-Western destinations. This qualitative study examines the experiences of 18 Western-origin faculty members in Turkey, an emerging destination for international academics with its unique culture blending East and West, and explores their rationales for moving to Turkey, the positive experiences and challenges they have faced during their time in the country, and their career expectations. The findings indicate that the rationales, experiences, and expectations of Western-origin academics in Turkey are multifaceted and mostly differ from those in traditional destinations of international academic mobility. Benefitting from a comparative lens on traditional and emerging destinations, understanding the experiences of international academics in diverse country cases requires a multidimensional focus on individual and contextual elements.

KEYWORDS:

• International academic mobility
• Western-origin academics
• international academics in Turkey
• push-pull factors
• scientific hegemony of Western knowledge
• symbolic capital

Acknowledgments

The data of this research was collected by the first author whilst on sabbatical at the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, Istanbul, Turkey in 2015.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Parts of the larger study were shortly presented in two paragraphs in Seggie and Ergin (2018, 65–66).