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I have a lot of feelings about the possible imminent immigration moves, but most of them center around how clear it is that American science will loudly fight for its access to immigrant labor, but how silent it is about supporting or protecting immigrant scientists. 1/n
I base this on every committee I’ve sat on where I’ve been shut down on providing training support or benefits to immigrants; every workshop I’ve done where someone has passed me a post-it with “how do we hold PIs accountable for exploiting our visa situations?”; 2/n
Every piece of data I’ve seen where foreigners get paid less; depts I’ve heard of who give only *Western European postdocs* a bonus stipend; every foreign scientist I know who has horror stories of exploitative and also often racist academic work situations; 3/n
The silence of the academy as our Chinese colleagues have been hounded for being on foreign talent programs even their own institutions were harassing them to apply for them 5 years ago; being told many times that foreigners “like me” are the ones you really want; 4/n
Even thinking back to before I even got here, and the biggest priority for Boston Children’s apparently being sure that I had my corpse repatriation insurance before I arrived in the country, because they weren’t paying for me to be sent home if I died. 5/n
To that last point - I wish I’d paid more attention because “we don’t have to pay $30 a year to have your body sent home if you die, so we won’t” really sums up the American attitude to foreign scientists, when it actually comes to doing something for them, IME. 6/n
This is why I give talks when I go back to the old country, pointing out that even as a privileged white Western European immigrant is I didn’t say boo to a goose all the time I was on a J-1 and what a shock to the system it is to experience US healthcare provision. 7/n
Increasingly, I’ve pointed out the anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions, and the lack of action beyond “science is international! Hooray for foreigners!” editorial pieces that our leadership writes, as a sign of what to expect if you move here. 8/n
Who the American academy is built for, and why “the pipeline” is such BS, are so clear. Because even though most of the biomedical workforce are foreign-born, I find myself in rooms full of leaders who are nearly all Americans having to remind them that foreigners exist. 9/n
See the work of those, usually from that community and having to take time from what they will actually get recognition for, reminding academic leaders of existence of Black people, or women of color, or LGBTQ+ or anyone that isn’t an able-bodied white cis hereto American. 10/n
So, overall I’m very frustrated because everyone is rightly panicking about losing access to foreign labor in the academy, and a lot of us foreign-born folks who have been desperately looking for American advocates are getting together, sipping our tea and shaking our heads. 11/n
You all were so afraid to talk about foreigners. “We shouldn’t be talking about foreigners right now.”
Well, I just hope now is not too late.
There are people working on these things, @ssafayi is the person I go to on this. If you know others please post below! 12/12
Well, I just hope now is not too late.
There are people working on these things, @ssafayi is the person I go to on this. If you know others please post below! 12/12
