Academic diaspora, the spatialization of state power and the rise of transnational repression in international higher education

• In Event: Navigating Power, Protest, and Mobility: Critical Perspectives on Faculty and Academics Roles Globally

Proposal

The higher education literature on state-diaspora relations has primarily focused on enhancing state policies and programs for engaging the academic diaspora. It emphasizes the contributions of diaspora academics and students to national development, often exploring development policies, return schemes, and brain circulation initiatives. These studies typically suggest ways for states to maximize primarily economic benefits from their diaspora. Such scholarship portrays the state-diaspora relationship as one where states offer incentives to encourage diaspora cooperation in national development, with the academic diaspora either willingly participating or rebuked for non-participation (e.g. Amazan, 2008; Cai, 2012; Obamba, 2013; Shen et al., 2016; for a systematic review, see Bamberger, 2022).

However, recent reports (e.g. Human Rights Watch, 2021; Tobin & Elimä, n.d.) have shed light on a more troubling dimension of state engagement with the academic diaspora. This darker aspect is defined by motives to exert control over the academic diaspora, involving transnational repression tactics such as surveillance, coercion, intimidation, harassment, and violence. These practices, increasingly evident amidst escalating geopolitical tensions, are facilitated by technological advancements and occur against a backdrop of declining global democracy and the rise of authoritarian regimes (Tsourapas, 2021). While the ‘New Geopolitics of Higher Education’ (see Moscovitz and Sabzalieva, 2023) and rising nationalisms (Brøgger, 2023; Lee, 2017) are altering the landscape of international higher education, transnational repression has received limited attention from higher education scholars.

This paper maps the increasing repression of academic diasporas by homeland states, utilizing a diverse array of sources such as NGO reports, government documents, media coverage, and scholarly articles. By synthesizing insights from political science and international relations scholarship, I delineate the motivations and engagement strategies of homeland states in their interactions with academic diasporas. I draw on Koinova’s (2018) relational typology of diaspora engagement motivations alongside Furstenberg, Lemon, and Heathershaw’s (2021) theory on the spatialization of state power and conceptualization of transnational repression as a ‘complex assemblage of structures extending across national borders yet operating in national settings,’ where state power is reconfigured but remains potent (p. 363). These frameworks illuminate why and how states engage in transnational repression.

In this way, I aim to shed light on the complex interactions and relationships between states, academic diasporas, and higher educational institutions, which are being reshaped amid escalating geopolitical tensions. This investigation is crucial for understanding the governance motives and modes of operation of states and highlights the challenges they pose to the normative aims and foundations of international higher education, particularly academic freedom and intellectual exchange. Consequently, this paper contributes to the emerging scholarly conversation on the challenges confronting international higher education in an evolving geopolitical environment (Bamberger & Huang, 2024; Si & Lim, 2022; Trilokekar et al., 2020). It highlights these challenges and advocates for a renewed interdisciplinary and theoretically-grounded research agenda around transnational repression, and a reimagined understanding of international higher education in a multipolar world marked by increasing geopolitical and inter-state tensions.

Author

• Annette Bamberger, Bar Ilan University