The European International Studies Association endorses the concerns raised by the International Studies Association’s Academic Freedom Committee regarding systemic barriers that prevent refugee scholars from accessing European research funding. As a European association whose members both contribute to and depend upon EU research structures, we address fundamental contradictions in European policy that undermine stated commitments to academic freedom, inclusion, and intellectual diversity.
The case of Dr. Reda Mahajar exemplifies how EU policy architecture creates insurmountable obstacles for refugee scholars. What bars Dr. Mahajar from Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) fellowships is a contradiction embedded in EU policy itself. EU asylum policy creates residence dependent protection: extended absence or permanent relocation risks loss of refugee status. However, EU research policy, particularly MSCA, demands mobility as a non-negotiable eligibility requirement. This contradiction affects refugee scholars across Europe. Scholars are formally eligible to apply but practically excluded.
Refugees, by definition, have already experienced international displacement and exposure to diverse environments; the very experiences MSCA mobility requirements claim to provide. The EU has demonstrated it can accommodate refugee scholars when political will exists. MSCA4Ukraine provides targeted support for Ukrainian researchers. The SAFE project, managed by the same agency overseeing MSCA, offers fellowships to researchers at risk without mobility requirements. These precedents prove that barriers facing refugee scholars in the MSCA scheme are policy choices, not technical obstacles.
EISA calls upon EU institutions and research agencies to recognise forced displacement as qualifying international experience, create explicit mobility exemptions for scholars whose legal status prevents relocation, and extend the flexibility shown to Ukrainian researchers to refugee scholars from all regions. We further call for accountability mechanisms to monitor EU research funding accessibility for refugee scholars and to address institutional practices that impose mobility requirements beyond formal programme rules.
EISA’s mission commits us to supporting academic freedom, ethical academic engagement, and upholding universal human rights. Academic freedom is meaningless if it applies only to scholars with the privilege of unrestricted mobility.
Beyond this statement, EISA will:
- Use our platforms to amplify refugee scholars’ voices
- Coordinate with other European learned societies to build collective pressure for policy reform
- Monitor these issues through our Academic Values portfolio
Refugee scholars facing similar barriers, or colleagues who know of such cases, are invited to contact EISA info@eisa-net.org for your message to be passed on to the current Academic Values portfolio holder Laura Horn.
We call upon our members, European research institutions, and fellow scholarly associations to join us in demanding that European research funding structures live up to Europe’s commitments to human dignity, equality, and freedom from discrimination.
The EISA Governing Board
