Quote from Stef on September 16, 2020, 9:19 am

He answers that they should learn the language where they're interested about the culture.

As a learner of German, this really does make the process way more enjoyable, and by making it enjoyable it may make it more efficient also.

this question reminds me of Lucio concept of lateral mobility in sexual power dynamics, like sometimes the easier way to get what you want is to move to the right place, as if you stay in a "hard place" or "market" you will be playing in hard mode.

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on September 16, 2020, 9:58 am

Yes, "life strategies" is the perfect place for this one.

I think it's self-harming nonsense to deny -or not to analyze- how some environments can harm you or empower you for qualities that you can't control like race or skin-color.
It's especially stupid because you can do a lot to change that by simply... Changing that environment, and moving.

Because those traits might be holding you back only within certain cultures/environments.
And simply by moving one could either substantially decrease that negative impact, neutralize it, or even turn it around it and make it an advantage.

I am not well-versed with the specifics of Switzerland, but it might well be the cause that foreign-looking folks face a silent glass ceiling.

---

P.S.: I added "foreign" to the title to make it clearer

 

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on September 16, 2020, 10:10 am

By the way, some other barriers can be:

• Nationalities
• Languages you speak (or don't speak)
• Political affiliations

In the last company I was working at, a start-up incubator, the founder was German.
Albeit the official language was English, he had poor English and didn't like speaking English.

You know where I'm going.

Everyone at the incubator level was German, or at least born in Germany.
Only one was a woman, and paraded around like an example of diversity -more like the exceptions that prove the rule, instead (but of course we know here that the motives are at least as much biological, so not saying it was a misogynist environment)-.
And every single person who was a managing director in the ventures within the incubator was a fluent German speaker.

Denying that being German, man, and German speaker was a huge boost, while not being one of those 3 was a disadvantage was simply stupid for anyone who cared about climbing the hierarchy.

I'm pretty sure that if you looked at the salary statistics, you could see that foreigners have smaller salaries compared to Germans in Germany.

Much of Germany's boom has been fueled by the cheaper European workers who were suddenly able to move there thanks to EU (makes you wonder why some German founders are so vocal supporters of EU).

Anyway, a little off-topic to confirm that yes, it definitely makes sense to look into how the culture receives you as a foreigner, and whether or not it advantages you, or disadvantages you.

 

 

Quote from John Freeman on September 17, 2020, 12:30 am

Thank you, the title is more accurate now.

I found this report from Norway ("Being a foreigner is no advantage": Career paths and barriers for immigrants in Norwegian academia from the Work research institute from the Oslo and Akershus University of Applied Sciences  ), which I think this quote sumarizes:

Our exploratory interviews reveal both the perception of subjectivity and the existence of structural discrimination, making it more challenging for immigrant academics to gain a foothold in the Norwegian higher education sector. ‘You have to be lucky to succeed,’ they say.

An extract below, for those interested, it is from page 50 and following:

Experience of barriers to establishing a foothold in higher education and research in Norway among foreign-born academics

In this section, we examine the barriers foreign-born academics have encountered in Norway on their path to securing their current positions in higher education and research. One of our informants summed up the essence of our analysis in these words:

‘[...] I believe if you work hard, you can make a name for yourself. As soon as you’re on the inside, you can prove that you’re competent. But if you’re on the outside and want to be on the inside, it’s not so easy; you have to be a bit special, have special expertise or...’ (Teaching and research employee 5)

Several informants were of the opinion that immigrant academics have to work harder than Norwe- gian-born candidates to gain entry to academia, and could prove that their competence is more rele- vant compared with that of Norwegian-born candidates. In the following, we present the informants’ reflections on establishing oneself as an academic employee in higher education and research in Nor- way, their experiences of recruitment processes and views on their future career development in the higher education and research sectors in Norway.

More challenging for immigrants to establish themselves in Norwegian higher education and research

Many informants believe that it is generally challenging to gain a permanent foothold in Norwegian higher education and research, irrespective of ethnic background. The accessibility of academia in Nor- way varies in different academic communities. Some communities, particularly the humanities, are characterized by little mobility with many employees who remain in their positions for 20–25 years. At management meetings at one of the case institutions, there is positive discussion of employing more immigrants, but there are few opportunities because of the low staff turnover rate, few positions ad- vertised and limited international profiling. Often temporary posts are advertised. Temporary con- tracts are then utilized due to uncertainty about student numbers and the results of competitive ten- dering for further education. For this reason, the competition for positions is harder in these commu- nities.

It can be even more challenging for immigrants than for Norwegians to establish a foothold in higher education and research in Norway. Based on the informants’ own experiences, observations of recruit- ment processes where they themselves acted as staff representatives, and their knowledge of recruit- ment stories among acquaintances, they believe that the reason for this is a lack of or unsatisfactory proficiency in Norwegian and insufficient cultural and contextual understanding, which is particularly required in teaching positions. But above all, it is due to the ‘Norwegianness’ that generally character- izes the higher education sector in Norway.

‘[The higher education sector] is a closed community ... if you want to get inside, it’s certainly difficult, even for Norwegians on the outside, to penetrate the circle, so it’s even more difficult or sometimes impossible for others to gain entry. We believe that having a diversity of people here in our department ... that will lead to a rich education with so much different varied experience to draw on. But in practice as well, there’s kind of no room for it. And I think ... it’s not just about us, it’s maybe also about the entire university college sector that’s too Norwegian. I’m in touch with other university col- leges and faculties ... I don’t think there’s a lot of room for many [immigrants]. Not just because of artificial lines, but because the structure of the university college is very Nor- wegian. It’s very much organized in terms of language [...] You almost have to be Nor- wegian to come here. So there are minimum requirements, and those are high for many people [...] So this means that in a way ... you set requirements that make it impossible for others to gain admission.’ (Teaching and research employee 2)

‘Norwegianness’ can be perceived as less of a barrier in the research sector if a research institute is internationally oriented, as in one of our case institutions.

Another reason why immigrants find it harder to establish a foothold in Norwegian academia is that they may possess competence that is not in demand in Norway, or they have a competency profile that lacks the expertise that would gain them entry. The competency profile of Norwegian-born can- didates may be assessed less harshly. Their ‘Norwegianness’ may then compensate for any deficiency in qualifications. An informant elaborates on this as follows:

‘[...] Foreigners must have a competency profile that fits the position very well, while Norwegians can have a somewhat broader profile [...] I have also taken part in recruit- ment processes and have seen that ... Because if they do find a Norwegian, they are delighted and don’t consider so many things, they just want the Norwegian because he is Norwegian, Norwegian is his mother tongue, and maybe he’s more stable. If they’re going to recruit a Norwegian, they only register PhD in [subject] – that’s enough. But if they’re going to recruit a foreigner, they register PhD in [subject], ok – what kind of specialization? Does it suit our research programme, our programmes of study? So there are some differences. Usually we think about whether the person in question would fit into the research group, and if he’s a foreigner, it’s often “No, he doesn’t fit in”, but for Norwegians it’s ok even if he doesn’t fit in, he’s doing research that is relative to [a completely different subject].’ (Teaching and research employee 5)

If the applicant is an immigrant, there is a greater risk that competencies will be overlooked or deemed irrelevant. Informants who themselves now participate in recruitment processes at the case institu- tions say that this may be due to poor CVs or applications. According to the informant, the reason may also be that competencies are overlooked because of an immigrant background. Therefore, it is vital in recruitment processes to be able to deal with a diversity of approaches to written CVs and applica- tions, and to have the ability to assess applications from foreign-born academics. A story that illustrates this is as follows:

‘But they didn’t find anyone. They needed someone with some statistical background. And they advertised the post twice, but couldn’t find anyone, at least the secretary said there were no relevant applications. Until I said I could have a look through the pile of applications – there had to be someone who had applied. So I took the pile and discovered that there was a fully qualified woman [from Asia] who hadn’t even been proposed as a candidate for interview. [The chair] was so surprised about this: “But they said there were no suitable candidates!? I didn’t check”. And that’s it in a nutshell, isn’t it – applications have come in from qualified people and management didn’t even know about it. So there are new versions of not being able to gain entry. If you have the wrong name, a foreign-sounding name, it’s very difficult to cross the threshold. (Teaching and research employee 1)..

Or this:

One aspect that can also be challenging for researchers with an immigrant background to get accus- tomed to is the feeling of a lack of openness towards innovation, a lack of support for new initiatives and the absence of a research culture in established, higher education institutions:

‘Yes, there’s still this ... research that it’s not acceptable to talk about in some contexts, and research results or the fact that you’ve had articles or important papers accepted, that’s still a bit ... in some quarters, I would say ... there are still isolated areas or groups where research isn’t especially interesting.’

That's the things I realized where I live:

1. I'm considered as an immigrant or assimilated to one: that I was born and raised in the country, that I don't speak the foreign language or have the foreign religion doesn't matter. That is what is most frustrating for me.
2. The resistance to innovation

This quote talks about 1.

The interviews with foreign-born teaching and research staff revealed that many of them did not re- gard themselves as ‘immigrants’, and chose to disregard or conceal their immigrant background. They reacted against being referred to as ‘immigrants’. This is not just because a number of them have been in Norway for so long that it feels meaningless to still be termed ‘immigrant’ – they speak Norwegian and feel well integrated; they do not want to be stigmatized and labelled in the work situation. The public discourse on immigration in Norway is characterized by associations between ‘immigrant’ and ‘intellectually and socially deprived’, ‘victim’ and being an outsider. It is clear that the word ‘immigrant’ is perceived to be negatively charged, something meaning you are ‘strange’ or ‘different’.

‘[...] for me an immigrant is a person who is viewed by the others as an immigrant. Skin colour plays an important role. And someone who regards themselves as an immigrant. Not like Statistics Norway says ... when you go into a classroom and ask “Who’s an immigrant”, they don’t say King Olav, they say “the hijab lady”. Yes. Both are immi- grants in the same way.’ (Teaching and research employee 1)