The Potential for Cross-National Research (Re)connection and Collaboration among Home and Host Country STEM Scientists through Labor Circulation: The Case of Serbia and the U.S.

Abstract

This interview- and document review-based case study, conducted in 2017, captured visions of and possibilities for cross-national research connections and collaboration between Serbia and the U.S. through the eyes of seven Serbian science and engineering professors/scientists at three Mid-Western research universities in the U.S. Global labor circulation was equally explored as a channel for such connection and collaboration endeavors. The scientists' journey was first contextualized through their migration experiences from Serbia to the U.S. in the 1990s. Major thematic interview findings synthesized into promising, yet complex, circulatory flows of high skill labor between the two countries. This theme was channeled through aspirations to connect back with Serbia and engage in joint projects, the circulation potential to offset the loss of talent at home, temporary returns including the expatriated scientist's return criteria, and the meaning of successful research collaboration. Most of the respondents were enthusiastic to reconnect with their home country, although some explicitly wished to see a sign of interest from the home country first. Joint student training and advising and visiting professorships were the most suggested types of collaborations. Document reviews supplemented interviews and pointed to internationalization of the Serbian academia. This emergent theme was channeled through national and university internationalization strategies, student and staff mobility through exchange programs (although mainly in Europe), and success-stories of Serbian alumni abroad. Placing science on the national education and development agenda of Serbia and making academia-industry connections was imperative. Altogether, the findings pointed to complexities in reconnecting across the ocean, in spite of the circulation potential and especially in view of power and structural dynamics in home and host countries. Capitalizing on the circulation channel is not a simple undertaking. Besides researchers and practitioners, educational policy makers in Serbia are earnestly invited to consider this study and the experiences of the established Serbian scientists, and create ways of connecting to this rarely tapped-into potential.