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  • CAREER FEATURE

Bullied abroad: how foreign researchers can fight back

Most international scholars do not report experiences of bullying because they fear retaliation, including threats to cancel visas. But they can take action.
  1. Nic Fleming

    1. Nic Fleming is a freelance science writer based in Bristol, UK.

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Illustration showing people running on a treadmill chasing after paper on a fishing rod.

Illustration by Nadia Hafid

In many leading scientific nations, early-career researchers who arrive from other countries are playing a growing part in research. The proportion of postdoctoral researchers on temporary visas in the United States, for example, rose from 39% in 2009 to 56% in 2019, while that of research assistants working in the United Kingdom but born elsewhere increased from 43% in 2013 to 50% in 2021. That’s good for science, because, according to some studies, researchers who work outside their home nation are disproportionately productive, at least when measured in terms of publications and patents1.

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Nature 609, 425-427 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02155-3

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