Contrary to its title, this is a very accessible book. Have you considered titles that are more accessible to reach a larger audience?

Rahbari: ‘Something like “tell a scientist with a background in migration?” It would give the impression that we had written a novel. Meanwhile it is an academic book with autobiographical and autoethnographic stories. This book wants to make the underlying patterns visible in each story.’

Burlyuk: ‘We wanted to show that biographical stories can be academic as well as fun to read. And that doesn’t make them any less academic, but actually more impactful.’

Who did you write the book for?

Rahbari: ‘For all scientists, including migrant academics, but especially for those who have no experience migrating from the Global South to the Global North. We want to break out of the bubble of migrant scientists sharing stories. After all, we still see too little recognition of the bureaucracy that migrants must go through before they can find work.’

Burlyuk: ‘And we also want to reach out to policy makers, politicians, managers and university administrators to make them aware of this.’

Why are you publishing an open access book?

Burlyuk: ‘So that everyone can read it. That’s a very important condition for us, we want to make it as easy to share as possible so that no one has a reason not to read it.’

Rahbari: ‘And to make this book accessible to everyone. So that students and colleagues do not have to pay a large amount of money to get access to the book.’

This book is mostly written by social scientists, political scientists, and anthropologists. Do these stories also occur in other fields?

Rahbari: ‘Yes, of course. We also want to make stories from other fields visible, but we are starting on our own network. To gain someone’s confidence to tell a vulnerable story, it helps if you know the person.’

Burlyuk: ‘Still, the reception of this book is far beyond our own realm. And also outside Europe, the book has been downloaded in 105 countries around the world. These stories also take place in North America, New Zealand, Japan, and so on.’