The most famous scientist of the twentieth century had no choice but to leave his country of origin. “As long as I can choose, I will only live in a country where there are political liberties, tolerance and equality of all citizens before the law,” Einstein said before the rise of Nazism. In 1933, when Hitler came to power, the physicist was spending a semester at the Pasadena Institute of Technology in California. After a time of staying in Belgium, he returned to the American continent on board the SS Belgenland cruise, from where he wrote a letter to Eduard, his second son. In it he said that he probably would not go back to Germany.

During the 22 years of life that remained asylee in the United States became the iconic character with which history immortalized him. His academic work at Princeton University and his dissertations on his already very famous treatises, such as the theory of general relativity, which considers gravitation as a deformation of space-time, consolidated him as a citizen of the world. Before the supremacist madness that unleashed wars in Europe, Einstein was limited to saying that in front of such scenarios the only thing left was to realize how absurd was the animal species to which we belong.

During 1930 and 1940 in the USA, a consortium of refugee aid associations of which the IIE was a member (The International Institute of Education, an association created in 1919 and dedicated to the promotion of international student exchanges, international affairs, security and peace) created the Emergency Assistance Committee for Displaced Investigators (EC), which managed to locate more than 400 expatriate scientists in different universities, including a hundred physicists who also became key players to end the Second World War World. During this time, in addition, patents registered in the US increased 30%.

Beyond a day

Throughout the history of humanity, migration has not only been a way to overcome adversity in the individual environment, it has also been the most useful tool for the feedback and diversification of thought that has mobilized the world. For 17 years the UN established December 18 as the date to commemorate International Migrants Day.

According to the aforementioned institution, it is considered that 28,300 people leave their homes every day. Thus, the number of immigrants in the world has increased from around 175 million in 2000 to more than 250 million today. Almost two thirds live in Europe and Asia; however, migration is distributed in all continents in a broader way and diversifying into new routes. It is considered that one out of every ten migrants is under 15 years of age. The impact of the flow of remittances is also significant, since it reached more than 500 billion dollars last year.

People with a high level of knowledge also migrate, not only before war scenarios, but seeking a more optimal job development than in their countries of origin. In fact, according to data from the OECD, in the last decade the rate of emigration of highly qualified people increased in Europe and Latin America. In Latin America, one out of every 13 people who have a doctorate lives outside their country of origin. According to estimates of the Innovation Match Mx Association, around 10% of Mexican professionals living abroad are highly qualified. On the other hand, the Mexican Academy of Sciences (AMC) points out that although three thousand people graduate with a doctorate in the country, only every three of a hundred get a job in the public sector, so the search for opportunities It is also projected outside the country.

According to OECD indicators, the risk of “brain drain” is even greater in countries with few inhabitants and island states. Almost 50% of highly qualified migrants come from Asian countries and have been integrated into the economies of countries around the world, including Mexico.

Historical clock

In the middle of this year, a round table on migrant scientists organized by the National College gave account of the numerous contributions of these individuals for the international development of science. Dr. Edna Suárez-Díaz, from the Faculty of Sciences of the UNAM, pointed out how diverse Mexican characters such as the engineer Nabor Carrillo and the physicist Manuel Sandoval Vallarta enriched their studies with stays in the US, but also Mexico has benefited through the main migratory waves that our country received, such as the case of the exiles of Spanish Francoism at the end of the thirties or with the arrival of Latin Americans in the 1970s, although they concentrated few scientists, they were able to enrich the heritage of the country in various areas, such as the study of ecology, botany and genetics. The arrival of biologists and physicists after the collapse of the Soviet Union also had a beneficial impact in our country.

Dr. Suárez also presented figures that speak of the impact of international flow on scientific and technological development in the US, such as the case of Sillicon Valley, which has a very high population of migrants from all over the world and where 40% of companies High technology companies have at least one foreigner among its founders.

In this same forum, Dr. Asif Siddiqi, professor at the History Department of Fordham University in New York, mentioned three key migrations in the NASA project: the Chinese in the early twentieth century, the Germans in the 30s and the Canadians in the late 50s, after the collapse of their own aerospace industry.

Not only the policies of tightening immigration filters in the US, but also the ignorance of phenomena that need more scientific study, such as global warming, have sparked criticism around the world. Given the statements of Donald Trump not recognizing this phenomenon (which for many is primarily due to personal interests), the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, invited scientists working on this issue in the US and who have been left without financial support before the skepticism of Trump, to continue their work in Europe by teaming with other researchers.

Before the departure of the EU from the Paris Agreement against Climate Change, France, at the helm of this struggle.

Source: elsiglodedurango.com.mx

Publisher: Lebanese Company for Information & Studies

Editor in chief: Hassan Moukalled


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