Hiring a scholar from displacement is not merely an act of compassion, it is a strategic investment in academic excellence, human dignity, and global responsibility.

1. Empowering talent, not charity

Displaced academics are often among the most resilient and capable minds in academia. Uprooted by crisis, they arrive not empty-handed but carrying deep knowledge, global insights, and lived experience. Hiring them is not just helping someone in need, it is welcoming someone who will enrich your institution.

2. Enriching education and campus culture

Displaced scholars offer:

• Authentic global perspectives grounded in real-world crisis.
• Diverse experiences that enhance teaching and inspire students.
• A rare blend of urgency, humility, and perseverance in research and mentorship.

Their presence fosters empathy, critical thinking, and civic responsibility, the very outcomes higher education aims to achieve.

3. Upholding academic values and freedom

At a time when academic freedom is under threat globally, supporting displaced scholars sends a strong message: Your university stands for truth, knowledge, and justice. Hiring them is an act of solidarity with persecuted academics and a defense of free thought and open dialogue.

4. Preventing brain drain

Many displaced scholars were leaders in their fields before their forced migration.
By employing them, you ensure their expertise continues to serve the world rather than being lost in silence. This is how we preserve global knowledge and prevent irreversible intellectual loss.

5. Supporting recovery and global development

Higher education is key to rebuilding lives and societies. Giving displaced scholars a chance to work contributes to:

• Their integration into host countries
• Restoration of dignity and stability for their families
• Future leadership in post-crisis regions

If we hope for peaceful, sustainable development, education must lead.

6. Strengthening institutional identity

When universities take meaningful action in times of crisis:

• They attract global talent, students, and partnerships.
• They build reputations grounded in values, not just rankings.
• They create a legacy of leadership, not silence.

Supporting displaced scholars shows that your university doesn’t just talk about inclusion, it lives it.

7. Preparing for a shared future

Crises can happen anywhere.

By supporting displaced academics today, you build a model of shared responsibility, a system that may one day support your own community. Academia is a global network. Protecting one scholar helps protect the principle that knowledge belongs to everyone.

In conclusion

Hiring a scholar from displacement is:

• A moral act
• A smart investment
• A statement of institutional courage

It preserves talent, protects values, inspires students, and strengthens global academia.

This is not charity.

This is what higher education looks like at its best.

Abeer is a scholar in wireless communications and network engineering, who will be relocating to work as a Visiting Scholar with Carleton University’s Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, with the support of Professor Thomas Kunz, Scholars at Risk Carleton, the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund, and TalentLift. Abeer is from Sudan and is now living displaced alongside her family.