Students from the Southern countries in French-speaking Switzerland: From precariousness during their studies to the risk of brain waste in a context of international mobility

Résumé 0

In a globalized world, international student mobility is highly valued by higher education institutions and European governments. Different states indeed seek to attract “brains” in their higher education institutions. Going abroad to study, part or all of a curriculum, is seen as an opportunity to increase students’ human capital and employability in a more competitive and flexible international labor market. When we look at the situation of most students from African and Latin American countries in European states, their living conditions are, however, precarious during their years of study, both in terms of legal status and socio-economic conditions, which may have an impact on their academic performance. Moreover, some countries do not allow or restrict access to employment for these students once they have completed their studies. Quite often, they cannot find a job related to their degree in their country of origin either. Thus, rather than an increase in their employability, we observe a phenomenon of brain waste or another mobility, more or less imposed, towards other countries, especially in North America or Oceania, where the risks of de-skilling are real. As a counterpoint to the North-South relations, often considered in terms of “brain drain” or “brain gain,” this article examines the emergence of a third process, the “brain waste.” The empirical data originates from 64 students’ qualitative interviews followed, in a second phase, by 22 interviews from HES-SO (University of Applied Sciences and Arts—Western Switzerland) graduates from Africa and Latin America who followed health and engineering studies in the Cantons of Geneva and Vaud, which host the largest number of foreign students.