A troupe of climate scientists, social justice theorists, and biological anthropologists has arrived in France, denouncing the U.S. president with the breathless intensity of failed actors who found tenure instead of a stage.
Anticipating federal funding cuts against the backdrop of DOGE, some academics have started looking for new environments more conducive to funding their research. For some, the temptation to present this as a political choice—with themselves in the role of exiles—has been very strong. Melodrama rules the day, as could be seen when the first group of ‘refugees’ rolled up in France.
Aix-Marseille University saw its president, Eric Berton, liken the situation to that of European academics who fled Nazi persecution before and during World War II:
What is at play here today is not unrelated to another dark period of our history.
Most of the eight U.S. researchers in his audience seemed to confirm this analysis, while speaking, on condition of anonymity, to European Union mouthpiece Politico. Few if any of these have signed contracts with French universities, some of whose existing staff fear preferential treatment for the new arrivals.
Berton, like failed former French president François Hollande, wants the creation of an official “scientific refugee” status for Trump’s scientific refuseniks.
AMU claims that, to date, almost 300 researchers from prestigious U.S. universities have applied to join its “Safe Place for Science” programme.
