Why to employ foreign academics in Poland? Perspective of heads of university research teams

Academic international mobility is a long-lasting phenomenon and important aim of public policies in numerous countries. Scholarly debate usually concentrates on Western countries and some Eastern Asian scientific hubs like Singapore. Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is understudied. In Poland, the largest CEE country, unlike in many Western countries, public policies concerning internationalization of the academic field are still under construction. Nevertheless, there is a strong pressure for internationalization. The Polish case to be discussed in this article can serve as an example of academic migration to less economically privileged regions that are usually countries of emigration of scholars rather than immigration. In this paper, by means of qualitative in-depth interviews, we concentrate on the need to invite academics from abroad and the perceptions of the actual presence of foreign scholars, employed full-time, as seen by their Polish supervisors. Geographical focus of this paper (CEE) and adopted perspective (interviews with heads of departments supported by interviews with academics) bridge the gap in the literature on academic mobility