From Forced Migrants to Scholars: The Afghan Academic Fellows Program of Nagoya University

[1J101] From Forced Migrants to Scholars: The Afghan Academic Fellows Program of Nagoya University

*Francis PEDDIE¹, *Aya Okada¹, *Sayed Ali Asghar Amiri¹, *Mohammad Farid Zawad¹, *Mohammad Mahdi Iraj¹ (1. Nagoya University)

Keywords:Afghanistan, Forced migrants, Non-state actors, Asylum

Following the Taliban's seizure of power in August 2021, Nagoya University created an ad-hoc program to provide an informal path to asylum for alumni from Afghanistan who lacked other flight options and found themselves marginalized and threatened by the new regime in Kabul. The Afghan Acacdemic Fellowship provided Afghan alumni with financial and consular assistance to reach Japan, a stipend, accommodation, and a one-year visa. This roundtable will explore the formation, implementation and extension of the program, which eventually facilitated family reunification or arrival with spouses and children, and was adapted in 2022 to also assist Ukrainian alumni fleeing the Russian invasion. Professor Aya Okada, who was the Dean of Nagoya University's Graduate School of International Development (GSID) at the time, will provide the insider's view of how the program was formed at the administrative level. Associate Professor Francis Peddie will discuss his role in mediating between the alumni trapped in Afghanistan and the administration as well as his reponsibilities as a faculty advisor for three of the Afghan Academic Fellows after they escaped. He will also provide some comparative cases of non-state actors taking the lead in securing asylum for at-risk groups when the state and international organizations cannot or will not assist them. Finally, three former Afghan Academic Fellows who are now doctoral students at GSID will discuss their experiences of forced migration and as research fellows, as well as presenting their ongoing research on diverse development questions affecting Afghanistan. The open question for discussion in this roundtable is what -if any -role should a non-state actor like Nagoya University play in securing asylum for at-risk individuals and groups, and what are the advantages and obstacles associated with this choice of action.