Europe to burned American scientists: We'll take you in (2025) | Hacker News Reader

Europe to burned American scientists: We'll take you in (2025)

politico.eu

34 pointsvrganj12 comments

This is great but I am skeptical that there is the kind of resource and compensation behind it that would be required to make this a real thing.

As research is being defunded [1], scientists affected have nowhere to go, so you can pick them up at a discount.

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74dzdddvmjo

Great, as if Europe hasn’t been wrecked by American Social Sciences already.

Furthermore at current projections, the speed at which MAGA is imploding, those who still make the migration won’t be the ones fleeing „persecution“ but rather „market forces“

FYI:

Don’t know why but this has so many upvotes, so I want to be clear: by „social sciences“ I‘ve meant the toxic „science“ disseminating from US social sciences departments colloquially referred to as „Wokeness“ which intra-US might be shrugged off as coping mechanism for mentally ill Ivy League members, but outside the US just comes down to outright cultural imperialism.

This is from a year ago. Would be interesting to see the results of this campaign.

Some more discussion at the time:

Europe launches program to lure scientists away from the US

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43943583

EU's von der Leyen invites scientists, researchers to make Europe their home

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43841789

The cost to do this is trivial why don't all countries open their arms and wallets for academic talent from USA?

I put it to you because all around the world countries no longer value academic research.

Aren't you putting this to us on an article about how countries are opening up their arms and wallets for academic talent from the USA?

Europeans use US tech with backdoors, they do their research for free.

Don't know about other professions, but typical pay for software engineers in Europe only like $60K a year, perhaps some European software engineers working for European corporations can chime in.

Yeah, in Austria this includes 5 weeks mandatory PTO, unlimited paid sick days, which you can actually take without getting fired, and paid maternity and paternity leave - a senior developer will get around €75-80k a year.

Consulting rates for SWE here are around €80/h - €120/h depending on seniority and customer, maybe this makes for a fairer comparison.

Typical EU announcement. It's not technically a lie ... but there are very, very, very major caveats, none of whom are mentioned. First, unfortunately research de-funding is not exactly limited to the US:

UK: https://www.science.org/content/article/u-k-physics-communit...

EU: https://www.science.org/content/article/abrupt-change-europe...

EU/France: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/french-science-wor...

EU/Germany: https://www.uni-wuppertal.de/en/news/detail/sparmassnahmen-s...

EU/Netherlands: https://www.erasmusmagazine.nl/en/2025/05/09/budget-cut-cons...

EU/Belgium: https://www.vub.be/en/news/flemish-universities-warn-severe-...

EU/Denmark: https://uniavisen.dk/en/rector-on-cuts-to-faculty-of-science...

And then there's the financial issue. A full professor at the VUB makes about 120k a year. That's not the starter wage (that doesn't even get to 100k), that's after 10 years or so. That will be taxed at 55% income tax, and you'll be lucky as a full professor to make 5500 euro per month in the first 10 years. By the way: the full professor rank is the LOWEST rank that has any benefits, which includes pension. That's right, working as an academic in Brussels, unless you are a FULL professor (not an assistant or "hoofddocent" or ...) you are not accruing pension rights, nor do you get full health insurance, which will come as a nasty surprise.

By the way, yes, you would be correct to state that there are very few jobs in Belgium that do not come with full health insurance, very few jobs that do not come with pension accrual. However, research assistant at university is one of those very few jobs that do not have it. And to add insult to injury, academic positions also have a disadvantaged immigration status.

Oh and this is the situation BEFORE those cutbacks even take effect ... I don't know what's in store but there will be further cutbacks to science funding all over the EU, probably even this year.

It is possible to make more as a research assistant at NYU than as a full professor in Brussels. Oh, and I hear at NYU even some students already accrue pension. Hell, even in Brussels, in truth, you're better of as a cleaning person or janitor in the EU commission's buildings than as a research assistant at university.

And, surely this means that apartments are cheaper in Brussels than in New York, right? If you're talking about Manhattan, yes. Decent Brussels apartments are about halfway up Queens prices. Groceries/restaurants are about the same price.

I can only give one piece of advice. EU academic research? RUN away from it if you have any choice at all.

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