Over the recent decades, the UK has become a global hub for international scholars worldwide. Statistically speaking, in 2021, more than 70,000 international academic staff were employed at UK higher education institutions (HEIs), accounting for nearly one-third of the academic workforce. While the UK benefits substantially from its international academic workforce, the homelands of these international scholars pay the price for losing such talented minds to the UK. However, there are ways to ameliorate the effects of brain drain and even benefit from such academic diasporas. The literature suggests that academic diasporas can play a role as knowledge brokers (Larner, 2015), support home country development (Tejeda et al., 2013), or even offer political leverage for their homelands (Rabinowitz & Abramson, 2022). However, little attention has been paid to how academic diasporas reinforce the internationalization of higher education in the host country while supporting fellow nationals from the respective homeland. This paper explores the multiple roles academic diasporas can play by taking the example of UK-based Turkish academics and how these roles reinforce the internationalization of higher education.

This is an exploratory study, and in line with this, I employed a qualitative research design underpinned by a social constructivist philosophy. Further, I employed a transnationalism perspective to understand how UK-based Turkish academics develop a belonging to both countries. From this perspective, individuals act as carriers of their own identity without being uprooted from their home country so that they can belong to several places simultaneously whilst building up and maintaining transnational links.

This is an exploratory study, and in line with this, I employed a qualitative research design underpinned by a social constructivist philosophy. Further, I employed transnationalism perspective to understand how UK-based Turkish academics develop a belonging to both countries. From this perspective, individuals act as carriers of their own identity without being uprooted from their home country so that they can belong to several places simultaneously whilst building up and maintaining transnational links. Data were collected through 50 semi-structured in-depth online interviews with UK-based Turkish academics. Interviews were carried out in Turkish (a native language shared between the interviewer and participants) and lasted between 45 and 60 min. Participants were asked flexibly worded questions to elicit their thoughts. The carefully chosen open-ended prompts encouraged detailed and free responses. The participant sample was diverse, stratified by academic position and affiliated institution, contract type, discipline, age, number of years living in the UK, gender, and bachelor's de- gree–awarding institution and Ph.D.-awarding country. Participants worked at 33 UK universities spread across four nations. Once the data collection was concluded and the transcriptions of audio recordings were completed, thematic analysis was employed to elicit a variety of themes via data analysis software (NVivo). Throughout the study, British Education Research Association and UCL ethical guidelines are followed, and anonymization is strictly ensured to protect participants' anonymity.

The data suggest that the support that diasporic Turkish academics provide to fellow nationals and the development of Turkey takes the form of mentorship of junior scholars and students, co-authorship, joint grant applications, and acting as hosts for visiting fellows from Turkey. Firstly, many Turkish academics have Turkish mentees, while some are the source of tacit knowledge about UK academia for outsiders. This tacit knowledge includes strategies to advance the chance of getting scholarships and preparing for job interviews at UK HEIs. Further, UK-based Turkish academics, particularly social scientists, easily engage with bi/multinational research projects with fellow nationals as these collaborations could occur without the need for complete physical togetherness. The UK’s generous funding opportunities to promote partnerships with developing countries are widely used by UK- based Turkish academics to collaborate with Turkey-based academics. Finally, hosting fellow nationals, notably students and junior researchers from Turkey, is a common form of support cited by many interlocutors. Once the UK-based Turkish academics hold permanent positions or have administrative roles at the UK HEIs, they welcome and even encourage academic visitors from Turkey. Importantly, UK-based Turkish academics’ diasporic engagements reinforce the internationalization of higher education, as these activities involve attracting international students and researchers, establishing transnational partnerships, and co-authorship with international (Turkey-based) academics. Therefore, I further suggest that the UK and other significant hubs should support bi/multinational research projects and mobility schemes in which academic diasporas can take an active role in building bridges. In concluding remarks, academic diasporas, in this case, UK-based Turkish academics, play a vital role in supporting the development of the home country (Turkey) by establishing transnational research partnerships, transferring knowledge, and hosting fellow nationals. However, these contributions remain limited due to the lack of binational funding, bureaucratic challenges, and the heavy workload in Turkey and the UK.

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