Monday, January 30, 2017

ASEEES Expresses Deep Concern Over Executive Order Restricting Entry into the US

Published January 31, 2017

The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) is deeply concerned by the Trump Administration’s Executive Order of 27 January 2017, suspending entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days, barring Syrian refugees indefinitely, and blocking entry of citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for 90 days. The Executive Order also appears to affect permanent residents (green card holders) of the U.S. and those with dual citizenship.

This Executive Order seriously undermines the freedom of academic movement, academic freedom, and intellectual exchange. It restricts the ability of students and scholars who lawfully have the right to come to the United States from being able to enter or to remain in the US. The Executive Order directly affects some of ASEEES’s international members, putting into doubt whether they will be able to enter the U.S. to participate in our annual convention.

ASEEES is a global community of interconnected scholars and specialists, who know that what applies to one region today has applied to others in the past and could again in the future. Many of us have experience dealing with visa restrictions – even deportations and bans – while trying to conduct research or study in Eastern Europe and Eurasia. We thus understand the importance of the free flow of people and ideas.

We call on the U.S. government to rescind this ill-conceived Executive Order. 

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Established in 1948, the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) is a leading international scholarly society dedicated to the advancement of knowledge about Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus in regional and global contexts. ASEEES is a member of Scholars at Risk Network and will continue to speak up for academic freedom.

ASEEES is a member of the American Council of Learned Societies.  Many other ACLS member societies have issued similar statements, which can be found here.