Gabriela Tejada Guerrero | EPFL Graph Search

Gabriela has extensive expertise in international cooperation in education, research and innovation. She joined EPFL as scientist at the Cooperation and Development Center (CODEV) where she led the EPFL Leading House Program (2014-2017) of the Swiss government, which upheld Swiss bilateral research cooperation with Brazil, India, Vietnam and Latin America. Her research focused on scientific diasporas and skilled migration with diverse international collaborations under her leadership. She worked at the University of Zurich, and the UNDP in Moldova and Geneva, and taught at the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM). She was visiting researcher at the CES at Harvard University and the CIS at ETH Zurich. Gabriela obtained a BA in International Relations from the UIA (Ibero) in Mexico, and a PhD in Political Sciences from the UAB in Barcelona. She obtained a CAS IPA - International Policy and Advocacy of the D-MTEC, ETH Zurich (2019). Since 2020 Gabriela is Vice-President of the Swiss Commission for UNESCO (member since 2016), where she promotes science-society linkages and advocates for an inclusive development and dialogue through education, science and culture.Since May 2019, Gabriela is Academic Deputy at the Direction of the College of Humanities (CDH). She serves the Scholars at Risk program (SAR) at EPFL in an advisory capacity.

Skilled Indians in Switzerland: Mobility paths and transnational connections

Gabriela Tejada Guerrero

As India has developed into one of the countries of origin with the largest number of skilled personnel and international students, it has been increasingly considered as a priority country in public higher-education and labour-market strategies. Its growing global importance in terms of science, technology and innovation has also seen it become an essential partner for scientific cooperation and research. While the mobility of skilled Indians to Europe has attracted plenty of attention, we still know very little about the Indian skilled professionals and students in these destination countries and their employment or study situation in the local contexts. There is also scant evidence about their transnational contacts and the social capital they have accumulated through their mobility paths and the effects that these have on their mobility decisions and their type of connections with the home country. This chapter illustrates a case study of skilled Indians in Switzerland, who are mostly temporary stayers, ready to leave the country in the short-term horizon. According to the Swiss Federal Statistics Office, almost half of all Indians with a tertiary education remain in Switzerland for less than five years. They stay in Switzerland in the expectation of continuing their migratory journey elsewhere, in new destinations that arise according to available opportunities and personal interests. The social capital they accumulate during their career itineraries plays a decisive role in their migration preferences and decisions. Even though the value attached to social capital depends on time and place, the new spatial forms created by international migrants reveal the power of transnational contacts as valuable assets for their local and transnational-based practices. Based on evidence collected through in-depth interviews, this chapter focuses on the mobility paths and experiences of Indian students and skilled professionals in the Swiss local context, and it examines the transnational contacts, knowledge, skills and further social capital they accumulate in different spaces and places, which influence their subsequent mobility decisions and shape the type of connection they have with India.

Routledge2019

Testing Analytical Frameworks in Transdisciplinary Research for Sustainable Development

Jean-Claude Bolay, Marina Cracco, Silvia Hostettler, Gabriela Tejada Guerrero

This article discusses the concept and the practice of transdisciplinary research, including how it is conceived and implemented through the cooperation of different actors involved. With transdisciplinarity gaining recognition as an approach to addressing sustainable development challenges, the successful integration of various disciplines and actors in the process of knowledge generation becomes essential. Through the Cooperation and Development Center (CODEV), the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has promoted transdisciplinary research by proposing a space where North–South partnerships integrating academic and non-academic actors enable the expansion of appropriate technologies and innovations adapted to local societal contexts. This study examines five collaborative research projects conducted at the EPFL. By using an analytical framework consisting of design principles for ideal transdisciplinary research, we conducted semi-structured interviews with academic and non-academic members of the research projects to assess the degree of transdisciplinarity. This framework proved to be a useful tool for exploring transdisciplinary dynamics and assessing the effectiveness of joint knowledge generation. We found that the transdisciplinary cooperation involving different actors is not a linear process, as it depends on the social context in which the project is carried out and on the internal and the external organizational structure established for its implementation. We provide recommendations on how transdisciplinarity could be expanded through institutional support and its results could be effectively transferred into science and practice and discuss the implications for further studies in the conclusions.

2019

Transnational Investments of the Tunisian Diaspora: Trajectories, Skills Accumulation and Constraints

Gabriela Tejada Guerrero

This chapter is based on recent empirical data on Tunisians living in Switzerland. It focuses on their migration pathways and experiences, and it examines their propensity to engage in entrepreneurial and business activities in their home country. Despite the hopes generated by the revolution of 2011, there are many people in Tunisia, especially young males from disadvantaged regions, who have not enjoyed the positive changes in employment opportunities and professional prospects. This has led them to them emigrate to Europe to ensure an income for themselves and their families back in Tunisia. An online survey accompanied by follow-up interviews enabled us to observe the experiences of Tunisian diaspora entrepreneurs and their current and potential future transnational business and investment activities. This chapter shows how the internationalization and accumulation of networks and skills by Tunisians, resulting from the multiple destinations they traversed before arriving to Switzerland, has influenced their professional capacities and their business and entrepreneurial projects in Tunisia. Tunisians feel a strong motivation to contribute to the development process in their home country, and they tend to invest and open businesses in their villages of origin. Several enablers and obstacles that influence their actions are observed. A number of policy recommendations based on the experiences and aspirations of these Tunisians are included in the conclusions.

Springer International Publishing2019