Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the two professors in NIA's 'My Home in China—City of Belonging'?
Rashed Ghamgeen Izat Rashed, an Iraqi associate professor at Wuhan University's School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, and Mohammad Russel, a Bangladeshi associate professor at Dalian University of Technology's School of Ocean Science and Technology.
What does Rashed Ghamgeen Izat Rashed research?
Power systems — with a focus on wind–photovoltaic (solar) generation. Per China's National Immigration Administration, his work supports bringing photovoltaic electrification to his home country, Iraq. In April 2025, Chinese media reported on a joint China–Iraq research lab for energy stability that he greeted with optimism.
What does Mohammad Russel research?
Environmental pollution in the northern Bohai Sea — the effects of wastewater discharge, nutrients, and microplastics on the marine ecosystem. He holds a B.Sc. from the University of Dhaka and a PhD from China University of Geosciences, and is an associate professor at Dalian University of Technology.
Is Wuhan a good city for foreigners in China?
Wuhan is one of China's largest university cities — Wuhan University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology alone enroll tens of thousands of students, including a visible international community. It costs meaningfully less than Beijing or Shanghai, sits on the Yangtze, and has a well-documented food culture. See our Living in Wuhan expat guide for neighborhoods, costs, and daily life.
Who are the two professors in “My Home in China—City of Belonging”?
“City of Belonging” is a short film released on 2025-12-25 in the Foreigners in China series on the English site of China’s National Immigration Administration (NIA). It follows two university professors whose careers brought them to second-tier Chinese cities: Mohammad Russel, a Bangladeshi environmental scientist at Dalian University of Technology, and Rashed Ghamgeen Izat Rashed, an Iraqi electrical engineer at Wuhan University. The film’s official synopsis describes them as professors who “have journeyed across mountains and seas” and “found their own cities of belonging in China” — one studying the sea in Dalian, the other bringing solar power know-how back to Iraq from Wuhan.
Unlike the celebrity-adjacent expat stories China’s state media usually produces, this film’s protagonists are working researchers. That makes it a useful window into a path many foreigners consider but rarely see documented: building an academic career in China.
Who is Rashed Ghamgeen Izat Rashed?
Rashed is an Iraqi electrical engineer, born in Sulaimani, Iraq, who earned his B.Sc. in electrical engineering at Salahaddin University before moving into research abroad. He is an associate professor at the School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Wuhan University, with a publication record in power systems — including wind–photovoltaic generation planning. The NIA synopsis notes he is “lighting up the nights in his homeland, Iraq, with photovoltaics” — research with a direct line back to electrification at home. In April 2025, China Daily and ECNS reported on the establishment of a joint China–Iraq research lab for energy stability, which Rashed greeted publicly as a step toward solving Iraq’s electricity challenges.
Who is Mohammad Russel?
Russel is a Bangladeshi environmental scientist and associate professor at the School of Ocean Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology. He earned his B.Sc. at the University of Dhaka and his PhD at the China University of Geosciences, with a visiting-scholar stint at the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences along the way. His research concerns the northern Bohai Sea — studying how municipal and industrial wastewater discharge, nutrient pollution, and microplastics affect the marine ecosystem. The NIA synopsis sums up roughly two decades of that work as contributions to “sewage treatment in the Bohai Bay”.
What do the two cities offer a foreigner?
The film’s title framing — “cities of belonging” — is state-media poetry, but the underlying point survives translation: most of China’s university careers happen outside Beijing and Shanghai, in cities foreigners overseas rarely consider.
Wuhan is arguably China’s biggest university town: Wuhan University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology anchor a student population in the hundreds of thousands, with an established international community, and a cost of living meaningfully below the tier-1 cities. We keep a full Living in Wuhan as a foreigner guide — neighborhoods, costs, transport — and a Wuhan food guide, because “breakfast capital of China” is not an empty slogan.
Dalian is a coastal port city in Liaoning province, cleaner-air, slower-paced, and oriented to the sea — which is precisely why a marine-pollution researcher ends up there. We don’t have a Dalian guide (yet); the NIA film page is the primary source on both professors.
How do foreigners become university professors in China?
The path both professors followed is more accessible than most foreigners assume, and it runs on the same permit machinery as any other skilled job:
- The credential gate is real. Chinese universities hire foreign faculty with a PhD (or the research record to substitute for one) in the field. Russel’s and Rashed’s paths both ran through Chinese graduate programs — a route funded at scale by Chinese government scholarships (CSC) for international students.
- The university is your visa sponsor. A faculty offer converts to a Z (work) visa and then a work permit and residence permit processed through the employer — the same permit ladder described in our China visa types guide. Universities are experienced sponsors, which removes the most friction-prone part of Chinese bureaucracy.
- The decade math is the same as any long stay. Renew the permit, keep the record clean, and options like permanent residence eventually open — the same trajectory Mark Levine followed in Beijing.
Sources
- National Immigration Administration, “My Home in China—City of Belonging” (film page, 2025-12-25): en.nia.gov.cn
- Mohammad Russel, researcher profile (Dalian University of Technology): researchgate.net
- Ghamgeen Izat Rashed, researcher profile (Wuhan University): researchgate.net
- China Daily (2025-04-07), China–Iraq joint energy research lab: chinadaily.com.cn
- ECNS (2025-04-07), same topic: ecns.cn
More stories of foreigners living in China: Expat Stories hub.