I recently got an email from someone I've had some correspondence with. He lives and works in Iran, but wants to get out. I guess he hopes to get a job in a different country. He asked for help and advice.
I imagine the barriers to moving to a different country would be immense. I don't have any knowledge about this. Does anyone have any suggestions?
I take it he's an academic? (You say "scholar," but I'm not sure if you mean he's employed by a university.) I would think he'd need to have published in English to have a hope of getting something in the Western academic world. Applying for visiting gigs in the West might be one way to make more contacts. I mean the kind of annual fellowship things that get you a year of eminently presiding over seminars and the like. Apart from that, the route is probably the same as for all of us — publish in well-recognized venues, make contacts, get advice from those in the know, apply widely but judiciously.
He won't be allowed into the USA for as long as Trump is President.
That's what I would have thought, but we recently hired an academic from Iran (who had done a PhD in the States and then returned to Iran), and who got the requisite visa and showed up — so some academics are slipping through, whatever the intentions of our government.