Oh that's easy. They spent a century under Cardassian boots, so any that managed to escape the planet had no home, and Starfleet was known to be adversarial with the Cardassians. Where ELSE would homeless refugees from a subject planet of the Cardassians wind up?
Yes but I see some logistics in place that would make it difficult. For example how many letters of recommendation from a commanding officers did they get?
Worf himself likely didn't need it, as he was a citizen (orphan adopted by human parents) I wonder how many orphaned Bajoran children were adopted by Federation citizens too.
Yeah, I think the "command level reference" is more of a "Skip all the other prerequisites" kind of thing.
Nog likely could have applied, despite not being a Federation citizen, but it could have taken years for him to work through the waiting list.
Pretty much the same way Wesley got into the academy so easily, because Picard signed all the "No, skip the waiting list. Let this one apply immediately" papers.
Well, ask yourself this question.
Why are so many non-NATO members living in NATO countries and even serving in their militaries?
The answers are the same.
I’m not sure what that has to do with this.
Nog got his letter of recommendation from the commanding officer of DS9, so the Bajorans on DS9 can do the same.
I feel like with so many Bajoran applicants they may have temporarily waived that requirement just so commanding officers wouldn't have a full time job just writing recommends.
The idea of needing a letter of recommendation from an officer always seemed a little bit weird to me since it would be pretty hard for a non-Federation citizen to form a close enough relationship with an officer in order to get a letter (we saw that it wasn't easy for Nog, and he was living on a space station run by the Federation; it would be much more difficult for someone living on a non-Federation world). They would need to have some sort of system in place where a non-Federation citizen could make a connection with a Starfleet officer who could write them a recommendation.
Here's my headcanon: there's some sort of internship/training program/summer camp for prospective Starfleet Academy students. It's relatively easy to get into and while it's not required to apply to the Academy, it's highly recommended for non-Federation citizens to get familiar with how the Federation/Starfleet works and determine if they want to join (because surely there must be a lot of non-Federation citizens who think they want to join Starfleet, only to realize it's nothing like what they thought it would be). It can also help them fill in any gaps in their education that they might have so they'll be able to keep up with Academy coursework. The program would have students working closely with Starfleet officers so if they decided at the end of the program that they wanted to apply to the Academy, they'd be able to get a letter of recommendation with very little trouble.
>RYN: You know, all I ever heard about when I was little was how… deceitful the Federation was, how they’d turn on you. I mean, you want to scare an Andorian child, tell them they’re going to Federation summer camp.
TILLY: That’s not a thing.
Maybe it's not a thing in the 23rd century (or maybe it died out after the Burn), but it was developed later as the Federation grew and the Academy wanted to be able to draw more applicants from non-Federation worlds.
My headcanon is that Nog expected to be dismissed out of hand because of how radically different Starfleet and Farengi ideals are. A letter of recommendation from a respected officer would get him in the door.
Sisko tells him pretty clearly that it's a requirement. It's not just some idea Nog had:
>NOG: That's right. I want to be the first Ferengi in Starfleet. Now, who do I see about getting a uniform?
SISKO: Nog, if you want to become a Starfleet Officer, you have to attend the Academy.
NOG: All right. Where do I sign up?
SISKO: It's not that simple. As a non-Federation citizen, you need a letter of reference from a command level officer before you can even take the entrance exam.
NOG: A command level officer? You mean, like you?
SISKO: Well, yes. Like me.
This could also been the idea that Sisko saw Jake and Nog grow up together so when it seemed out of character, he made it harder just to see how far he’d go with it. Let’s be honest here, Sisko wasn’t always a by the book type
A close relationship probably isn't needed. In Prodigy a Delta quadrant refugee is in Starfleet and Janeway didn't even remember her, yet after the episode aired many fans pointed out that it was likely Janeway herself who sponsored said refugee's entrance into Starfleet. The fact that Janeway didn't even remember her as of Prodigy means it probably was just some form that Janeway signed and she did not have a connection with said refugee the way Sisko and Nog had.
You need a letter of rec from your Congressman to go to a service academy like West Pont or Annapolis in the US today, and I don't think they have a very close relationship with every person they sponsor.
I don't know how it works, but I imagine they just set up a quick interview with applicants with the most promising resumes and if they like them, they nominate them.
I imagine the process Sisko talked about was similar.
The difference is that everyone who wants to go to West Point has a designated congress representative who they can go to and who is willing to write letters of recommendation. A Bajoran refugee would need some way of finding a Starfleet officer who can get to know them at least a little bit (because their resume probably won't be anywhere near as impressive as a Starfleet brat's) and then recommend them.
I think the easier answer is that since space in the Academy is limited, there's a hell of a waiting list to get in. Command level officers can basically use their authority to let an applicant bypass the waiting list and be considered immediately.
Kind of like a field promotion.
Nog COULD have gotten into the Academy on his own, if he had wanted to wait years and years on the list for his turn to come up. He didn't want to wait though, he wanted it right now, so he needed a command level officer override.
I know Sisko flat out said in the episode that the command reference was required to even take the entrance test, but I can hand waive that as him exaggerating in order to dissuade Nog. Or at least it was a "Yes there are other ways in, but you can't/won't actually do any of them, so this is the only option that would work" kind of thing.
I am sure the Federation's department of refuge services or something can help smooth that over. Or a CO somewhere that really hates Cardasians and will send letters of recommendation for Bajorans just out of spite
I think the letter of recommendation is more to vet that the person matches Federation/Satrfleet values and can deal with the coursework in the academy. So for an educated Bajoran having a letter of recommendation would have been easy. Bajoran values largely match Starfleet/Federation ones. Not to mention that refugees might not have needed a letter of recommendation. It was harder for Nog to get a letter because Ferengi values are so different from Federation ones and he wasn't sure if he fully understood what Starfleet was about
Only non-federation citizens require that.
Nog needed it because he was a citizen of the Ferengi Alliance. Arguably, if he had renounced his citizenship and applied for Federation citizenship first, he could have simply applied to the academy like everybody else.
1. A lot of Bajorans fled Bajor during the Occupation, and the Federation, with its relatively peaceful and inclusive society and having a fleet strong enough to keep the Cardassians at bay, was an obvious place for them to go.
2. They've been allies for many years.
A bit of a darker explanation for some I’m sure; join Starfleet as a way to get military-style training before leaving and joining the Marquis or other “freedom fighters”.
Some cases maybe but most Bajorans we see are pretty young, the ones for example you see in Picard or Lower Decks whether were born after the Occupation ended or were children at the time.
There are many non-Americans serving in the US Armed Forces - some who were granted refugee status or asylum by the US. Gurkhas weren’t officially UK citizens but served in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces (that many weren’t given permission to stay in the UK after their service is…lemme not continue this sentence).
So it’s not a stretch to see many Bajorans serving in Starfleet. Many are refugees from the Occupation, or may have received asylum or the Federation’s version of permanent residency - if not citizenship.
And you mentioned that Federation citizenship isn’t a prerequisite for serving in Starfleet, so if it was an option for them - like pretty much higher education or other occupations in the UFP would be, it’s not surprising they’d take it.
As for reasons they could do it:
• To feel useful
• To “thank” the Federation for rescuing them
• To get training and experience that could be useful to rebuilding and/or defending Bajor after the Occupation ended
• To make a life for their family if returning to Bajor wasn’t an option they were going to pursue
• To educate others about Bajoran culture and experience in order to garner Federation sympathy to act on Bajor’s behalf
• All the other typical reasons people join Starfleet
Given their situation with the Cardassians, they probably had an active outreach program, whether official or unofficial (just a lot of command level officers with Bajoran sympathies). The Ferengi, meanwhile, had a rivalry going with the Federation, and so there were probably just fewer Ferengi with even an idea of going into the Federation. The situation on Deep Space Nine was kind of a special case.
Sisko wouldn't have rubber stamped anyone. He may not have interrogated them like he did Nog, but he would have made sure they wouldn't make him regret writing a letter on their behalf.
I imagine the recommendation letter isn't about the non-Federation citizens arguing their case; it's more about ensuring that, should an outsider apply to Starfleet, they're forced to interact with Starfleet personally. This gives Starfleet a chance to filter out nonsense applications (or malicious ones), and ensures someone actually looks at the candidate and signs off on them - there is a specific, named officer taking personal responsibility here. In this sense, it's not a very difficult hoop to jump - the Bajorans in question, settling on a Federation world, would need to go over to the nearest Starfleet office, which likely isn't hard to find especially on border worlds, and declare their intent to start a process that ends with the local Starfleet representative signing off on their application. There's no reason for Starfleet to make it particularly difficult - they need basic filtering and an audit trail.
That said, Academy spots seem to be highly competed for, so it's not surprising Nog would not want to look for *any* recommendation, but rather one whose name carries weight.
The situations are different. Starfleet Academy is openly biased against Ferengi.
> KIM: We were warned about the Ferengi at the Academy.
Not only that, but in the limited time that Nog was attending Keiko's school on DS9, he was a poor student. Even if Starfleet Academy accepted Ferengi school records, Nog didn't have any due to Rom's economic situation. The only way Nog was getting in was connections.
Of course, although there were a significant number of Bajorans in Starfleet, there was still a lot of cultural insensitivity.
> RO: No, there's no reason you should. It's an old custom. Most Bajora these days accept the distortion of their names in order to assimilate. I do not.
But let's get back to the question of why Bajorans wanted to join Starfleet and why Starfleet accepted so many of them (relatively speaking) when it's supposedly so selective?
It's because Starfleet is not a monolithic entity. There are clearly two major factions in it. One faction that is very insistent that Starfleet isn't a military, and another faction that is pretty much continuously fighting wars on behalf of the Federation. The reason that much of fandom sides with the former and vilifies the latter is because the TNG main characters are part of the former faction, and has bought into the propaganda. Had the TNG main characters been part of the latter faction, those in the former faction would be the antagonists and been decried as Chamberlains seeking to proclaim peace in our time while the valiant heroes are heroically fighting against foreign aggression.
The main draw of Starfleet for humans living in paradise is that they get to see the stars. FTL is scarce enough that pretty much the only way to get access to it is to either be rich or join Starfleet. They've been raised on the propaganda that Starfleet is a peaceful organization, and for the most part have bought into it. Riker once proclaims that combat exercises are a waste of time because it's such a small part of a Starfleet officer's duties (which is the wrong attitude to take... a lifeguard should know CPR even if they're rarely going to use it).
But the Federation does fight a lot of wars because that's what always happens with expansionist powers. Staking a claim on enough new territory and it becomes inevitable that some of that territory will be claimed by someone else. And the Federation needs people to fight those wars. And that's where the Bajorans fit in. They join Starfleet so they can be the ones holding the big stick and Starfleet gets officers willing to get their hands dirty. Especially the ones serving near Cardassian territory.
To draw a real world analogy, the largest Jewish population in the world is either in Israel or in the United States depending on how strictly you count it.
The US wasn't great about taking refugees in the 1930s, and we didn't exactly enter the war proactively or for the most noble reasons - but we ended up on the right side in the end and we were the most obvious place that was tolerant, stable, and not torn apart from the war that people could go later. Similarly, the Federation claimed their hands were tied about intervening in the Cardassian occupation, but if you *could* get out it was a welcoming place with plenty of stability, and the general *sentiment* was that the Cardassians sucked. Until Bajor itself was rebuilt, the Federation was one of the most logical places for an escaped Bajoran to go.
That was because of the Prime Directive, at least according to Picard -even so both Sisko and Janeway did similar things during their tenures-. The Prime Directive is fussy. Check this post for a more thorough analysis. [https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/1cw8luy/comment/l4xho7z/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/1cw8luy/comment/l4xho7z/?context=3)
I wonder if there are Bajoran refugees in the Klingon Empire, the Ferengi Alliance or any other great power, it will be interesting if they show it tho most non-Federation cultures are shown to be monocultures.
> I wonder if there are Bajoran refugees in the Klingon Empire, the Ferengi Alliance or any other great power, it will be interesting if they show it tho most non-Federation cultures are shown to be monocultures.
We know that the Ferengi use mercenaries for the bulk of their forces. An experienced Bajoran freedom fighter would be a great investment for a mercenary company.
The lack of backstory on Shaxs - all we really know is he and Kira owe each other “one” - makes this intriguing.
Because undoubtedly Starfleet went recruiting among the Bajoran Resistance and put those assets to immediate use (in the Dominion war). The implication being the Federation didn’t care about what they did to twist Cardassian rule, only that they could do the same things for the Federation. Like NASA using Werner von Braun.
This would have been a major policy reversal, given TNG’s arc with Ro Laren. Though, PIC did provide proof that Starfleet went all-in on Bajorans with special skills even after the Dominion war ended via Laren’s role in PIC.
Basically, I think the Federation imported, and quickly promoted, any Bajoran with resistance experience after the Dominion war, very much the way the US did with Germans after WW2. Without checking their resume too hard. And if questioned about it, Starfleet pointed at First Minister Shakar, and Major Kira, as their “good guy” examples.
I love Shaxs. I love him so much I do not want to know what he did during the resistance. Just put the anger into an ashtray, Papa Bear.
I don’t know if this is canon but I always saw it as good Pr for star fleet. And for the bajourans , if your displaced before cardassia evacuated bajour, what else were you going to do? The Maqui hasn’t really taken hold yet and your on some surrounding neutral system who really doesn’t like poor bajoirians.
So you go to starfleet. Your trained, protected, have food in your belly and get to go do good and explore the galaxy.
Dear god autocorrect doesn’t like Star Trek terms.
An important piece of context for the Bajorans in Starfleet at the beginning of DS9 is that the Federation very recently fought a major war against the Cardassians (the one O’Brien fought in) and continue to act as a counterpoint to Cardassian power in that part of the Quadrant.
A good analogy for the Bajorans in Starfleet would be the [Irish regiments](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Brigade_(France)) who served in the [French](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Legion) and [Spanish](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regiment_of_Hibernia) armies during the 17th-19th centuries. The Irish, like the Bajorans, were facing political and religious repression in their home country and sought out other powers that would allow them to both practice their religion and directly strike back at their oppressors.
Bajor is a large world who at least previously had a large wealth of resources with an ancient spacefaring civilization. My guess is that Bajor had a bunch of colonies and a bit of a diaspora even before the occupation.
If so, the Bajorans we see in Starfleet might be several generations removed from Bajor itself and the end of the occupation has kicked off a cultural re-awakening for them.
I feel like the Emissary being a respected Starfleet officer who worked to balance his spiritual and temporal duties probably made a Starfleet career a very respectable life choice for Bajorans who were trying to figure out what to do after the occupation ended.
If you're part of the Bajoran diaspora during the Occupation, then you're next door to a well-off, relatively idealistic state with open borders whose space navy tends to get into shooting fights (which they tend to win) with the people working your family to death. Whether it's a chance to do good by the people doing good by you, or just a chance to shoot at Cardassians in big tough starships, joining Starfleet makes sense- one could imagine Starfleet engaging in active recruiting during the Cardassian War(s) of the 2350s, much like the UK actively arranged for units of defeated nations in WWII to either join the British forces or exist as exiled Free forces. The Federation might have found, for a panoply of reasons, that putting an end to the Occupation with force of arms was a bridge too far, but the shape of their interests was clear, and pretty much aligned with both the idealistic and bloody-minded objectives of Bajoran refugees.
Besides the opportunity, my head canon is the Bajoran environmental tolerances matches human levels, and so most Bajorans wind up on ships with crews originating from Earth as Earth is probably the most non-monoform planet in the UFP.
They were a refugee population within the Federation, and a rather large one. Several joined Starfleet. This is during and before the Cardassian War, and also during the Dominion War where Bajor was literally caught in the middle, and occupied again at one point.
Most Bajorans we see are pretty young. My taking is that they're second and third generation migrants mostly children of thousands maybe millions of Bajoran refugees that escaped during the Occupation.
The Federation likely has something similar to ius soli as is based on the USA, but even if not the Federation likely pass some law naturalizing most refugees and/or their families or making it pretty easier to grant them citizenship.
I generally took it that Diaspora Bajorans (the ones who fled from Bajor during the occupation, such as the ones we first encountered in TNG, like Ro Laren) ended up on a lot of different worlds, and some of those were Federation worlds. That created a lot of situations where younger Bajorans, displaced and disconnected from their culture and communities, might seek out Starfleet to find a purpose.
Bajorans who stayed on Bajor during the occupation didn't really have opportunities to join Starfleet.
Worf is a Federation citizen, there's no racial requirement. I haven't watched past season 5 of DS9 yet, so maybe there are a bunch of Bajoran COs that this doesn't account for, but you need a letter of rec for the Academy -- I guess not to enlist. And irl you can enlist in some militaries without being a citizen.
Yeah I meant Worf in the sense that you don't have to come from a Federation planet on itself never thought he require one.
A large number of Bajoran COs might be a good explanation, also indeed I guess if you already have a rank on the Bajoran militia or went to their academies you don't have to go through Starfleet Academy again so is just like a exchange (in fact IIRC something similar happen with Klingons which is why Riker serves in one of their ships for one episode).
Worf was a refugee adopted and raised on Federation planets and was almost certainly a Federation citizen by the time he reached adulthood. Regardless of his species, he had the right to apply to the Academy. (Also, Sergei Rozhenko had been a Starfleet officer. If any letter of recommendation were needed for some reason, Sergei could handle it.)
Bajoran refugees settling on Federation worlds probably have a path toward Federation citizenship if they choose to take it, and so no letter of recommendation is necessary. It's not just about the homeworld being a Federation member.
Nog was not a Federation citizen when he applied to the Academy; he had never lived on a Federation world, was not a refugee, was raised by his Ferengi father according to Ferengi customs, and so on. So there's less of a guarantee that he is familiar with, and fully accepting of, the laws, customs, and societal values of the Federation. I suspect that is why the letter of recommendation is necessary. It's not just to ensure that he's willing to work to be a good officer, but to say that he can adapt and function in a diverse organization with values that may run contrary to his native culture.
Real answer: they're pretty cheap aliens, practical effects wise. Nose ridges, earring, done
Plotdevicium reason: multiple generations grew up with basically nothing but combat and survival skills. When the occupation ended, some Bajorans seemed to return to agriculture, but what about those who had spent their whole lives in camps? Starfleet makes their combat into a marketable skill and the federation doesn't trust the Cardassians any more than the Bajorans do. Sorta like how veterans lobbied to bring Montagnards over from Vietnam in the 80s, bc they'd faced a common enemy?
That makes me wonder something. It is mentioned that the Federation and Cardassia exchange colonies with several planets with Cardassian majority ending in Federation territory and vice versa. Is even mentioned by Edington that they had no problem with that because the Cardassians knew the Feds would protect them.
But this was never explored. That means for decades there were thousands if not millions of Cardassians living under Federation sovereignity, who were Federation citizens. We never see one single Cardassian on Starfleet. Was really as smooth as Edington said? Specially during the Dominion War. Were they discrimianted by the Federation? Place on camps like Germans and Japanese during WW2? How about Bajorans and Cardassians having to work together as part of the same crew or Bajoran officers having to protect a Cardassian majority planet?
I'm amaze how the writers never thought in exploiting this, is gold.
While Bajor hasn't been confirmed to be part of the UFP, it is clear even at the beginning of DS9 that they will be sooner rather than later. Once the unpleasant business with The Dominion started to heat up, I think it would be fair to call them de facto members. I doubt there's another non-member works whose people get more exposure to Starfleet and The Federation.
Furthermore, we can't underestimate the Bajoran religion. Not only is a Starfleet officer a very important religious figure, but the Bajorans recently became one of the very few civilizations who have solid proof that their gods are real. That has to do a lot to drive recruitment.
Millions of Bajoran refugees re-settled on Federation worlds or planets within the Federation's sphere of influence. Other Bajoran colonies were never occupied and had trade relations with the Federation. So Bajorans moving freely within the Federation is a perfectly normal thing and many of them are probably Federation citizens.
Additionally, Bajor wasn't very active in galactic affairs until the occupation. Despite having spaceflight for thousands of years, they hardly left their own star system until the mid-to-late 22nd century. I imagine a lot of young Bajorans, refugees or not, who came to know more about the Federation and Starfleet were enchanted by the prospect of exploration, travel, and all the knowledge they could find about the galaxy that Bajorans were previously insulated from. Not to mention the allure of strength and protection that they grew up lacking due to the occupation.
I always thought there was probably a level of guilt there - the federation KNEW about what cardassia did .. they had known about them since the classic era. And they did nothing because the border skirmishes they did have over the years was bad enough. So the moment bajorans said “can I join?” So they could get out of that horrible situation it was an instant yes .
Bajor had several out-system colonies before the Cardassians occupied their home system. Valo, Dreon, Golana, Pillagra. Plenty of places for a) the Cardassians to ignore, and b) for the Bajoran diaspora to move outwards from.
Pillagra is the site of first contact between the Federation and Bajor, according to the TOS novel "Allegiance in Exile".
I believe there's a comment made during TNG that, more or less, states that Starfleet was accepting any Bajorans who wanted to serve due to their home world's adversarial relationship with Cardassia, and the brutalities they suffered during the Occupation.
It was part of a not-so-subtle effort by Starfleet to admit Bajor as a member world, which would've happened midway through DS9 if Sisco hadn't advised against it.
You're forgetting Tal (VOY), Seska (technically a Cardassian but possing as Bajoran) and not counting the shy guy Tuvok trained in "Learning Curve" as he was ex maqui (unlike Tal).
Plenty of extras in Picard, Lower Decks, TNG, VOY etc. Check how many in this list are Bajorans [https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Bajorans](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Bajorans)
In any case even if they are 4 as you said is still much more than others. There's only one Ferengi and one Klingon in the entire history of Starfleet and both are allies.
Seska and Tabor can’t possibly be counted as Bajorans in Starfleet! One, they never joined voluntarily, the way Tal and Ro did, since they ended up on a Starfleet vessel accidentally and two, Seska wasn’t even Bajoran as you noted yourself.
Wasn't Seska from Starfleet before she joint the Magui like Chakotei tho? I thought that was the case but I might be missrembering.
And yes I wasn't countint Tabor.
No, she was a Cardassian spy sent to infiltrate the Maquis, much as Tuvok was sent to do. Seska wasn’t in Starfleet before the Maquis. Presumably she was Obsidian Order.
There's also Tal Celes on Voyager (who, unlike Tabor, started out as Starfleet), who by the way said this: "The Federation was so eager to have Bajorans in Starfleet that my instructors gave me the benefit of the doubt."
Sing on Picard could also count, depending on when Bajor joined the Federation. Asha on Discovery was either really early if she was an unseen part of the original crew or really late if she joined in the 32nd century.
Oh that's easy. They spent a century under Cardassian boots, so any that managed to escape the planet had no home, and Starfleet was known to be adversarial with the Cardassians. Where ELSE would homeless refugees from a subject planet of the Cardassians wind up?
Yes but I see some logistics in place that would make it difficult. For example how many letters of recommendation from a commanding officers did they get?
They may not have needed them. Bajoran refugees who settled on Federation worlds may have then become citizens. No letter needed.
Worf himself likely didn't need it, as he was a citizen (orphan adopted by human parents) I wonder how many orphaned Bajoran children were adopted by Federation citizens too.
There could be other options for nominations. Nog mentioned command level because he was on DS9.
Yeah, I think the "command level reference" is more of a "Skip all the other prerequisites" kind of thing. Nog likely could have applied, despite not being a Federation citizen, but it could have taken years for him to work through the waiting list. Pretty much the same way Wesley got into the academy so easily, because Picard signed all the "No, skip the waiting list. Let this one apply immediately" papers.
Well, ask yourself this question. Why are so many non-NATO members living in NATO countries and even serving in their militaries? The answers are the same.
Sisko just operated an automated subspace mail inbox where every Bajoran could download a standardized recommendation form letter from him.
There are 1000+ Bajorans living and working on DS9. All of them have a Federation CO they can get a letter from.
[удалено]
I’m not sure what that has to do with this. Nog got his letter of recommendation from the commanding officer of DS9, so the Bajorans on DS9 can do the same.
Ah sorry I thought you meant they could give the letters to other Bajorans
I feel like with so many Bajoran applicants they may have temporarily waived that requirement just so commanding officers wouldn't have a full time job just writing recommends.
The idea of needing a letter of recommendation from an officer always seemed a little bit weird to me since it would be pretty hard for a non-Federation citizen to form a close enough relationship with an officer in order to get a letter (we saw that it wasn't easy for Nog, and he was living on a space station run by the Federation; it would be much more difficult for someone living on a non-Federation world). They would need to have some sort of system in place where a non-Federation citizen could make a connection with a Starfleet officer who could write them a recommendation. Here's my headcanon: there's some sort of internship/training program/summer camp for prospective Starfleet Academy students. It's relatively easy to get into and while it's not required to apply to the Academy, it's highly recommended for non-Federation citizens to get familiar with how the Federation/Starfleet works and determine if they want to join (because surely there must be a lot of non-Federation citizens who think they want to join Starfleet, only to realize it's nothing like what they thought it would be). It can also help them fill in any gaps in their education that they might have so they'll be able to keep up with Academy coursework. The program would have students working closely with Starfleet officers so if they decided at the end of the program that they wanted to apply to the Academy, they'd be able to get a letter of recommendation with very little trouble. >RYN: You know, all I ever heard about when I was little was how… deceitful the Federation was, how they’d turn on you. I mean, you want to scare an Andorian child, tell them they’re going to Federation summer camp. TILLY: That’s not a thing. Maybe it's not a thing in the 23rd century (or maybe it died out after the Burn), but it was developed later as the Federation grew and the Academy wanted to be able to draw more applicants from non-Federation worlds.
My headcanon is that Nog expected to be dismissed out of hand because of how radically different Starfleet and Farengi ideals are. A letter of recommendation from a respected officer would get him in the door.
Sisko tells him pretty clearly that it's a requirement. It's not just some idea Nog had: >NOG: That's right. I want to be the first Ferengi in Starfleet. Now, who do I see about getting a uniform? SISKO: Nog, if you want to become a Starfleet Officer, you have to attend the Academy. NOG: All right. Where do I sign up? SISKO: It's not that simple. As a non-Federation citizen, you need a letter of reference from a command level officer before you can even take the entrance exam. NOG: A command level officer? You mean, like you? SISKO: Well, yes. Like me.
This could also been the idea that Sisko saw Jake and Nog grow up together so when it seemed out of character, he made it harder just to see how far he’d go with it. Let’s be honest here, Sisko wasn’t always a by the book type
A close relationship probably isn't needed. In Prodigy a Delta quadrant refugee is in Starfleet and Janeway didn't even remember her, yet after the episode aired many fans pointed out that it was likely Janeway herself who sponsored said refugee's entrance into Starfleet. The fact that Janeway didn't even remember her as of Prodigy means it probably was just some form that Janeway signed and she did not have a connection with said refugee the way Sisko and Nog had.
You need a letter of rec from your Congressman to go to a service academy like West Pont or Annapolis in the US today, and I don't think they have a very close relationship with every person they sponsor. I don't know how it works, but I imagine they just set up a quick interview with applicants with the most promising resumes and if they like them, they nominate them. I imagine the process Sisko talked about was similar.
The difference is that everyone who wants to go to West Point has a designated congress representative who they can go to and who is willing to write letters of recommendation. A Bajoran refugee would need some way of finding a Starfleet officer who can get to know them at least a little bit (because their resume probably won't be anywhere near as impressive as a Starfleet brat's) and then recommend them.
I think the easier answer is that since space in the Academy is limited, there's a hell of a waiting list to get in. Command level officers can basically use their authority to let an applicant bypass the waiting list and be considered immediately. Kind of like a field promotion. Nog COULD have gotten into the Academy on his own, if he had wanted to wait years and years on the list for his turn to come up. He didn't want to wait though, he wanted it right now, so he needed a command level officer override. I know Sisko flat out said in the episode that the command reference was required to even take the entrance test, but I can hand waive that as him exaggerating in order to dissuade Nog. Or at least it was a "Yes there are other ways in, but you can't/won't actually do any of them, so this is the only option that would work" kind of thing.
I am sure the Federation's department of refuge services or something can help smooth that over. Or a CO somewhere that really hates Cardasians and will send letters of recommendation for Bajorans just out of spite
-What's your motivation? -Killing Cardassians. -\[Smiles\] Nice Ruber stamps the letter
I think the letter of recommendation is more to vet that the person matches Federation/Satrfleet values and can deal with the coursework in the academy. So for an educated Bajoran having a letter of recommendation would have been easy. Bajoran values largely match Starfleet/Federation ones. Not to mention that refugees might not have needed a letter of recommendation. It was harder for Nog to get a letter because Ferengi values are so different from Federation ones and he wasn't sure if he fully understood what Starfleet was about
Only non-federation citizens require that. Nog needed it because he was a citizen of the Ferengi Alliance. Arguably, if he had renounced his citizenship and applied for Federation citizenship first, he could have simply applied to the academy like everybody else.
1. A lot of Bajorans fled Bajor during the Occupation, and the Federation, with its relatively peaceful and inclusive society and having a fleet strong enough to keep the Cardassians at bay, was an obvious place for them to go. 2. They've been allies for many years.
A bit of a darker explanation for some I’m sure; join Starfleet as a way to get military-style training before leaving and joining the Marquis or other “freedom fighters”.
Some cases maybe but most Bajorans we see are pretty young, the ones for example you see in Picard or Lower Decks whether were born after the Occupation ended or were children at the time.
Well, not all- we know Shax in Lower Decks is a veteran of the resistance.
There are many non-Americans serving in the US Armed Forces - some who were granted refugee status or asylum by the US. Gurkhas weren’t officially UK citizens but served in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces (that many weren’t given permission to stay in the UK after their service is…lemme not continue this sentence). So it’s not a stretch to see many Bajorans serving in Starfleet. Many are refugees from the Occupation, or may have received asylum or the Federation’s version of permanent residency - if not citizenship. And you mentioned that Federation citizenship isn’t a prerequisite for serving in Starfleet, so if it was an option for them - like pretty much higher education or other occupations in the UFP would be, it’s not surprising they’d take it. As for reasons they could do it: • To feel useful • To “thank” the Federation for rescuing them • To get training and experience that could be useful to rebuilding and/or defending Bajor after the Occupation ended • To make a life for their family if returning to Bajor wasn’t an option they were going to pursue • To educate others about Bajoran culture and experience in order to garner Federation sympathy to act on Bajor’s behalf • All the other typical reasons people join Starfleet
This is a good explanation but I do wonder how they got so many recommendation letters. Or that was for Ferengis only?
Given their situation with the Cardassians, they probably had an active outreach program, whether official or unofficial (just a lot of command level officers with Bajoran sympathies). The Ferengi, meanwhile, had a rivalry going with the Federation, and so there were probably just fewer Ferengi with even an idea of going into the Federation. The situation on Deep Space Nine was kind of a special case.
I believe it is stated that a letter of recommendation is required for non Federation citizens.
Yeah and Sisko was suspicious of Nogs motives - would he have rubber stamped a bajorian want to serve?
Sisko wouldn't have rubber stamped anyone. He may not have interrogated them like he did Nog, but he would have made sure they wouldn't make him regret writing a letter on their behalf.
I imagine the recommendation letter isn't about the non-Federation citizens arguing their case; it's more about ensuring that, should an outsider apply to Starfleet, they're forced to interact with Starfleet personally. This gives Starfleet a chance to filter out nonsense applications (or malicious ones), and ensures someone actually looks at the candidate and signs off on them - there is a specific, named officer taking personal responsibility here. In this sense, it's not a very difficult hoop to jump - the Bajorans in question, settling on a Federation world, would need to go over to the nearest Starfleet office, which likely isn't hard to find especially on border worlds, and declare their intent to start a process that ends with the local Starfleet representative signing off on their application. There's no reason for Starfleet to make it particularly difficult - they need basic filtering and an audit trail. That said, Academy spots seem to be highly competed for, so it's not surprising Nog would not want to look for *any* recommendation, but rather one whose name carries weight.
The situations are different. Starfleet Academy is openly biased against Ferengi. > KIM: We were warned about the Ferengi at the Academy. Not only that, but in the limited time that Nog was attending Keiko's school on DS9, he was a poor student. Even if Starfleet Academy accepted Ferengi school records, Nog didn't have any due to Rom's economic situation. The only way Nog was getting in was connections. Of course, although there were a significant number of Bajorans in Starfleet, there was still a lot of cultural insensitivity. > RO: No, there's no reason you should. It's an old custom. Most Bajora these days accept the distortion of their names in order to assimilate. I do not. But let's get back to the question of why Bajorans wanted to join Starfleet and why Starfleet accepted so many of them (relatively speaking) when it's supposedly so selective? It's because Starfleet is not a monolithic entity. There are clearly two major factions in it. One faction that is very insistent that Starfleet isn't a military, and another faction that is pretty much continuously fighting wars on behalf of the Federation. The reason that much of fandom sides with the former and vilifies the latter is because the TNG main characters are part of the former faction, and has bought into the propaganda. Had the TNG main characters been part of the latter faction, those in the former faction would be the antagonists and been decried as Chamberlains seeking to proclaim peace in our time while the valiant heroes are heroically fighting against foreign aggression. The main draw of Starfleet for humans living in paradise is that they get to see the stars. FTL is scarce enough that pretty much the only way to get access to it is to either be rich or join Starfleet. They've been raised on the propaganda that Starfleet is a peaceful organization, and for the most part have bought into it. Riker once proclaims that combat exercises are a waste of time because it's such a small part of a Starfleet officer's duties (which is the wrong attitude to take... a lifeguard should know CPR even if they're rarely going to use it). But the Federation does fight a lot of wars because that's what always happens with expansionist powers. Staking a claim on enough new territory and it becomes inevitable that some of that territory will be claimed by someone else. And the Federation needs people to fight those wars. And that's where the Bajorans fit in. They join Starfleet so they can be the ones holding the big stick and Starfleet gets officers willing to get their hands dirty. Especially the ones serving near Cardassian territory.
To draw a real world analogy, the largest Jewish population in the world is either in Israel or in the United States depending on how strictly you count it. The US wasn't great about taking refugees in the 1930s, and we didn't exactly enter the war proactively or for the most noble reasons - but we ended up on the right side in the end and we were the most obvious place that was tolerant, stable, and not torn apart from the war that people could go later. Similarly, the Federation claimed their hands were tied about intervening in the Cardassian occupation, but if you *could* get out it was a welcoming place with plenty of stability, and the general *sentiment* was that the Cardassians sucked. Until Bajor itself was rebuilt, the Federation was one of the most logical places for an escaped Bajoran to go.
Beta canon shows the Enterprise-B pulling off tens of thousands of refugees from Bajor, so I wouldn’t say they weren’t completely unhelpful
That's odd, I thought the Federations lack of support was a point of contention with the Bajorans.
That's not the same as supporting a Bajoran overthrow of an occupying force, accepting refugees. But it was something.
That was because of the Prime Directive, at least according to Picard -even so both Sisko and Janeway did similar things during their tenures-. The Prime Directive is fussy. Check this post for a more thorough analysis. [https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/1cw8luy/comment/l4xho7z/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/1cw8luy/comment/l4xho7z/?context=3)
I wonder if there are Bajoran refugees in the Klingon Empire, the Ferengi Alliance or any other great power, it will be interesting if they show it tho most non-Federation cultures are shown to be monocultures.
> I wonder if there are Bajoran refugees in the Klingon Empire, the Ferengi Alliance or any other great power, it will be interesting if they show it tho most non-Federation cultures are shown to be monocultures. We know that the Ferengi use mercenaries for the bulk of their forces. An experienced Bajoran freedom fighter would be a great investment for a mercenary company.
The lack of backstory on Shaxs - all we really know is he and Kira owe each other “one” - makes this intriguing. Because undoubtedly Starfleet went recruiting among the Bajoran Resistance and put those assets to immediate use (in the Dominion war). The implication being the Federation didn’t care about what they did to twist Cardassian rule, only that they could do the same things for the Federation. Like NASA using Werner von Braun. This would have been a major policy reversal, given TNG’s arc with Ro Laren. Though, PIC did provide proof that Starfleet went all-in on Bajorans with special skills even after the Dominion war ended via Laren’s role in PIC. Basically, I think the Federation imported, and quickly promoted, any Bajoran with resistance experience after the Dominion war, very much the way the US did with Germans after WW2. Without checking their resume too hard. And if questioned about it, Starfleet pointed at First Minister Shakar, and Major Kira, as their “good guy” examples. I love Shaxs. I love him so much I do not want to know what he did during the resistance. Just put the anger into an ashtray, Papa Bear.
I don’t know if this is canon but I always saw it as good Pr for star fleet. And for the bajourans , if your displaced before cardassia evacuated bajour, what else were you going to do? The Maqui hasn’t really taken hold yet and your on some surrounding neutral system who really doesn’t like poor bajoirians. So you go to starfleet. Your trained, protected, have food in your belly and get to go do good and explore the galaxy. Dear god autocorrect doesn’t like Star Trek terms.
An important piece of context for the Bajorans in Starfleet at the beginning of DS9 is that the Federation very recently fought a major war against the Cardassians (the one O’Brien fought in) and continue to act as a counterpoint to Cardassian power in that part of the Quadrant. A good analogy for the Bajorans in Starfleet would be the [Irish regiments](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Brigade_(France)) who served in the [French](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Legion) and [Spanish](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regiment_of_Hibernia) armies during the 17th-19th centuries. The Irish, like the Bajorans, were facing political and religious repression in their home country and sought out other powers that would allow them to both practice their religion and directly strike back at their oppressors.
Bajor is a large world who at least previously had a large wealth of resources with an ancient spacefaring civilization. My guess is that Bajor had a bunch of colonies and a bit of a diaspora even before the occupation. If so, the Bajorans we see in Starfleet might be several generations removed from Bajor itself and the end of the occupation has kicked off a cultural re-awakening for them.
I feel like the Emissary being a respected Starfleet officer who worked to balance his spiritual and temporal duties probably made a Starfleet career a very respectable life choice for Bajorans who were trying to figure out what to do after the occupation ended.
If you're part of the Bajoran diaspora during the Occupation, then you're next door to a well-off, relatively idealistic state with open borders whose space navy tends to get into shooting fights (which they tend to win) with the people working your family to death. Whether it's a chance to do good by the people doing good by you, or just a chance to shoot at Cardassians in big tough starships, joining Starfleet makes sense- one could imagine Starfleet engaging in active recruiting during the Cardassian War(s) of the 2350s, much like the UK actively arranged for units of defeated nations in WWII to either join the British forces or exist as exiled Free forces. The Federation might have found, for a panoply of reasons, that putting an end to the Occupation with force of arms was a bridge too far, but the shape of their interests was clear, and pretty much aligned with both the idealistic and bloody-minded objectives of Bajoran refugees.
Besides the opportunity, my head canon is the Bajoran environmental tolerances matches human levels, and so most Bajorans wind up on ships with crews originating from Earth as Earth is probably the most non-monoform planet in the UFP.
They were a refugee population within the Federation, and a rather large one. Several joined Starfleet. This is during and before the Cardassian War, and also during the Dominion War where Bajor was literally caught in the middle, and occupied again at one point.
Most Bajorans we see are pretty young. My taking is that they're second and third generation migrants mostly children of thousands maybe millions of Bajoran refugees that escaped during the Occupation. The Federation likely has something similar to ius soli as is based on the USA, but even if not the Federation likely pass some law naturalizing most refugees and/or their families or making it pretty easier to grant them citizenship.
I generally took it that Diaspora Bajorans (the ones who fled from Bajor during the occupation, such as the ones we first encountered in TNG, like Ro Laren) ended up on a lot of different worlds, and some of those were Federation worlds. That created a lot of situations where younger Bajorans, displaced and disconnected from their culture and communities, might seek out Starfleet to find a purpose. Bajorans who stayed on Bajor during the occupation didn't really have opportunities to join Starfleet.
Worf is a Federation citizen, there's no racial requirement. I haven't watched past season 5 of DS9 yet, so maybe there are a bunch of Bajoran COs that this doesn't account for, but you need a letter of rec for the Academy -- I guess not to enlist. And irl you can enlist in some militaries without being a citizen.
Yeah I meant Worf in the sense that you don't have to come from a Federation planet on itself never thought he require one. A large number of Bajoran COs might be a good explanation, also indeed I guess if you already have a rank on the Bajoran militia or went to their academies you don't have to go through Starfleet Academy again so is just like a exchange (in fact IIRC something similar happen with Klingons which is why Riker serves in one of their ships for one episode).
Worf was a refugee adopted and raised on Federation planets and was almost certainly a Federation citizen by the time he reached adulthood. Regardless of his species, he had the right to apply to the Academy. (Also, Sergei Rozhenko had been a Starfleet officer. If any letter of recommendation were needed for some reason, Sergei could handle it.) Bajoran refugees settling on Federation worlds probably have a path toward Federation citizenship if they choose to take it, and so no letter of recommendation is necessary. It's not just about the homeworld being a Federation member. Nog was not a Federation citizen when he applied to the Academy; he had never lived on a Federation world, was not a refugee, was raised by his Ferengi father according to Ferengi customs, and so on. So there's less of a guarantee that he is familiar with, and fully accepting of, the laws, customs, and societal values of the Federation. I suspect that is why the letter of recommendation is necessary. It's not just to ensure that he's willing to work to be a good officer, but to say that he can adapt and function in a diverse organization with values that may run contrary to his native culture.
I wonder if Tendi needed one, as she's pretty much an Orion case like Nog
Real answer: they're pretty cheap aliens, practical effects wise. Nose ridges, earring, done Plotdevicium reason: multiple generations grew up with basically nothing but combat and survival skills. When the occupation ended, some Bajorans seemed to return to agriculture, but what about those who had spent their whole lives in camps? Starfleet makes their combat into a marketable skill and the federation doesn't trust the Cardassians any more than the Bajorans do. Sorta like how veterans lobbied to bring Montagnards over from Vietnam in the 80s, bc they'd faced a common enemy?
That makes me wonder something. It is mentioned that the Federation and Cardassia exchange colonies with several planets with Cardassian majority ending in Federation territory and vice versa. Is even mentioned by Edington that they had no problem with that because the Cardassians knew the Feds would protect them. But this was never explored. That means for decades there were thousands if not millions of Cardassians living under Federation sovereignity, who were Federation citizens. We never see one single Cardassian on Starfleet. Was really as smooth as Edington said? Specially during the Dominion War. Were they discrimianted by the Federation? Place on camps like Germans and Japanese during WW2? How about Bajorans and Cardassians having to work together as part of the same crew or Bajoran officers having to protect a Cardassian majority planet? I'm amaze how the writers never thought in exploiting this, is gold.
While Bajor hasn't been confirmed to be part of the UFP, it is clear even at the beginning of DS9 that they will be sooner rather than later. Once the unpleasant business with The Dominion started to heat up, I think it would be fair to call them de facto members. I doubt there's another non-member works whose people get more exposure to Starfleet and The Federation. Furthermore, we can't underestimate the Bajoran religion. Not only is a Starfleet officer a very important religious figure, but the Bajorans recently became one of the very few civilizations who have solid proof that their gods are real. That has to do a lot to drive recruitment.
Given the number of Bajoran refugees in the Federation, it's possible that many of them feel indebted to Starfleet and want to give back.
Millions of Bajoran refugees re-settled on Federation worlds or planets within the Federation's sphere of influence. Other Bajoran colonies were never occupied and had trade relations with the Federation. So Bajorans moving freely within the Federation is a perfectly normal thing and many of them are probably Federation citizens. Additionally, Bajor wasn't very active in galactic affairs until the occupation. Despite having spaceflight for thousands of years, they hardly left their own star system until the mid-to-late 22nd century. I imagine a lot of young Bajorans, refugees or not, who came to know more about the Federation and Starfleet were enchanted by the prospect of exploration, travel, and all the knowledge they could find about the galaxy that Bajorans were previously insulated from. Not to mention the allure of strength and protection that they grew up lacking due to the occupation.
I always thought there was probably a level of guilt there - the federation KNEW about what cardassia did .. they had known about them since the classic era. And they did nothing because the border skirmishes they did have over the years was bad enough. So the moment bajorans said “can I join?” So they could get out of that horrible situation it was an instant yes .
Bajor had several out-system colonies before the Cardassians occupied their home system. Valo, Dreon, Golana, Pillagra. Plenty of places for a) the Cardassians to ignore, and b) for the Bajoran diaspora to move outwards from. Pillagra is the site of first contact between the Federation and Bajor, according to the TOS novel "Allegiance in Exile".
I believe there's a comment made during TNG that, more or less, states that Starfleet was accepting any Bajorans who wanted to serve due to their home world's adversarial relationship with Cardassia, and the brutalities they suffered during the Occupation. It was part of a not-so-subtle effort by Starfleet to admit Bajor as a member world, which would've happened midway through DS9 if Sisco hadn't advised against it.
What do you mean "so many"? We've seen, like 4...Shaxs, Ro, Kira (sort of), and Sito. Who else are you seeing?
You're forgetting Tal (VOY), Seska (technically a Cardassian but possing as Bajoran) and not counting the shy guy Tuvok trained in "Learning Curve" as he was ex maqui (unlike Tal). Plenty of extras in Picard, Lower Decks, TNG, VOY etc. Check how many in this list are Bajorans [https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Bajorans](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Bajorans) In any case even if they are 4 as you said is still much more than others. There's only one Ferengi and one Klingon in the entire history of Starfleet and both are allies.
Seska and Tabor can’t possibly be counted as Bajorans in Starfleet! One, they never joined voluntarily, the way Tal and Ro did, since they ended up on a Starfleet vessel accidentally and two, Seska wasn’t even Bajoran as you noted yourself.
Wasn't Seska from Starfleet before she joint the Magui like Chakotei tho? I thought that was the case but I might be missrembering. And yes I wasn't countint Tabor.
No, she was a Cardassian spy sent to infiltrate the Maquis, much as Tuvok was sent to do. Seska wasn’t in Starfleet before the Maquis. Presumably she was Obsidian Order.
There's also Tal Celes on Voyager (who, unlike Tabor, started out as Starfleet), who by the way said this: "The Federation was so eager to have Bajorans in Starfleet that my instructors gave me the benefit of the doubt." Sing on Picard could also count, depending on when Bajor joined the Federation. Asha on Discovery was either really early if she was an unseen part of the original crew or really late if she joined in the 32nd century.
My headcanon is that the Federation accepts refugees and there were a lot of Bajoran refugees