You might think that, if you increase the minimum wage, then this won’t affect workers in the informal economy. It might even decrease their wages. This article shows that minimum wages are associated with an increase in informal workers’ wages.

The US actually has a dearth of public toilets precisely because of previous policies banning paid public toilets, as this excellent @planetmoney.bsky.social episode discusses. www.npr.org/2025/05/02/1....

The Home Office initially decides whether an asylum seeker is a child by just having two members of staff “look at the child and decide whether, based on their appearance and demeanour, they think that they could be a child.”

So you should really watch this. Just 2 minutes. But a window into the truly radical nature of the people Trump is nominating. When pressed today, the nominee to be Ambassador to South Africa refuses to oppose reinstituting laws to prevent black people from voting in America.

“Using administrative student data from New York City, we…find the standard deviation of teacher effects on height is nearly as large as that for math and reading achievement, raising obvious questions about validity.” www.nber.org/papers/w26480

But it’s ok because everyone clapped for these nurses four years ago.

When I meet someone with ILR who can afford to apply for citizenship but doesn’t, I tell them “apply if you can!” But many people can’t: it’s too the expensive. Those people would be eligible for deportation under the Tories even if they had lived in the country for over a decade.

A rule of thumb: if people are willing to assume significant risks to cross the channel, they probably are fleeing significant risks in France, and a non-insignificant number will try to recross the channel again if sent back to France. Any one-in-one-out policy must depend on France being safe.

🚨 Job Alert 🚨 Our group (@bethewhitaker.bsky.social, @akoustov.bsky.social, Michael Ewers) is hiring a postdoc for a project on long-term environmental changes, shorter-term shocks (conflicts, disasters, economic disruptions), and migration. Details right here: jobs.charlotte.edu/postings/64603

Opposition to ICE violence is consistent with studies conducted over the years: people opposing immigration still oppose very violent enforcement. They oppose violent enforcement even when it’s necessary to force migrants to leave. See our studies here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...

In this article, we asked a representative sample of Syrian refugees in Lebanon whether they wished to repatriate, remain, or resettle. Most did not went to resettle. We then asked them to imagine that resettlement was actually possible, and the number preferring resettlement dramatically increased.

My book, 'Anywhere But Here', is finished! It will take you inside the Home Office and behind the scenes of the small boats crisis for the first time. You can pre-order from Waterstones: bit.ly/4gBxHTV Foyles: tinyurl.com/3n7p3w3h Amazon: amzn.to/3XuF7Q8

The article states “The Conservatives say they would task officials with removing 750,000 illegal immigrants.” This is inaccurate: the plan would include migrants *legally* in the country, because it is legal for refugees to enter to claim asylum without first getting a visa.

Am I missing something, or does Reform’s plan sound more pro-immigrant than Labour? Though Reform says immigrants won’t get ILR and need to reapply for a new visa after 5 years, they’ll still be eligible for citizenship after 5 years AND won’t need to volunteer to get it - unlike with Labour.

Prisoners (including those not arrested under terrorism charges) now have their keffiyas confiscated because keffiyas are considered “branding associated with the Palestine Action Group.” www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

@ianleslie.bsky.social claims anti-immigrant attitudes arose from the size and velocity of a “post-pandemic (and post-Brexit) surge in immigration.” But the surge began *during* the pandemic, more because of new health and care workers than anything else - workers wildly popular amongst voters.

Do any philosophers have experience creating their own index, and/or hired a good indexer they can recommend?

David Yambio, President of Refugees in Libya and victim of EU-funded abuses: "We, Refugees in Libya and I, personally, have been abducted with the boats you financed. We have been held in arbitrary detention in the prisons you have supported. We have been tortured by the militias you have trained.”

I think I neglected to share the link to the published version of my paper The Value of Ceremonies (open access) which was my Presidential Address for @triphilosophy.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

When I went to the academia/, .edu site to delete my account, I noticed twelve AI podcasts about my articles posted on my profile without my knowledge or consent. Now they can create AI versions of users for whatever they want, sold to whoever they want, anywhere they want, for as long as they want.

An excellent defence by @akoustov.bsky.social of a policy where private citizens can use their own money to bring over and support refugees, who are given permanent residency on arrival or later. In the US this is supported by even most Republicans. alexanderkustov.substack.com/p/why-dont-y...

In Denmark, if you’re pregnant and the government thinks you will be a bad parent because you were abused as a child, they can give you a test asking “what’s glass made of?” and “what’s the big staircase in Rome called?”If you fail they take your baby after birth. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

I’ll also be making “up to” 30 billion this year.

I’m not sure this is true. When I was in 2nd grade I was introduced to the Holocaust at my Orthodox Jewish school, and the brilliant teacher began by talking about very poor Germans looking for scapegoats. Economic deprivation feeds on racism, and the wealthy who don’t want to help find scapegoats.

The man with five houses who says there aren’t enough houses because of asylum seekers in hotels is also the man with two ex-wives who says men marrying women have more stable relationships.

Lots of people say offensive things when they’re young, and maybe they can change. If they change they say things like “I acted wrongly. I’m sorry” and not “it is chilling that a conversation from nearly a decade ago can do this sort of damage.” www.itv.com/news/2025-09...

Excellent point: The Home Office seems to believe not initially granting asylum deters more people from arriving, but it just increases the number who appeal, increasing the appeals backlog, forcing more genuine refugees to live in hotels for longer rather than being able to work.

The reporters tell us they interviewed dozens of anti-immigrant protesters and “also…asylum seekers.” By the end the article finally states only two asylum seekers were interviewed, who only say asylum seekers shouldn’t commit crimes. Thanks for the balanced view BBC. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

If you’re a PhD student working on politics, philosophy and/or economics, consider applying for the KCL PPE grad conference! The form can be found here: forms.office.com/e/ZC0MXYhMVk

In the UK there were huge efforts put into exposing anti-semitism in left Labour, and virtually *no* efforts to expose anti-semitism amongst Conservatives. Even the Guardian ignored the problem, leading to past Conservative wins. I’m glad at least anti-semitism amongst Reform is getting attention.

It’s worth noting that the CDC decision is the same as UK NHS policy, which doesn’t recommend covid vaccines for pregnant women, something not noted in articles covering this in the US. The difference, of course, is that the UK decision is made with evidence by specialists, and not anti-vaxxers.

I cannot emphasise, based on polls I’ve conducted with colleagues, how *incredibly* unpopular deporting firefighters is. It’s unpopular across the political spectrum. In some ways that’s stupid - lots of people contribute besides firefighters - but this shows how out-of-touch the policy is.

An excellent point by @zoejardiniere.bsky.social: the asylum seekers in hotels are here legally - that’s why they are given accommodation if they need it - yet they can’t legally work, contrary to what most UK citizens want. That’s one reason they can’t pay for their own accommodation.

Just heard latest Maintenance Phase from @yrfatfriend.bsky.social and @michaelhobbes.bsky.social. It was great, but at one point they make fun of people who don’t touch receipts; I thought handling receipts was legit risky? Would be cool to hear an episode on BPS. preventcancer.org/article/pape...

This by @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social is essential for anyone wanting the real story of Britain's asylum system and the shameful way the UK now treats the desperate people seeking refuge here. I'll be talking to Nicola about her book on Sept 16. Subscribe here for an invite www.adambienkov.co.uk

An excellent overview of Israeli public opinion, including an Israel Democracy Institute poll finding that 79% of Israeli Jews are not troubled by reports of famine among the Palestinian population in Gaza, and another Maariv poll finding that 47% think there isn’t starvation in Gaza.

People often say that the far right erodes norms. But mainstream politicians saying the same thing as the far-right erode norms even more. That’s potentially because people on the left are less likely to react as angrily.

There’s a lot wrong with this policy, but this article notes a wrong often overlooked: any asylum seekers who manage to get a visa to move to the UK know they got the visa because another asylum seeker in the UK was deported. It’s a one-in-one-out policy, a “cold trade of humans.”

This is a nearly-useless survey. It asks people if they support “large numbers” of legal migrants leaving, not specifying actual numbers. People might be thinking hundreds, thousands, 10s of 1000s, etc. So we don’t know if a sixth of the public endorses extreme views, or how extreme the views are.

I’ve read dozens of children’s books to my kids claiming we can the save environment by recycling, with no mention of *any* political solution. This attitude - recycling will save the world - is taught in schools too, and it’s wrong. This article explains why. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

When my ancestors came to the US in the 1890s, they were viewed as Jewish and *therefore* foreign, treated with disdain along with other immigrants and anyone viewed as outsiders. Trump’s policy follows the same ideology, one which emboldens rather than fights antisemitism.

This is mad for many reasons, but it also explicitly discriminates against mothers (if I understand correctly), and the last Trump administration stopped granting citizenship to many children of US citizen mothers born abroad *precisely* because they claimed this discriminated against fathers.

There's a lot true here, but I disagree that there's a problem with journals publishing findings that are "uninteresting," or not "new." Replicating old findings is often neither interesting nor new, but given the replication process, essential. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

People often talk about how badly migrants are treated, and how misleading the media is. And it is. But this focus can overlook difficult moral dilemmas, where it's not clear - even if you have all the facts - what policy is ethically defensible. That's the focus of this special issue.

NGOs are often unsure how to help refugees. For example, when refugees without rights seek help repatriating, NGOs may feel helping makes them complicit in forced returns, but not helping forces refugees to remain. I consider how dilemmas like these can be resolved. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

@lindsaybrainard.bsky.social‬ has written a beautiful short paper about the harms to a student who uses AI for a creative assignment. Since it is around 4000 words however, I fear that no student considering cheating will read it. philpapers.org/rec/BRASAF-4

I’m a fourth-generation US citizen who was born and lived in the US until almost 15, but if I want to visit my parents and siblings in the US with my *own children*, who aren’t US citizens due to another Trump policy, I may need to pay $750.

The US now sends people to countries they are not citizens of nor ever lived in, and do this within six hours. What this article doesn’t note is that this affects US citizens: a US citizen who can’t find their passport within six hours could be sent to South Sudan, Eswatini, or El Salvador.

Cool article! In short: disciplines where people who do the most work get to be first author incentivise collaboration, as people don’t feel resentment when colleagues doing less work get first author. It would be cool look at data to test this further. Anyone want to collaborate??

If I understand correctly, the previous government agreed to provide asylum to Afghan citizens who had worked for the UK, and whose names were leaked to the Taliban, but Labour will stop the scheme? The @theguardian.com seems to frame this as a good money-saver: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...