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...

This front-page @theguardian.com article on how the UK might pay for France to deport refugees at sea doesn’t mention refugees once. Instead, it uses terms without people, like “intercept,” “small-boat crossings,” “legal action” and “shadow economy.” www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

i don't as a rule write about my personal life so much but this is a story about a sandwich and the love story threaded through my life buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Starmer regrets using the "island of strangers" rhetoric in a speech claiming immigrants caused "incalculable damage." He still hasn't actually calculated the effects of immigration, including benefits for health, education, science, food, literature, and more. www.thenational.scot/news/2527180...

Might be of interest to @artsofdenial.bsky.social @crookedfootball.bsky.social @spe07.bsky.social @rebeccabuxton.bsky.social @bradleyhsmith.bsky.social @mgerver.bsky.social @pattitlenard.bsky.social @liorerez.bsky.social @lukasschmid.bsky.social @alexsager.bsky.social

This is an extremely good overview of how hard it is to gain asylum.

If you read down this Mail article long enough, you get to this grudging admission: "76% of pupils at Kobi Nazrul are meeting 'expected standards' in reading, writing and maths. That compares with a local average of 71 per cent and an average of 61 per cent in England." . archive.ph/wip/lmv8G

Negative coverage of boat crossings leads to reduced support for other migrants, including students and family members. Interestingly, it least affects opinions on asylum seekers (though it still does).

FELLOW PHILOSOPHERS OF MIGRATION! I am crowdsourcing for a piece on public philosophy projects connected to migration. Could you share examples of your wonderful public-facing work (or that of someone you know) on in this area? I'm particularly, but not exclusively, interested in (see below):

Remember the other time when someone asked if it’s ok to call immigration authorities on a friend they know married for a visa? And he says yep.

It would be useful to know if @princetonupress.bsky.social included an epidemiologist as a reviewer. If it didn’t, that’s a disservice to both readers and the authors. In general: if political theorists want to work with data, experts in data need to be reviewers. @michaelhobbes.bsky.social

Latest book arrived - Nicola Kelly’s “Anywhere but here” on our broken asylum system - looking forward to reading it - #refugeeswelcome

AI is so stupid.

Immigration is less in the news, but Labour is planning on cutting migration at the expense of human rights and health sectors. We have 97 signatures in a petition: if you're a researcher or academic, sign and share with others to help us reach 100 signatures. molliegerver.weebly.com/petition.html

This isn’t hypocritical. I think there should be more health workers, and think most people should support more health workers, but I don’t think most people should be health workers. Same thing for all sorts of jobs. While this policy is terrible, public opinion isn’t as silly as we often assume.

A week ago there was an open letter signed by politics researchers urging Keir Starmer to abandon his proposed anti-immigrant policies. With the support of the organizers, I've created the same petition but open to all academics. Read and sign the letter here: molliegerver.weebly.com/petition.html.

If you’re an academic, researcher, or writer, sign this letter!

Appalling. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...