Miranda Simon

YouTube video by C-SPAN Senator John McCain Election Night Speech (Full Video)

I think it is valuable for all Americans to watch this speech, 16 years ago.

This is what we have lost. What extremists have taken from us.

Congratulations Rana!! I can't wait to read it!! 🤩🤩🤩

🚨🚨🚨Blockbuster paper out today! Bear with me as I explain why this one is so important.

🤔 The *economic* anger about immigration is based on the false notion that immigrants take jobs or lower wages. A major misunderstanding behind this view is that immigrants only increase the supply of labor.

Female academics are much more affected by the birth of a child than are male academics.

Academic mothers are much more likely to...

◾temporarily leave the labor force

◾and, if they return, shift away from tenure-track positions.

scholar.harvard.edu/files/sdchen...

Petition An Open Letter to Keir Starmer We, the undersigned, strongly advise against the proposed changes to the UK immigration system of May 12, 2025, and your associated rhetoric. We are UK-based academics.....

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.

Those who are uncomfortable with this Labour immigration announcement, but think it's necessary to satisfy Reform voters, this is for you.

You will not satisfy. You will never satisfy.

Cool. We’ve ripped up the social contract with young people, so they can’t afford to buy a home, or settle down and have children or ever retire. Let’s now force half of them to be trained only to do jobs they will hate in order to stop people from other countries moving here for a better life.

Come to @uniessexgov.bsky.social and the @essexsummerschool.bsky.social. World class trainining in politics and methods, with low tuition, and in an environment that embraces diversity and fosters exchange of ideas 💡

Yes, the US Administration’s illegal obliteration of our Congressionally-mandated aid agency has killed countless people.

Now you know the name of one.

This is an obvious point, but cannot overstated. There is an enormous difference between deporting someone - where they get off a plane as a free citizen in their home country AND FUNNELING THEM INTO A BRUTAL PRISON FROM WHICH THEY HAVE NO CHANCE OF EVER EMERGING!!!

What explains Trump's immigration agenda? It's not about illegal immigration. He is the most anti-LEGAL immigrant president ever. He is stripping legal immigrants of their status, arresting them, detaining them and deporting them. It's also not about...

Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.

Donald Tusk has a point here.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/w...

Great International Women’s Day discussion with Essex Department of Government and guests! Superstar panel. Allyson Benton, @roxanagutz.bsky.social, @tashlindstaedt.bsky.social , @syysr.bsky.social, @mirandasimon.bsky.social . So valuable, I learned a lot. Thanks to everyone involved.

Who Paid for Trump’s Transition to Power? The Donors Are Still Unknown. President Trump has not made good on a promise to disclose who contributed to his transition effort.

After six weeks in office, President Trump has not disclosed the names of the donors who paid for his transition planning, despite a public pledge to do so.

10/ fixing some of these bluesky handles! @ajpseditor.bsky.social @unibirmingham.bsky.social @rhulpir.bsky.social

9/ Thanks also to @universityofessex.bsky.social

8/ Big thanks to @UNMigration for their patience with evaluation logistics and invaluable insights. Also grateful to @FCDOGovUK for generous funding and support! This work is part of the MIGCHOICE project led by @Prof_RBlack and Dr. Christina Oelgemoller.

6/ These findings shed light on the psychological connections between development aid and migration decisions. While “root causes” aid can shift aspirations briefly, keeping up these effects is tough amid global inequalities.

5/ Interviews w/ practitioners and young Gambian entrepreneurs gave us insight into some constraints: The project helped participants navigate gov’t regulations and build local networks, which increased instrumental attachment. But sustaining that attachment over time remains challenging.

4/ That a small program increased instrumental place attachment was remarkable. The program also boosted self-sufficiency and self-efficacy, but these alone didn’t lower migration aspirations. The real driver was instrumental place attachment — though, unfortunately, this effect was short-lived.

3/ Our RCT showed the program temporarily reduced migration aspirations and planning. How? By strengthening participants' sense of instrumental attachment to the origin country: they felt more able to achieve their goals locally.

2/ Govts often use foreign aid to tackle the “root causes” of irregular migration, but does it work? And if so, how? We examined this using a youth employment program (YEP) – a representative type of “root causes aid” (RCA) project implemented by @UNMigration in Gambia to reduce irregular migration.

1/ Excited to share our new paper, “Can foreign aid reduce the desire to emigrate? Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial,” w/ Cassilde Schwartz (@rhulpirp) & @profdavidhudson (@iddbirmingham) — published in @AJPSeditor! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/CFSFRF...

I’ll spend a fun half-day on March 4 at @lsemethodology.bsky.social talking about field research prep, funding and logistics to PhD students and early career scholars. I was re-invited after last year’s session, so I presume it was helpful. Feel free to join!

I’ll keep pushing this line of analysis because I’m increasingly convinced the clearest path out of this mess is for Dems to adopt a relentless anti-corruption, anti-inequality, anti-oligarchy, pro-democracy platform. The Dem leadership hasn’t realized it yet, but they’re now a reform party.

Check out this thread for the key results of our recent study.

Analysis | Did Trump cave on his Canada and Mexico tariffs? Some of the purported concessions that led to a 30-day pause on the tariffs were things Canada and Mexico had already done before Trump’s threat, but it’s complicated.

The media need to be careful not to further the narrative that Trump is extracting concessions from trade partners by bullying them into submission. Many so-called concessions were already in place as a result of more cooperative diplomatic approaches.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

ICYMI: Will Syrian refugees go 'home'?

Looking at the experimental evidence of Syrian refugee return intentions, with work from @loribeaman.bsky.social @aalrababah.bsky.social @dmasterson.bsky.social @mirandasimon.bsky.social @thebraith.bsky.social and others

www.compas.ox.ac.uk/article/will...

This paper is very ingenious. I really liked it.