Dr Isabella Trifan from @UniEssexGovt: “Today’s announcement is a step forward—not because 16-year-olds can pay taxes, but because they are citizens who are affected by policy and are as capable of voting as many adults are.” #VotingAge #YouthVoice #Democracy #WeAreEssex

9/ Thanks also to @uniessexgovt!

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.

7/ 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.

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

5/ The real driver was instrumental place attachment — though, unfortunately, this effect was short-lived.

4/ That a small program increased instrumental place attachment was remarkable. The program also boosted self-sufficiency & self-efficacy, but these alone didn’t lower migration aspirations.

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

2/ Govts often use foreign aid to tackle “root causes” of irregular migration. Does it work? & if so, how? We examined 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!

Going to #SPSA2025 in Puerto Rico? Come join us for my favorite event of the year—our 5th Annual Conference Within a Conference on Borders & Migration. It's bigger than ever before, and this time we're also bringing some great data and policy folks from DC. We're also

People can analyze, hypothesize, blame Dems till they are blue in the face. None of it matters. This is the game right here. Misinformation works. Those that believed misinformation voted Trump. Those that believed the truth voted Harris. There is NO candidate that can

Where did Trump voters get their news? 📰 Yes, there's social and partisan sites, but there is another influential strategy that isn't getting enough attention: Manipulated, pay-to-play and all out fake news sites I've been covering a mix of those for years. Here's a primer 🧵

Proud of my PhD student @edenaninadjei @uniessexgovt who was selected as one of the @PolStudiesAssoc Diverse Voices Scholars. Eden works on British African political behaviour in the UK. Congrats also to the other scholars!

Do not miss out on this great opportunity to work with Professor @TIGizelis on this exciting project! More information about the position here: https://t.co/bHOV0iLO9v Please apply and/or share widely!

🚨Please share widely!🚨 J. Walsh, @bethewhitaker, M. Ewers & I are hiring a new postdoc to join our growing team working on collective shocks and migration starting this summer. We're looking for a social scientist with strong data skills & interest in migration:

#ESS2024 scholarship specifically for Political Science/IR PhD students based in the Global South - please circulate widely and get your students to apply for excellent intermediate & advanced methods training. More details below!

Looking forward to future COP meetings on the spillovers of migration interventions with this awesome group!

THREAD: What is happening in UK universities is astonishing. Right now about quarter of universities are laying off staff. Almost all universities expect to make a loss this year. And the entire thing is happening in an effort to deceive the population about migration statistics.

One of my students asked if there's any work that needs to be done now that the term has ended for lecturers. Would you like to know the answer?