Maureen Eger
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maureeneger.bsky.social
Maureen Eger
@maureeneger.bsky.social
Political sociologist researching immigration, welfare states, (neo-)nationalism, democracy and more.

Associate Professor, Umeå University
Incoming Associate Professor, University of Southern California

Posts my own.
https://www.maureeneger.com/
Pinned
What is the liberalizing potential of higher education? In this @bjsociology.bsky.social research, we show substantial variation in the association between field of study and anti-immigrant sentiment — a pattern most pronounced among those with tertiary degrees doi.org/10.1111/1468...
“USC already stands for academic excellence, and we do it without ideological loyalty oaths.” Professors @profmpastor.bsky.social & @jodyav.bsky.social grade the Compact (F) and urge leaders “to stand up for academic freedom, fiscal responsibility and just plain common sense.”
October 15, 2025 at 5:42 AM
Immigrants make up only 4% of the world’s population but they are more than 30% of this century’s science Nobel prize winners.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
More than 30% of this century’s science Nobel prizewinners immigrated: see their journeys
The most common destination for eventual Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry and medicine since 2000 is the United States, Nature has found.
www.nature.com
October 10, 2025 at 3:00 AM
What is the liberalizing potential of higher education? In this @bjsociology.bsky.social research, we show substantial variation in the association between field of study and anti-immigrant sentiment — a pattern most pronounced among those with tertiary degrees doi.org/10.1111/1468...
September 22, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Reposted by Maureen Eger
Apply for a 2026-27 academic year CASBS residential fellowship. Deadline: Oct 31, 2025

Much more info & link to application portal: casbs.stanford.edu/apply-casbs-...

Watch former fellows talk about it in their own words in a suite of 17 short, awesome videos: casbs.stanford.edu/apply-casbs-...
September 22, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Maureen Eger
Immigrants help keep California’s $4T economy running.

Trump’s mass raids and stripping people of legal status risk tearing it apart — gutting our workforce and raising costs for everyone while separating American families.

End these senseless policies now, Donald Trump.
As the Trump administration continues to ramp up immigration enforcement, industries key to the state’s $4 trillion economy like agriculture, construction and hospitality could be among those hardest hit by the loss of California’s immigrant workforce, new research suggests.
Trump’s immigration policy threatens key sectors of California’s economy, long reliant on immigrant workers
At stake are billions of dollars that fuel businesses large and small across the state, whose standalone economy is the fourth largest in the world after the U.S., China and Germany.
nbcnews.to
September 6, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Reposted by Maureen Eger
NEW PAPER! We look at immigrant criminality from the perspective of victims. Criminals tend to victimize the people in their community. If immigrants are setting off a crime wave, immigrants would be their 1st victims. Do we see that... no! Just the opposite... 🧵 www.cato.org/policy-analy...
August 26, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Maureen Eger
I debated writing this. It can feel tempting, upon encountering yet another instance of this administration’s racism, to let it be. How many ways can you say the same thing over and over again? And yet we have to write it down, if for nothing else, so those who come after us know we were against it.
Actually, Slavery Was Very Bad
The president’s latest criticism of museums is a thinly veiled attempt to erase Black history.
www.theatlantic.com
August 22, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Maureen Eger
Two recently published studies show that individuals who studied humanities or art subjects are more socially liberal than those with degrees in other fields.

1) @maureeneger.bsky.social, @heypaolo.bsky.social &Mikael Hjerm (2025) in @bjsociology.bsky.social: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
What is the Liberalizing Potential of Higher Education? An Analysis of Academic Fields and Anti‐Immigrant Sentiment Across 32 Countries
The link between educational attainment and attitudes towards out-groups stands out as one of the most consistent statistical associations in the social and political sciences. However, a recent anal...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
July 16, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Reposted by Maureen Eger
Does higher ed liberalize sentiments about immigrants? Using survey data across 32 countries, CASBS fellow @maureeneger.bsky.social & coauthors reveal substantial variation in the assoc b/w field of study & anti-immigrant prejudice

👉 @bjsociology.bsky.social: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
July 9, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by Maureen Eger
California, 17 other states challenge 'suspicionless' stops by masked ICE agents in L.A.
California, 17 other states challenge 'suspicionless' stops by masked ICE agents in L.A.
California and a coalition of 17 other states have backed a lawsuit calling for an end to unconstitutional immigration stops in Los Angeles.
www.latimes.com
July 7, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Reposted by Maureen Eger
Me & @joanalker1.bsky.social on @npr.org's "It's Been a Minute" talking about the erroneous stereotypes that drive Medicaid cuts & the fundamental connections between all of us. When we harm those whom government deems "underserving," we ultimately harm everyone.
www.npr.org/2025/07/04/1...
Think the Medicaid cuts don't affect you? Think again. : It's Been a Minute
Republicans have passed President Trump's One Big, Beautiful bill, but is it built on bad faith stereotypes? The legislation guts funding for Medicaid, and for a long time Republicans have been attack...
www.npr.org
July 4, 2025 at 3:39 PM
@selcanmutgan.bsky.social et al. find that ethnic school segregation in Sweden is largely a downstream consequence of “the ethnic segregation of the housing market and the geographic distribution of schools.” @europeansocreview.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1093/esr/...
Ethnic preferences, opportunity structures, and the school segregation process
Abstract. Previous research has shown that parents often have strong ethnicity-related school preferences, and it has been suggested that these preferences
doi.org
June 29, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Europe’s neo-nationalist turn

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/w...
How Europe Got Tough on Migration
www.nytimes.com
June 29, 2025 at 4:55 PM
I love when the radical right research robot @kai-arzheimer.com shares my brilliant Umeå University colleague’s work
A. Bohman. “Who's Welcome and Who's Not? Opposition Towards Immigration in the Nordic Countries, 2002-2014”. In: Scandinavian Political Studies 41.3 (2018), pp. 283-306. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9477.12120.
June 19, 2025 at 6:07 AM
Reposted by Maureen Eger
7. Bottom line: tactics matter but so do our own biases when observing and reacting to resistance. Worth approaching coverage with skepticism and holding media accountable.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
All of L.A. is not a ‘war zone.’ We separate facts from spin and disinformation amid immigration raids
What's actually happening during the ICE sweeps and protests across Los Angeles.
www.latimes.com
June 18, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by Maureen Eger
An important piece from the @apsrjournal.bsky.social (by @devorahmanekin.bsky.social and @tmitts.bsky.social) to make sense of ongoing events: it matters not only which tactics are adopted by protesters but also who they are.
June 9, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Reposted by Maureen Eger
"...university leaders have to explain to a larger public how Trumpists, in an unprecedented spree of national self-destruction, are busy preventing cancer cures, damaging American soft power, and killing one of the country’s major exports, namely higher education."
Trump’s revenge spree on Harvard echoes well beyond education | Jan-Werner Müller
Attacks on the university make clear that the administration will wield its power against anyone who incurs its displeasure
www.theguardian.com
May 26, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Reposted by Maureen Eger
The Trump administration is engaging on an all-out assault on the institutions, workers and standards that make learning and knowledge production possible, in the hopes of securing political dominance forever. (Gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
May 27, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Reposted by Maureen Eger
So your research area has been politicized and your federal funding cancelled, what now? I try to give some answers in this opinion piece for @nature.com 1/

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
When the government cancels your research grant, here’s what you can do
The mass cancellation of US federal grants marks yet another escalation in political interference in science, but there are ways to keep crucial research going.
www.nature.com
May 19, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Reposted by Maureen Eger
Cato has published my comprehensive review of the ~240 Venezuelans the US government renditioned 2 months ago to Salvador’s notorious prison. We identified FIFTY who came legally, never violated any immigration law, but are imprisoned at the US government’s request and at US taxpayer expense.
May 19, 2025 at 4:06 PM
“…branding marginalized communities and their political opponents ‘terrorists’ is a surefire way to delegitimize them and diminish their capacity to dissent—and even to exist” warns @ssinnar.bsky.social

slate.com/news-and-pol...
The Real Threat of the Nonprofit “Terrorism” Provision in Trump’s Big Bill
The Trump administration has already wielded the “terrorist” label to stigmatize and strip rights from student activists and migrants.
slate.com
May 19, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by Maureen Eger
Separately, migration & climate change are among the most politically polarized issues. But they interrelate across a variety of contexts. This enabled @maureeneger.bsky.social to widen the scope of inquiry in her CASBS fellows seminar, including reappraising mechanisms underlying existing theories
May 3, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Is this what he meant by “protecting women”?

NIH guts its first and largest study centered on women | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...
NIH guts its first and largest study centered on women
The Women’s Health Initiative has produced numerous influential findings
www.science.org
April 24, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Maureen Eger
So true. US universities are top notch, and magnets for talent that strengthen the US economy, *because* the US made a policy decision to invest in research.

What the gov’t really does is run a competition to let university scientists compete for grant funding to do research that helps society.
Actually, flip the headline. It's really "How the Federal Government Became so Dependent on Universities."

These competitively awarded, peer reviewed research grants produce tremendous returns on investment. New tech, health, science that benefit all people & businesses in the USA & world.
April 19, 2025 at 6:35 PM