Links I liked

• On average, refugees admitted to the US are significantly less violent than American citizens.  (A two-for-one solution to Europe’s refugee crisis and our gun violence problem?)  Not only are refugees an extremely low terrorist risk, many of them have fled terrorism at home.  Boko Haram alone has killed 17,000 people and displaced 2.6 million over the past six years – an entirely different order of magnitude to terrorist attacks in high income countries

• Uganda offers additional evidence that allowing refugees to work is good for the economy and for integration into local communities

• Everything you wanted to know about the west African startup landscape

• David Evans has rounded up more than 150 new papers in development economics from NEUDC

• African Arguments is running a fantastic ten-part series on African political thought, complete with reading lists and videos

• Helicopter parenting in the US can’t just be attributed to a status-obsessed culture; it’s more fundamentally driven by our lack of economic mobility

• Just for Berkeley grad students: are you beginning an original research project soon?  Do you want to learn more about the logistics and ethics of doing research?  Justine Davis and I are launching the Research in Practice Working Group at the D-Lab with a kickoff meeting on Thursday next week.  Come to talk about your research design, stay for the wine!

• Song of the Week: it might be too early to conclude that this is the video of the year, but Blitz the Ambassador’s video for Shine is a perpetual favorite.  A gorgeous meditation on tradition and contemporary culture, race and vulnerability, familial love, and exuberant confidence.

Links I liked

• Ainehi Edoro’s Brittle Paper is my new favorite blog on African literature

• Aliza Luft discusses her new research on the complexities and contradictions of ethnic violence in Rwanda

• “Behind the wave of migrants crashing into Europe lurks another story. The Mediterranean shore of Africa is becoming a vast waiting room for the record numbers who fall short” (Wall Street Journal)

• Why has Uganda done a relatively better job using its oil revenues than Ghana, even though its institutions might be weaker overall?  A new report from Sam Hickey, Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai, Angelo Izama and Giles Mohan

• “When we imagine ourselves as scholars, who do we actually imagine? The international student in US/EU or the Pakistani student specifically, cannot imagine themselves as their US/EU/UK citizen peers” (Chapati Mystery)

• Video of the week: Baloji’s “Unité & Litre” critiques the outsize influence of mobile phone and alcohol companies in the DRC, complete with soukous beats and fantastic dance moves