Abigail Fisher Williamson

Abigail Fisher Williamson serves as an Associate Professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Her scholarly work centers on immigration policy, urban politics, health policy, and civic engagement. She is the author of Welcoming New Americans? Local Governments and Immigrant Incorporation (University of Chicago Press, 2018) and co-editor of The Politics of New Immigrant Destinations: Transatlantic Perspectives (Temple University Press, 2017), examining how local governments navigate immigrant incorporation through both facilitative and restrictive practices.

Her research expertise spans migration processes, migrant incorporation, and socio-cultural consequences including racism, xenophobia, cultural identity, and social cohesion. Williamson investigates legal-political dimensions of migrants' civic engagement and rights through interdisciplinary political science and urban studies frameworks. Methodologically, she integrates qualitative approaches (interviews, oral history) with quantitative analysis (correlation, causal studies) in comparative, multi-sited research focused on U.S. urban and subnational contexts.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals persistent focus on intergovernmental dynamics in immigrant integration, particularly how local responses to immigrants are shaped by federal-state relationships. Her work connects mental health outcomes with migration experiences, examines language's role in shaping immigration attitudes, and investigates trust erosion in diversifying communities. This scholarship consistently highlights tensions between welcoming rhetoric and restrictive practices in immigrant-receiving communities.