Elizabeth Collett
MPI Authors
Elizabeth Collett
Elizabeth Collett was the Founding Director of Migration Policy Institute Europe and Senior Advisor to MPI's Transatlantic Council on Migration, leaving to join the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Her work focused in particular on European migration and immigrant integration policy.
Prior to joining MPI, Ms. Collett was a Senior Policy Analyst at the European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think tank, and was responsible for its migration program, which covered all aspects of European migration and integration policy. She has also worked in IOM's Migration Research and Policy Department in Geneva and for the Institute for the Study of International Migration in Washington, DC. She also served as a Research Associate at the Centre for Migration Policy and Society, Oxford University (2011-13), and consulted for numerous governmental ministries and nongovernmental organizations, including foundations, nonprofits, and UN agencies.
She is a member of the Advisory Board of the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD). She is also a member of the Dahrendorf Committee, which advises the Dahrendorf Forum, a joint initiative between the Hertie School of Governance and the London School of Economics and Political Science that encourages constructive reflection on the mid- to long-term strategic challenges facing Europe.
Ms. Collett holds a master's degree in foreign service (with distinction) from Georgetown University, where she specialized in foreign policy and earned a certificate in refugee and humanitarian studies, and a bachelor's degree in law from Oxford University.
Recent Activity
This meeting highlighted lessons from MPI Europe’s flagship Integration Futures initiative, which seeks to develop creative and strategic approaches to addressing today’s most difficult and pressing integration challenges—and to better plan for those around the corner.
As maritime arrivals climbed in 2015, EU policymakers struggled to mount a coordinated response. A range of ad hoc crisis-response tools emerged, but many officials worry that if another migration emergency were to hit Europe, the European Union may still be unprepared. This report traces the evolution of the EU response to the 2015–16 crisis and lays out recommendations to lock in progress and shore up weaknesses.
European leaders have settled on a recurring proposition to address the ongoing political crisis on migration: the creation of asylum processing centers beyond EU borders. The plans championed by various EU leaders are diverse, the details fuzzy. What they have in common is a near-universal focus on shifting responsibility for dealing with refugees and migrants upstream, as this commentary examines.
The EU-Turkey deal has been credited with helping to end the migration crisis of 2015-16, and after two years in force it has fostered a myth that such deals are cure-alls. They are not, as this MPI Europe commentary explores. Recent EU responses place great emphasis on transit routes to Europe. But what if the next major event is a different kind of shock altogether?
Is 2018 the year that the European Union takes leadership on migration on the international stage, or where it focuses inwards on healing internal divisions and delivering on overdue migration and asylum system reforms? This webinar looks ahead at the major external and internal events affecting migration on the continent over the next year.
European policymakers are fixated on reform of the Dublin Regulation, the contentious rules that carve up responsibility for asylum claims between EU states. They see it not only as a long-term prophylactic against future fluctuations in irregular migration, but as a marker of the success or failure of solidarity in Europe overall. Yet rather than doggedly working to salvage Dublin, policymakers need to stop and consider why they regard it as so integral to European cooperation, as this commentary explores.
This MPI Europe discussion brings together two of the most experienced thinkers on migration policy— António Vitorino and Demetrios G. Papademetriou—to explore what will be needed over the next years to ensure that the properly managed movement of people remains an integral, positive force in the world.
Following the arrival of large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers in Europe from 2015 onwards, many nontraditional actors—from tech start-ups to social enterprises—pioneered solutions to foster the social and economic inclusion of newcomers. This conference reflects on how innovations for refugee inclusion can grow beyond pockets of good practice and inspire large-scale, long-term change.
Europe Pushes to Outsource Asylum, Again
Turkey-Style Deals Will Not Solve the Next EU Migration Crisis
Borderline Irrelevant: Why Reforming the Dublin Regulation Misses the Point
A Game of Chess, Not Tennis: Unraveling the Rights and Status of “Brexpats”
New EU Partnerships in North Africa: Potential to Backfire?
The Paradox of the EU-Turkey Refugee Deal
The Asylum Crisis in Europe: Designed Dysfunction
The EU’s Strategic Guidelines on Migration: Uncontentious Consensus, But Missed Opportunity
An EU Commissioner for Migration? The Devil is in the Details
Valuing Citizenship: A Commodity or an Identity?