E.g., 04/24/2024
E.g., 04/24/2024
Elizabeth Collett
Experts & Staff

Elizabeth Collett

Global Fellow
Special Adviser for Policy and Strategy to the IOM Director General

Elizabeth Collett is Special Adviser for Policy and Strategy to the Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Previously, she was Founding Director of MPI Europe in Brussels and was Senior Advisor to MPI's Transatlantic Council on Migration.

She has more than 20 years of experience in the migration policy sector, and has produced dozens of working papers, policy briefs, and memos focused on the future of European Union immigration and asylum policy, as well as national-level migration policy developments. She has consulted for numerous government ministries and nongovernmental organizations, including foundations, nonprofits, and UN agencies.

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).

She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute and the Strategic Council of the European Policy Centre.

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.

Bio Page Tabs

Top Ten
December 15, 2015
Big Business of Smuggling Enables Mass Movement of People for Enormous Profits

Faced with a flexible, diverse, and seemingly ubiquitous smuggling industry, governments have struggled to respond. Smuggling and trafficking networks, while hardly new phenomena, were put under a harsh spotlight in 2015 for their role as intermediaries in shaping the scale and flow of migrants and asylum seekers around the world.

Top Ten
December 11, 2015
Refugee Crisis Deepens Political Polarization in the West

As seemingly endless waves of asylum seekers and migrants arrived in Europe in 2015, politicians from across the political spectrum invoked forceful anti-immigrant rhetoric that resonated in some quarters. Mainstream politicians began co-opting the tougher, more enforcement-laden language of far-right groups as all parties sought to reassure voters in the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris.

Top Ten
December 17, 2013
Is Europe Faltering in Addressing its Multiple Migration Challenges?

A number of interlocking concerns have emerged in recent months regarding the rights of mobile EU citizens, fueled in part by euroskeptic parties (such as the UK Independence Party), and more hard-line anti-immigration parties such as the Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands.

Top Ten
December 10, 2013
Questions of Immigration Control Preoccupy Policymakers Worldwide as Mixed Flows of New Arrivals Continue, and in Some Cases, Surge

This year has seen greater focus by policymakers in countries around the world on the balance between two enduring, complex migration management imperatives: maintaining secure and credible borders while separating out unauthorized immigrants from the most vulnerable populations in need of humanitarian protection, particularly those seeking refuge from conflict and persecution.

Feature
November 2, 2011
Faltering Movement: Explaining Europe's Schengen Struggle

Europe's Schengen agreement eliminated border controls between 25 countries for over 400 million people. Schengen cooperation has come under intense pressure of late, however, and EU Member States are currently considering whether the rules under which it operates ought to be adjusted. Elizabeth Collett provides background and explains what the current debate means for the future of Schengen.

Feature
January 12, 2010
The European Union's Stockholm Program: Less Ambition on Immigration and Asylum, But More Detailed Plans

In its newest five-year "roadmap" for justice and home affairs policy, the European Union has made migration a priority area. But while the Stockholm program offers plenty of detail on issues like illegal migration and asylum, it offers few specifics as to the final goal. MPI's Elizabeth Collett analyzes the program's action points and looks at challenges facing its implementation.

January 7, 2008
The Proposed European Blue Card System: Arming for the Global War for Talent?

The European Union's recent proposal aims to attract highly skilled migrants by granting them access to all EU labor markets—but with some important limitations. Elizabeth Collett of the European Policy Centre explains the basics of the Blue Card proposal, the questions it raises, and national-level reactions.

Feature
April 1, 2005
Assessing the Tsunami's Effects on Migration

Asia’s tsunami will have an enduring impact on diaspora groups and immigration policy, write Frank Laczko and Elizabeth Collett of the IOM.

Commentaries
June 2018
Europe Pushes to Outsource Asylum, Again
By  Elizabeth Collett and Susan Fratzke
Commentaries
March 2018
Turkey-Style Deals Will Not Solve the Next EU Migration Crisis
By  Elizabeth Collett
Commentaries
January 2018
Borderline Irrelevant: Why Reforming the Dublin Regulation Misses the Point
By  Elizabeth Collett
Commentaries
March 2017
A Game of Chess, Not Tennis: Unraveling the Rights and Status of “Brexpats”
By  Elizabeth Collett and Meghan Benton
Commentaries
February 2017
New EU Partnerships in North Africa: Potential to Backfire?
By  Elizabeth Collett
Commentaries
March 2016
The Paradox of the EU-Turkey Refugee Deal
By  Elizabeth Collett
Commentaries
September 2015
The Asylum Crisis in Europe: Designed Dysfunction
By  Elizabeth Collett
Commentaries
July 2014
The EU’s Strategic Guidelines on Migration: Uncontentious Consensus, But Missed Opportunity
By  Elizabeth Collett
Commentaries
July 2014
An EU Commissioner for Migration? The Devil is in the Details
By  Elizabeth Collett
_Viviane_Reding_COMMENTARY
Commentaries
January 2014
Valuing Citizenship: A Commodity or an Identity?
By  Elizabeth Collett

Recent Activity

Commentaries
July 2014

The EU’s Strategic Guidelines on Migration: Uncontentious Consensus, But Missed Opportunity

The European Council's new strategic guidelines, which set the pathway for future policy development in the area of Justice and Home Affairs in the coming years, seem unfeasibly insulated from today's migration and asylum realities and challenges confronting the European Union. The draft represents a missed opportunity to lead EU heads of state forward on critical issues in this area, MPI Europe's Director writes in this commentary.
Audio, Webinars
June 18, 2014

Has EU Immigration and Asylum Policy Failed? Can It Ever Succeed?

This MPI Europe telebriefing, releasing the brief "Strengthening Refugee Protection and Meeting Challenges: The European Union’s Next Steps on Asylum," examines Europe's current reality with respect to migration and asylum and assesses the possibilities for future development of EU immigration policy.

Policy Briefs
June 2014

Future EU Policy Development on Immigration and Asylum: Understanding the Challenge

This MPI Europe policy brief, published with the European Council poised to articulate a new set of long-term objectives and priorities for action on migration and asylum policy, details the immigration and other challenges that policymakers confront and sets out the reasons for increasingly sclerotic policy development.

Reports
March 2014

The Future of Immigrant Integration in Europe: Mainstreaming Approaches for Inclusion

A quiet policy transformation is taking place in Europe, as policymakers increasingly turn to a strategy of "mainstreaming" immigrant integration—seeking to reach people with a migration background through needs-based social programming and policies that also target the general population. This report assesses mainstreaming efforts across government in Denmark, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
Commentaries
January 2014

Valuing Citizenship: A Commodity or an Identity?

Citizenship is a deeply sensitive issue for the European Union, and Member States hold dear their sovereign right to determine who should become a national. There has been strong resistance by Member States towards any discussion of citizenship acquisition at the EU level, despite some outré national policy changes in recent years. A decision by Malta’s government to sell 1,800 passports for 1.15 million euros apiece has caused unusual levels of furor, and this scheme may become the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Reports
January 2014

Trade-Offs in Immigration Enforcement

Policymakers confront significant constraints in addressing the population of unauthorized migrants, including tackling illegal migration. This report, part of a Transatlantic Council on Migration series focused on migration "bad actors," explores the trade-offs that policymakers face with respect to comprehensive enforcement efforts.
Articles
December 17, 2013

Is Europe Faltering in Addressing its Multiple Migration Challenges?

A number of interlocking concerns have emerged in recent months regarding the rights of mobile EU citizens, fueled in part by euroskeptic parties (such as the UK Independence Party), and more hard-line anti-immigration parties such as the Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands.

Articles
December 10, 2013

Questions of Immigration Control Preoccupy Policymakers Worldwide as Mixed Flows of New Arrivals Continue, and in Some Cases, Surge

This year has seen greater focus by policymakers in countries around the world on the balance between two enduring, complex migration management imperatives: maintaining secure and credible borders while separating out unauthorized immigrants from the most vulnerable populations in need of humanitarian protection, particularly those seeking refuge from conflict and persecution.

Pages