Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan
Associate Director, International Program
Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan is Associate Director of MPI’s International Program and a Nonresident Fellow with MPI Europe. Her areas of expertise include social cohesion and identity, values and civic engagement, and the intersection of nationalism and migration.
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Since she joined MPI in 2008, Ms. Banulescu-Bogdan has primarily worked with MPI’s flagship initiative, the Transatlantic Council on Migration, through which she has helped advise participating governments on various aspects of migration management. This has included technical support to countries holding the rotating presidency of the European Union, support to the annual Global Forum on Migration and Development, and private briefings and memos to help countries think through changes to migration-related legislation.
Prior to joining MPI in 2008, she worked at the Brookings Institution, helping to develop public policy seminars for senior government officials in the Institution’s executive education program.
Ms. Banulescu-Bogdan obtained her master’s in nationalism studies from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. Her master’s thesis focused on the political mobilization of Roma in Romania. She received her Bachelor of the Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania in international relations.
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Recent Activity
Amid high levels of immigration, the roles of religion, culture, and identity in liberal democratic societies in Europe have come under the microscope. Few have found it easy to identify a core set of shared values and to communicate them evenhandedly to newcomers. Amid clashes over burqas and belonging, this report explores the tradeoffs policymakers face in defining, instilling, and managing disagreement over values.
This MPI webinar explores the recent “tech turn” in refugee protection and integration, and considers whether the tech community's interventions in this area are likely to have a lasting impact. Speakers discuss the most promising innovations and their broader implications for policymakers. They discuss the challenges and opportunities for governments as they seek to work with new actors such as tech companies. And they also consider the broader digital infrastructure needs of refugee camps and services—including the crucial issue of Internet and mobile connectivity for refugees.
Public anxiety about immigration and the fast pace of social change has reached a boiling point in many parts of Europe, contributing (in part) to the ascent of populist far-right parties. This discussion focuses on how the French election is unfolding, what we can learn from Brexit and the Dutch elections, and what these results portend (if anything) for the next round of political contests in Europe. Experts consider how governments can manage broader public concerns about rapid social change, economic opportunity, and security in ways that can reduce public anxiety over immigration and restore the public's trust.
The failure of Geert Wilders’ right-wing, anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV) to become the top vote-getter in the Dutch parliamentary elections is being hailed as proof of the limits of anti-Muslim rhetoric and even the “waning” of the appeal of right-wing populism. But as this commentary explores, a closer reading leads one to a more nuanced interpretation of the results and the recognition that Wilders will remain a major force.
This Transatlantic Council Statement explores the integration questions that the recent refugee and migration crisis in Europe has brought to the fore and their effect on broader governance structures for managing migration. As the immediate pressures have abated, policymakers have refocused their energies on preventing the next crisis and ensuring that newcomers—and the communities in which they settle—have the tools to thrive.
The success of populist movements on both sides of the Atlantic in 2016, including Donald Trump's victory in the United States and the United Kingdom's vote to quit the European Union, have sparked an identity crisis in the West. Campaigns effectively tapped into the anxieties of voters who feel left behind by societal change and out-of-touch elites, while normalizing anti-immigrant rhetoric in mainstream discourse, as this Top 10 article explores.
The UK vote to exit the European Union has given new momentum to euroskeptic, anti-immigration movements elsewhere. Experts discuss the political and policy lessons that can be learned from Brexit and applied to debates in Europe and North America, including how to address public anxiety over immigration and identity while managing migration in a globalized economy.
What factors are fueling rising public anxiety over immigration seen in Europe and North America? This Transatlantic Council report outlines and analyzes the factors that can set the stage for such public unease—some of which have their roots outside of immigration policy per se, and are instead deeply embedded in the global, national, and local contexts within which migration occurs—and offers policymakers strategies to respond.
¿Qué sigue ahora luego de que Colombia haya dado un paso histórico en materia de migración?
What Comes Next Now that Colombia Has Taken a Historic Step on Migration?
Coronavirus Is Spreading across Borders, But It Is Not a Migration Problem
The Election Results Are In: It Is Neither the End of Europe nor Its Rebirth
The Dutch Elections: How to Lose and Still Shape the Direction of a Country—and Possibly a Continent?