Meghan Benton
Meghan Benton is Director of the Global Program at MPI, with responsibility for the strategic direction of the Global Program and its flagship Transatlantic Council on Migration, the Latin America and Caribbean Initiative, the Refugee and Forced Displacement Initiative, and other international work. She is also on the board of MPI Europe.
Dr. Benton regularly advises governments across key immigration destinations, and is working to expand MPI’s global reach and depth of knowledge of regional mobility systems. Her expertise spans a range of areas including labor mobility, immigrant integration, border management, and humanitarian protection. She has a particular interest in how digital technology is reshaping immigration and asylum systems, and in how innovations can lay the groundwork for a more managed, predictable migration system. In 2016, she co-founded MPI Europe’s Integration Futures Working Group, which seeks to develop a forward-looking agenda for integration policy in Europe. She also co-convenes the Transatlantic Council on Migration.
She previously was a Senior Researcher at Nesta, the United Kingdom’s innovation body, where she led projects on digital government and the future of local public services. Prior to joining Nesta, she was a Policy Analyst at MPI from 2012 to 2015, where she co-led an MPI-International Labor Organization six-country project on pathways to skilled work for newly arrived immigrants in Europe. She also worked on Project UPSTREAM, a four-country project on mainstreaming immigrant integration in the European Union. Previously, she worked for the Constitution Unit at University College London and the Institute for Public Policy Research.
Dr. Benton received her PhD in political science from University College London in 2010, where her PhD research focused on citizenship and the rights of noncitizens. She also holds a master’s degree in legal and political theory (with distinction) from University College London, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and literature from Warwick University.
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In the News
Can Democracies Balance Control and Compassion?
Meghan Benton discusses on The View from Here podcast
Why Is Immigration Policy So Hard to Get Right?
Meghan Benton speaks with Madeleine Sumption, Director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford
Explore Content by Meghan Benton
Showing 51-60 of 81 total results
A New Vision for Immigrant Integration
As societies face pressures from immigration, labour market change, and other forces, the Integration Futures Working Group offers strategies to help newcomers and long-standing communities adapt to change.
Breaking New Ground: Ten ideas to revamp integration policy in Europe
MPI Europe's Integration Futures project offers European policymakers a road map for modernising integration amid rising populism and automation.
Doing More with Less: A new toolkit for integration policy
Facing tight budgets and political headwinds after the 2015–16 migration crisis, European integration policymakers can borrow tools from other fields to do more with less.
Too Little, Too Late? Contingency planning for UK nationals in case of a no-deal Brexit
With a no-deal Brexit looming, EU Member States began contingency plans for nearly 1 million UK nationals. But registration gaps and bilateral issues persisted.
In Search of a New Equilibrium: Immigration Policymaking in the Newest Era of Nativist Populism
Nativist populism's most lasting impact is not electoral but indirect—reshaping immigration agendas and pulling mainstream parties to the right across liberal democracies.
Applying Behavioural Insights to Support Immigrant Integration and Social Cohesion
Behavioural insights remain untapped in integration policy, yet evidence from health and tax shows they can improve cohesion and service access at low cost.
Jobs in 2028: How will changing labor markets affect immigrant integration in Europe?
Shifting labour markets will compound integration barriers for Europe's immigrants—and the same investments that prepare newcomers for work will benefit all workers.
A Needed Evidence Revolution: Using cost-benefit analysis to improve refugee integration programming
European refugee integration policy relies too often on political pressure rather than evidence, and cost-benefit analysis can help policymakers quantify its long-term social value.
Next Steps: Implementing a Brexit deal for UK citizens living in the EU-27
EU-27 governments remain poorly prepared to transition British residents to a new legal status as Brexit's preliminary 2018 agreements leave major implementation gaps.
Mainstreaming 2.0: How Europe’s education systems can boost migrant inclusion
Progress on migrant education in Europe has been uneven, and the 2015–16 migration crisis exposed structural gaps that prevent diverse learners from achieving equitable outcomes.
