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 71-80 of 81 total results
Into the Mainstream: Rethinking public services for diverse and mobile populations
Mainstreaming integration has swept European policy circles but remains poorly defined and untested, risking retrenchment rather than inclusion of diverse populations.
Governments Fear Return and Intentions of Radicalized Citizens Fighting Abroad
Governments in 2014 struggled to weigh foreign-fighter security fears against civil liberties, amid ISIS recruitment and lone-wolf attacks.
Aiming Higher: Policies to get immigrants into middle-skilled work in Europe
European integration policies have prioritized getting immigrants into work over career progression. Without reform, persistent labor market gaps will widen.
Smart Inclusive Cities: How New Apps, Big Data, and Collaborative Technologies Are Transforming Immigrant Integration
Smartphone apps offer cities promising but limited tools for immigrant integration, valuable only when embedded in broader policy and designed equitably.
Moving Up or Standing Still? Access to Middle-Skilled Work for Newly Arrived Migrants in the European Union
In six EU countries, immigrants were over-represented in low-skilled jobs and made limited occupational gains over a decade, pointing to structural barriers beyond education.
Spheres of Exploitation: Thwarting Actors Who Profit from Illegal Labor, Domestic Servitude, and Sex Work
Migrant exploitation is sustained by high profits and low risk for bad actors, and enforcement tools across labor, care, and sex markets each carry serious unintended consequences.
The Changing Face of International Migration: Flows Are Increasingly Fluid, Diverse, and Unconventional
Southern Europe's reversal from destination to source of emigration is one sign of how post-recession migration has grown more difficult to predict.
Reaping the Benefits? Social security coordination for mobile EU citizens
EU social security coordination is poorly defined, inconsistently applied, and publicly distrusted—eroding support for both free movement and the welfare state.
Maximizing Potential: How Countries Can Address Skills Deficits within the Immigrant Workforce
More than ever, human capital is seen as the ultimate resource. As a result, policymakers face the challenge of ensuring that workers have the skills and abilities to find productive employment and contribute to growth, innovation, and competitiveness in constantly evolving labor markets. Migrants’ skills are often seen as an untapped resource that, with the right formula of policies, can bolster competitiveness and fuel productivity.
Integrating Europe's Muslim Minorities: Public Anxieties, Policy Responses
Integration of Muslim migrants in Europe raises questions at the heart of public anxieties about immigration.