Elizabeth Collett is the Founding Director of Migration Policy Institute Europe and Senior Advisor to MPI's Transatlantic Council on Migration. She is based in Brussels, and her work focuses in particular on European migration and immigrant integration policy. Ms. Collett convenes MPI Europe’s working group on the future of the Common European Asylum System (EU Asylum: Towards 2020), bringing together senior policymakers from more than a dozen European countries to discuss future asylum policy reform.
Ms. Collett has produced dozens of working papers, policy briefs, and memos focused on the future of EU immigration and asylum policy, as well as national-level policy developments. She is regularly cited in prominent print and broadcast outlets, doing interviews on all aspects of European migration policy and its broader policy ramifications.
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 the Migration Research and Policy Department of the International Organization for Migration 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.