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E.g., 04/19/2024
Meghan Benton
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Photo of Meghan Benton

Meghan Benton

Director, International Program

[email protected]

@meghan_benton

Meghan Benton is Director of the International Program at MPI, where her work spans a wide range of areas including labor mobility, immigrant integration, border management, and humanitarian protection. She has a particular interest in the role of technological and social innovation in immigration and integration policy, and in how labor market disruption affects immigration and integration. 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. Most recently, she has been working on how the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped global mobility. She convenes MPI’s Task Force on Borders and Mobility During and After COVID-19.

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Dr. Benton 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 2012-15, 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.

Bio Page Tabs

Digital litter
Feature
June 20, 2019
Digital Litter: The Downside of Using Technology to Help Refugees

Several years after a flurry of tech innovations arose to respond to the 2015-16 European migration crisis and assist asylum seekers, "digital litter"—now-dormant websites, broken links, and poor-quality information spread through apps and social media—is floating around. At best, digital litter is a nuisance. At worst, it can place refugees and migrants in harm's way and undermine their decision-making, as this article explores.

Three men pose with guns
Feature
April 3, 2019
Foreign Fighters: Will Revoking Citizenship Mitigate the Threat?

Even with the collapse of the Islamic State's "caliphate," thousands of Western foreign fighters are estimated to remain in the Middle East. Deciding how to handle the return of the radicalized—and their dependents—is no easy issue. Some countries seek to revoke their citizenship. Yet citizenship revocation has unclear impact and raises deep questions about the limits of a state’s responsibility to its citizens, as this article explores.

British and EU flags
Top Ten
December 11, 2017
Despite Progress on Brexit Negotiations, Fate of Millions of EU and UK Nationals Still Hangs in the Balance

As Brexit negotiations move forward, the issue of the future rights for EU nationals resident in the United Kingdom and UK nationals living on the continent has emerged as a sticking point. Though negotiators in early December 2017 agreed to a skeletal deal on citizens' rights, countless details remain to be worked out, leaving the future of some 4 million people unresolved—with implications for them, their families, employers, and others.

RefugeeHackathon Hackerstolz Flickr
Top Ten
December 7, 2016
New Actors Step Up to Help Shoulder Growing Refugee Burden, But System Slow to Adapt

2016 saw the emergence of a "whole-of-society" approach to the refugee crisis, with a number of new actors, including many from the private sector, engaging with humanitarian protection issues in creative ways. This engagement and the energy and diversity of these partners, in the tech sector and beyond, creates both opportunities and challenges for governments and more traditional civil-society organizations.

The ruins of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul’s Old Town
Top Ten
December 11, 2014
Governments Fear Return and Intentions of Radicalized Citizens Fighting Abroad

Increasing numbers of Westerners heading to Syria and Iraq to join jihadist organizations like ISIS have governments concerned about possible attacks at home by returning fighters. Several thousand fighters from Europe and other Western countries are believed among the foreign nationals involved in conflicts in Syria and Iraq. Lawmakers scrambled in 2014 to respond with new policies, including seizing passports, stripping citizenship, and criminalizing travel to "no go" zones.

Top Ten
December 18, 2013
The Changing Face of International Migration: Flows Are Increasingly Fluid, Diverse, and Unconventional

International migration flows are becoming increasingly diverse—not just in origins, but also in the composition of labor migration flows and the destinations to which migrants are heading. This article leads off the Migration Information Source's annual Top 10 Migration Issues of the Year.

Feature
May 10, 2013
Integrating Europe's Muslim Minorities: Public Anxieties, Policy Responses

Muslim integration is one of the most contentious issues in the immigration debate in Europe, and one that gets to the heart of public anxieties about immigration. This article explores public perception toward Muslims in Western Europe and the array of integration policies that countries in the region have adopted during the past several years.

A woman in a winter coat receives food from a woman in an orange safety vest at a train station in P
Commentaries
May 2022
The Ukrainian Conflict Could Be a Tipping Point for Refugee Protection
By  Meghan Benton and Andrew Selee
Two adults and two children wearing face masks at a migration health centre in Nigeria
Commentaries
May 2022
Managing Mobility in the Pandemic Era Requires World to Buy In on Shared Principles
By  Meghan Benton and Lawrence Huang
Photo of woman in lab in Abuja, Nigeria testing for COVID-19
Commentaries
December 2021
Can Omicron Finally Get the World to Cooperate on Pandemic Mobility Management?
By  Meghan Benton
Officer and travelers wearing PPE at Port Everglades, Florida
Commentaries
October 2021
As the United States Lifts Travel Restrictions, Its New Vaccination Requirements Could Shape the Future of Global Mobility
By  Meghan Benton
Covid Mobility Commentary Flickr JensOlafWalter
Commentaries
May 2020
The Rocky Road to a Mobile World after COVID-19
By  Meghan Benton
CoronavirusCommentary Art
Commentaries
March 2020
Coronavirus Is Spreading across Borders, But It Is Not a Migration Problem
By  Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, Meghan Benton and Susan Fratzke
BrexitDay January2020
Commentaries
January 2020
Brexit Day—Is This the Dawning of the Age of Immobility?
By  Meghan Benton
Brexitcommentary2019
Commentaries
January 2019
Too Little, Too Late? Contingency Planning for UK Nationals in Case of a No-Deal Brexit
By  Meghan Benton and Aliyyah Ahad
_TheresaMay
Commentaries
June 2017
The Good, the Bad, and the Fuzzy: Brexit Negotiating Stance towards Mobile EU Nationals Unveiled
By  Meghan Benton
_BrexitFamily
Commentaries
March 2017
A Game of Chess, Not Tennis: Unraveling the Rights and Status of “Brexpats”
By  Elizabeth Collett and Meghan Benton

Recent Activity

Reports
February 2018

Mainstreaming 2.0: How Europe’s Education Systems Can Boost Migrant Inclusion

Rising numbers of young immigrants and refugees entering European schools following the 2015–16 migration crisis strained system capacity and injected new urgency into debates about how to support diverse learners and their families. This report examines the challenges facing European education systems and identifies key lessons to improve migrant inclusion in schools and integration more broadly.

Audio
November 16, 2017

Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion: Maintaining Momentum and Creating Lasting Change

Following the arrival of large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers in Europe from 2015 onwards, many nontraditional actors—from tech start-ups to social enterprises—pioneered solutions to foster the social and economic inclusion of newcomers. This conference reflects on how innovations for refugee inclusion can grow beyond pockets of good practice and inspire large-scale, long-term change.

Articles
December 11, 2017

Despite Progress on Brexit Negotiations, Fate of Millions of EU and UK Nationals Still Hangs in the Balance

As Brexit negotiations move forward, the issue of the future rights for EU nationals resident in the United Kingdom and UK nationals living on the continent has emerged as a sticking point. Though negotiators in early December 2017 agreed to a skeletal deal on citizens' rights, countless details remain to be worked out, leaving the future of some 4 million people unresolved—with implications for them, their families, employers, and others.

Video, Audio, Webinars
November 7, 2017

Life Beyond Brexit: How Are Negotiations Faring Over Rights for UK Citizens in the European Union?

As the European Council gears up to move onto the next phase of Brexit negotiations, this MPI Europe webinar features findings from an MPI Europe report that offers a demographic profile of the approximately 1 million UK citizens living in the European Union and examines the ways in which many are likely to see their futures significantly reshaped after Brexit. The discussion takes stock of citizens' rights, reflects on what may happen next, and considers the prospects for Britons abroad both in a situation of ‘no deal’ and if there is an ultimate agreement.

Reports
November 2017

Safe or Sorry? Prospects for Britons in the European Union after Brexit

Amid ongoing Brexit negotiations, much remains uncertain for the roughly 1 million UK citizens living elsewhere in the European Union. This report offers a demographic profile of these Brexpats, considering what form an EU-UK deal on citizens’ rights might take and identifying key challenges many Britons are likely to face—including difficulty securing legal status and accessing labor markets, social security, and health-care systems.

Commentaries
June 2017

The Good, the Bad, and the Fuzzy: Brexit Negotiating Stance towards Mobile EU Nationals Unveiled

Initial reaction to the British government's offer regarding the post-Brexit treatment of EU nationals resident in the United Kingdom was sharply divergent, ranging from constructive to catastrophic. Examining the deal at a slightly longer remove, the proposal in many ways represents a thoughtful piece of immigration policy—albeit with some glaring holes and vague elements, as this commentary explores.

Reports
June 2017

In Search of Common Values amid Large-Scale Immigrant Integration Pressures

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.

Audio, Webinars
May 11, 2017

The Tech Turn in Refugee Protection and Integration: New Solutions or Hot Air?

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.

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