E.g., 04/18/2024
E.g., 04/18/2024
Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan
Experts & Staff
Photo of Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan

Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan

Deputy Director, International Program

[email protected]
(202) 266-1923

@nataliabbogdan

Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan is Deputy Director of MPI’s International Program, where she oversees the Institute’s comparative work on social cohesion, migration and development, global governance, and climate. She has authored numerous publications on social integration and identity, public opinion and narratives, and international cooperation on migration, with a particular focus on Europe and Latin America. She is also a Nonresident Fellow with MPI Europe.

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+1 202-266-1910
+44 20 8123 6265
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Ms. Banulescu-Bogdan has represented MPI at international events and processes such as the Global Forum on Migration and Development, the International Migration Review Forum, the Group of Friends of the Quito Process, working groups of the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s working group on migration communication (NETCOM). She regularly advises governments and international organizations on the design and implementation of migration policies and programs, including on topics such as combating xenophobia, targeting development investments, and designing effective communications strategies around migration.

Since joining MPI in 2008, Ms. Banulescu-Bogdan has also worked closely with MPI’s flagship international initiative, the Transatlantic Council on Migration, through which she has helped advise stakeholders on various aspects of migration management and authored countless private policy memos for governments in Europe, North America, and beyond. Prior to joining MPI, 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, where she wrote about the political mobilization of Roma in Romania. She received a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania. In her personal time, she manages an informal network of community volunteers supporting newly arrived refugees in Washington, DC and Maryland.

Bio Page Tabs

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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.

MarineLePen BlandineLeCain Flickr
Top Ten
December 13, 2016
As Publics Fear Loss of National Identity, Far-Right Populist Movements Gain Strength

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.

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Top Ten
December 14, 2015
Governments Increasingly Restrict Citizenship

Citizenship came under fire in new ways around the world in 2015, with attempts to both restrict who is eligible to become a citizen and who can be deprived of citizenship. Driven by fears of international terrorism, a number of countries proposed or passed legislation making it easier to narrow citizenship and broadening the range of offenses for which individuals can be stripped of their citizenship.

Cover Top10 6Rhetoric
Top Ten
December 11, 2015
Refugee Crisis Deepens Political Polarization in the West

As seemingly endless waves of asylum seekers and migrants arrived in Europe in 2015, politicians from across the political spectrum invoked forceful anti-immigrant rhetoric that resonated in some quarters. Mainstream politicians began co-opting the tougher, more enforcement-laden language of far-right groups as all parties sought to reassure voters in the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris.

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Feature
September 24, 2015
Europe’s Migration Crisis in Context: Why Now and What Next?

As Europe struggles to reach a consensus on how to respond to the refugee crisis, the seemingly unending flow of migrants and refugees arriving on its shores is bringing national asylum systems to their breaking point. This article analyzes the context of the crisis, discussing the root causes of the flows, why they are spiking now, and growing protection challenges.

Top Ten
December 10, 2013
Greece Confronts Golden Dawn As the Far Right Takes Aim at the European Union

The murder of an anti-fascist rapper in 2013 dealt a severe blow to Greece's extremist, virulently anti-immigrant political party Golden Dawn, whose popularity had been increasing (relatively unchecked) since 2010. The party, which rejects the neo-Nazi label that many have applied to it, provoked a national outcry in September after a party sympathizer confessed to killing Pavlos Fyssas.

Feature
August 2, 2012
Shaping Citizenship Policies to Strengthen Immigrant Integration

In recent years, many governments have tightened their citizenship requirements as a way to promote better immigrant integration. In examining citizenship policy in the United States, Canada, and countries in the European Union, this article considers the balance policymakers face between requirements that may be too difficult for immigrants to meet and ones that will better help them find success in their new countries of residence.

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Commentaries
March 2021
¿Qué sigue ahora luego de que Colombia haya dado un paso histórico en materia de migración?
By  Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan and Diego Chaves-González
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Commentaries
February 2021
What Comes Next Now that Colombia Has Taken a Historic Step on Migration?
By  Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan and Diego Chaves-González
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Commentaries
March 2020
Coronavirus Is Spreading across Borders, But It Is Not a Migration Problem
By  Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, Meghan Benton and Susan Fratzke
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Commentaries
May 2019
The Election Results Are In: It Is Neither the End of Europe nor Its Rebirth
By  Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan
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Commentaries
March 2017
The Dutch Elections: How to Lose and Still Shape the Direction of a Country—and Possibly a Continent?
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan

Recent Activity

Reports
November 2018

When Facts Don’t Matter: How to Communicate More Effectively about Immigration’s Costs and Benefits

Emotionally charged and anecdotal narratives about immigrants often seem to drown out arguments made on the basis of robust data and evidence. Why is that? This report explores how new technologies, the human brain, and political communication are reshaping the role of facts in public debates. The report concludes with an examination of what it takes to make the “expert consensus” resonate with skeptical publics.

Video, Audio, Webinars
September 12, 2018

Making the Global Compact on Migration a Reality: Ideas for Enhancing Regular Migration Pathways at All Skill Levels

As the final phase of preparations for the historic adoption of a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration approaches, this webinar explores two central objectives of the compact: enhancing the availability and flexibility of pathways for regular migration, and investing in skills development.

Video, Audio, Webinars
January 31, 2018

Migration in Europe: What Trends to Watch in 2018?

Is 2018 the year that the European Union takes leadership on migration on the international stage, or where it focuses inwards on healing internal divisions and delivering on overdue migration and asylum system reforms? This webinar looks ahead at the major external and internal events affecting migration on the continent over the next year.

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.

Video, Audio, Webinars
April 12, 2017

Immigration and its Discontents: European Elections and Future Policy

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. 

Commentaries
March 2017

The Dutch Elections: How to Lose and Still Shape the Direction of a Country—and Possibly a Continent?

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.

Reports
March 2017

Rebuilding after Crisis: Embedding Refugee Integration in Migration Management Systems (Council Statement)

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.

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