E.g., 06/01/2024
E.g., 06/01/2024
Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan
Experts & Staff
Photo of Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan

Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan

Deputy Director, International Program

(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
[email protected]

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

Three men pose with guns

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

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.

Cover Top10 5Citizenship

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

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.

RefugeesinFYRM StephenRyanIFRC Flickr

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.

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.

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.

IOm_Colombia_Passport_Woman_smaller
Commentaries
March 2021
By  Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan and Diego Chaves-González
IOm_Colombia_Passport_Woman_smaller
Commentaries
February 2021
By  Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan and Diego Chaves-González
CoronavirusCommentary Art
Commentaries
March 2020
By  Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, Meghan Benton and Susan Fratzke
EuropeanParliament EPphoto Flickr
Commentaries
May 2019
By  Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan
_DutchElections
Commentaries
March 2017
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan

Recent Activity

Articles

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.

Audio, Webinars
July 14, 2016

The UK vote to exit the European Union has given new momentum to euroskeptic, anti-immigration movements elsewhere. Experts discuss the political and policy lessons that can be learned from Brexit and applied to debates in Europe and North America, including how to address public anxiety over immigration and identity while managing migration in a globalized economy.

Reports
July 2016

What factors are fueling rising public anxiety over immigration seen in Europe and North America? This Transatlantic Council report outlines and analyzes the factors that can set the stage for such public unease—some of which have their roots outside of immigration policy per se, and are instead deeply embedded in the global, national, and local contexts within which migration occurs—and offers policymakers strategies to respond.

Video, Audio, Webinars
May 25, 2016

A discussion on how the politics and migration policies of the British government influenced the decision to hold the "Brexit" referendum, how public attitudes towards immigration might influence the decision whether the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, and how the outcome might impact migration policy in the United Kingdom and European Union more broadly.

Policy Briefs
April 2016

As Muslim minorities continue to grow in size and influence in Europe and North America, this Transatlantic Council on Migration policy brief focuses on the different policy frameworks and practices found on either side of the Atlantic regarding integration of Muslim immigrants, as a window into how receiving governments and societies manage religious difference and fundamental change in an era of large-scale immigration.

Articles

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.

Articles

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.

Articles

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.

Pages