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Susan Fratzke
Experts & Staff
Photo of Susan Fratzke

Susan Fratzke

Senior Policy Analyst

49 1516 5601336 | + 1 202 266-1927

@ekztarf

Susan Fratzke is a Senior Policy Analyst with MPI’s International Program, based in Germany, where she conducts comparative research on asylum policy, forced migration, and refugee resettlement and complementary pathways.

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+1 202-266-1910
+44 20 8123 6265
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Ms. Fratzke has authored or contributed to numerous reports assessing the role of refugee pathways and sponsorship in addressing humanitarian needs and displacement. She served as a lead researcher on a 2018 report for the European Commission that proposed an EU approach to the role and development of refugee private sponsorship in Europe. Her work conceptualizing the role of sponsorship in developing humanitarian pathways has been widely cited internationally in research and policy documents.

She also leads work on national asylum systems and the role of international and regional cooperation in maintaining access to protection in response to cross-border humanitarian displacement. She manages an MPI-Robert Bosch Stiftung initiative that is examining ways to strengthen national asylum systems worldwide. She has also been a core contributor to MPI’s longstanding work on the Common European Asylum System (CEAS).

Ms. Fratzke has worked for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration in Brussels and Washington, DC, and as a coordinator for an adult literacy program serving resettled refugees in Minnesota. She holds an MA in German and European studies, with a concentration in European migration policy, from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She also earned a certificate in refugees and humanitarian emergencies from the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown.

Bio Page Tabs

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Reports
November 2016
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Susan Fratzke
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Reports
September 2016
By  Karen Jacobsen and Susan Fratzke
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Reports
March 2016
By  Elizabeth Collett, Paul Clewett and Susan Fratzke
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Reports
June 2015
By  Randy Capps, Kathleen Newland, Susan Fratzke, Susanna Groves, Michael Fix, Margie McHugh and Gregory Auclair
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Reports
March 2015
By  Susan Fratzke
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Reports
November 2014
By  Meghan Benton, Madeleine Sumption, Kristine Alsvik, Susan Fratzke, Christiane Kuptsch and Demetrios G. Papademetriou
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Reports
July 2014
By  Meghan Benton, Susan Fratzke and Madeleine Sumption

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Syrian family on a plane

The global refugee resettlement landscape changed dramatically in 2017, as the United States began to step back from its role as global leader on resettlement. The Trump administration reduced the 2018 refugee admissions ceiling to the lowest level since the program began in 1980. While other countries increased their commitments or launched new programs, this was not enough to make up for the gap left by the United States.

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As Europe begins to move beyond the overwhelming flows of asylum seekers and other migrants it experienced starting in 2015, policymakers are paying significant focus to integration coupled with stepped-up enforcement. 2016 saw a wave of policy innovations facilitating integration as well as returns and deterrence, but it remains to be seen whether Europe will be able to continue and scale up this work in 2017 and beyond, as this Top 10 article explores.

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Global displacement reached a new high with nearly 60 million people worldwide displaced internally or externally in the greatest number since record-keeping began. The trend continued in 2015 as conflicts in places such as Central African Republic, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen drove millions of people to leave their homes and seek refuge in other communities or across borders.

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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.

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The European Court of Human Right's ruling on the transfer of a family of Afghan asylum seekers from Switzerland to Italy has struck a potentially fatal blow to the European Union's Dublin asylum system. Against a backdrop of pressures on EU Member States in the humanitarian protection realm, this article assesses the impact of the ruling and reevaluates the viability of the Dublin Regulation as a key tool in the Common European Asylum System.

Recognizing their new positions in the global mobility system, several governments from countries with emerging economies are implementing structures to proactively manage the flow of people across their borders.

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Commentaries
August 2020
By  Hanne Beirens, Susan Fratzke and Lena Kainz
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Commentaries
March 2020
By  Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, Meghan Benton and Susan Fratzke
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Commentaries
February 2020
By  Susan Fratzke and Hanne Beirens
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Commentaries
October 2018
By  Susan Fratzke and Hanne Beirens
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Commentaries
June 2018
By  Elizabeth Collett and Susan Fratzke
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Commentaries
September 2016
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Susan Fratzke
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Video, Audio
February 22, 2021

This event organized by MPI and CWS, one of nine U.S. refugee resettlement agencies, examined the refugee resettlement system and complementary pathways that represent untapped opportunities for refugees to improve their lives through migration.

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Audio
April 8, 2020

MPI and MPI Europe experts discuss the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on asylum systems in Europe and North America, as well as in developing regions, where 85 percent of refugees live. During this freeform conversation, our analysts also assess the implications for the principle of asylum and the future for a post-World War II humanitarian protection system that is under threat.

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Video, Audio
June 12, 2019

This MPI Europe webinar examines innovative ways to better design and implement predeparture orientation programs for resetttling refugees. The discussion features observations from a refugee who went through an orientation program before being resettled in the Netherlands, and a resettlement agency official in Norway.

UNHCR flickr UNHCR reaches milestone in resettlement of Iraqi refugees
Video, Audio
October 12, 2017

The refugee and migration crisis in Europe thrust the issue of legal pathways to the top of European Union (EU) and national government agendas, but progress has so far suffered from a lack of strategic thinking on how legal channels can work together and how to overcome design and implementation challenges. This webinar offers insights from EU Member States on how existing, new, and untapped legal pathways—such as resettlement, community-based sponsorship, and family reunification—can interact with other humanitarian policies and fit into a larger protection strategy. The discussion also highlights two MPI Europe publications, Tracing the Channels Refugees Use to Seek Protection in Europe and Engaging Communities in Refugee Protection: The Potential of Private Sponsorship in Europe.

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Video, Audio
May 24, 2017

Marking the release of an MPI Europe report commissioned as part of the EU-FRANK project, this webinar examines critical gaps in the research and evaluation of refugee resettlement programs and recommendations for improving evidence gathering and knowledge sharing between resettlement countries. 

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Recent Activity

Reports
March 2021

Ten years into Syria's conflict, Syrians remain the largest refugee population worldwide. As they face limited prospects for resettlement or safe return, how can host countries and donors promote resilience for refugees and host communities alike? This report offers examples of creative policy solutions in the areas of protection, social protection, education, livelihoods, and health care from displacement contexts in 16 countries.

Video, Audio, Webinars
February 22, 2021

This event organized by MPI and CWS, one of nine U.S. refugee resettlement agencies, examined the refugee resettlement system and complementary pathways that represent untapped opportunities for refugees to improve their lives through migration. Speakers also explored opportunities for international cooperation on resettlement and considerations for implementing complementary pathways at an international level.

Reports
November 2020

In recent years, the European Union and some of its Member States have taken on a greater role in global refugee resettlement, expanding or launching new programs and experimenting with creative approaches to providing protection to those in need. This report looks ahead to how these efforts, investments, and lessons learned can be built upon, even in the face of the uncertainty brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Commentaries
August 2020

Most EU Member States closed their borders to travel from neighboring countries in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. While internal borders in the Schengen zone largely reopened in time for summer holidays, there is a lingering sense they could snap shut anew. Though the reflexive introduction of border controls speaks to an inherent lack of trust between states, the 2015-16 migration crisis offers lessons on how to begin to rebuild trust, as this commentary explores.

Audio, Webinars
April 8, 2020

MPI and MPI Europe experts discuss the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on asylum systems in Europe and North America, as well as in developing regions, where 85 percent of refugees live. During this freeform conversation, our analysts also assess the implications for the principle of asylum and the future for a post-World War II humanitarian protection system that is under threat.
 

Commentaries
March 2020

Travel bans, border closures, and other migration management tools did not prove effective at blocking COVID-19 from spreading across international borders. Yet as governments have shifted from containment to mitigation with the coronavirus now in community transmission in many countries, these restrictions are a logical part of the policy toolkit in the context of social distancing and restricting all forms of human movement, as this commentary explores.

Commentaries
February 2020

Europe's refugee resettlement capacity has grown dramatically, with resettlement places more than doubling since 2014, even as European countries have become an emerging center for innovation. As Europe accounts for a rising share of resettlement worldwide, will European policymakers claim a leadership role in shaping the global resettlement agenda or fall into this position by default?

Policy Briefs
December 2019

From Argentina to New Zealand and points beyond, a growing number of countries have begun exploring refugee sponsorship as a way to expand protection capacity at a time of rising need, involving individuals and communities more directly in resettlement. This brief takes stock of what both new and well-established programs need to succeed, and outlines opportunities for private philanthropic actors to support them.

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