This seminar will feature a presentation based on Chiara Berneri’s book ‘Private sponsorship of refugees in Europe’, that focuses on the European experiences of private sponsorship of refugees. After contextualising these experiences and briefly highlighting some notable examples, the presentation will look at private sponsorship programmes characterised by naming and additionality. It will be argued that such programmes should be further explored and experimented in Europe. This could be possible by balancing out private sponsors’ claims with state sovereignty, in matters such as welfare, integration and security.

Chiara Berneri is a Law Lecturer at The Open University since September 2021. Chiara's research interests focus, in particular, on the intersection between immigration law, human rights, state sovereignty and citizenship. She has published two books with Hart. She also published in leading journals, such as the European Journal of Migration and Law and the European Journal of Law and Economics.