معرفی
Thomas Spijkerboer is Full Professor of Migration Law at the Faculty of Law, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where he has been employed since 2000. He also holds positions at the Kooijmans Institute and established the Amsterdam Centre for Migration and Refugee Law, which has grown to become one of the largest research groups on migration worldwide. His academic career includes significant appointments as Raoul Wallenberg Visiting Professor of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Lund University (2017-2020) and International Franqui Professor at Ghent University (2020-2021).
His educational background includes law studies at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. Before his academic career, he gained practical experience working at the Rechtswinkel Amsterdam legal clinic (1982-1986), specializing in housing law, and at Advokatenkollektief Zaanstreek (1986-1993), where he specialized in asylum cases. He completed his dissertation Gender and Refugee Status at the Catholic University Nijmegen, where he worked as a lecturer in Migration Law from 1993 to 2000.
Professor Spijkerboer's research centers on the intersection of migration law, human rights, and border policies, with particular emphasis on the right to life of irregular migrants and the human costs of border control. His work critically examines European migration policies, especially their externalization and the resulting mortality among migrants attempting to reach European territory. He has pioneered research on border deaths, developing databases that document migrant fatalities along European borders, and has extensively analyzed the legal and moral implications of European border policies. His scholarship combines legal analysis with sociological and empirical approaches, addressing issues such as gender in refugee status determination, LGBTQ+ asylum claims, and the impact of migration policies on family life.
His extensive publication record, including over 450 research outputs, demonstrates a consistent focus on the human rights dimensions of migration control. Recent work explores the bifurcation of migration law in Europe, asylum systems as instruments of containment, and the legal frameworks governing European border enforcement. His publications reveal a trajectory from detailed legal analysis of Dutch asylum procedures toward broader critiques of European and global migration governance.
Scientific Awards and Distinctions:
- Praemium Erasmianum Studieprijs (2001) for his dissertation Gender and Refugee Status
- Elected member of the Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (2016)
- Elected member of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen (2017)
- Raoul Wallenberg Visiting Professorship at Lund University (2017-2020)
- International Franqui Professorship at Ghent University (2020-2021)
Professor Spijkerboer has supervised 17 PhD theses and led multiple major research projects funded by NWO and the EU, including the significant five-year project Border Policies and Sovereignty. Human rights and the right to life of irregular migrants (2013-2018) and Fleeing Homophobia. Asylum claims related to sexual orientation and gender identity in the EU (2010-2011). His research has been instrumental in establishing the field of border death studies, influencing both academic discourse and policy debates on migration. He serves on the editorial boards of the Nederlands Juristenblad and the European Journal of Migration and Law, contributing significantly to the scholarly discourse in his field.
He directs the Amsterdam Centre for Migration and Refugee Law, which functions as a hub for interdisciplinary research on migration law, bringing together legal scholars, sociologists, and political scientists. The center has become internationally recognized for its innovative approach to migration law research, particularly its focus on the human costs of border policies and the intersection of migration law with other legal domains such as family law and human rights law.
