Roberto Cortinovis
Roberto Cortinovis’s research focuses on migration and refugee protection in Europe and internationally, with particular attention to refugee admission policies, including resettlement and complementary pathways of admission. He is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow at the Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Migration and Integration at Toronto Metropolitan University.
His MSCA project, ESCAPES (Safe Pathways to Protection for Displaced Populations in Canada and Europe), examines refugee admission policies from a comparative perspective. The project analyses the policy, legal, and institutional factors shaping states’ use of resettlement and complementary pathways and explores the normative issues raised by those policies, particularly in relation to equity, non-discrimination, and access to rights.
Before joining CERC Migration, Roberto was a Policy Analyst at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, where he contributed to projects on migration forecasting and scenario building. He previously worked as a Policy Analyst at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) Europe and as a Researcher in the Justice and Home Affairs Unit of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS).
Roberto holds a PhD in Institutions and Policies from the Catholic University of Milan and an MSc in Government and Politics of the European Union from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Publications
(2025) ‘Two Years of War: Conflict and Displacement in Sudan’ (external link) (with A.M. Duta & T. Talò). Policy Brief, European Commission Joint Research Centre.
(2024) ‘Unpacking the EU ´Route-based Approach´ to Migration: The Role of Safe Pathways’ (external link) . Policy Brief, Horizon Europe PACES Project.
(2024) ‘Identifying Criteria for Complementary Pathways to Provide Sustainable Solutions for Refugees: Two Canadian Case Studies’ (external link) (with A. Fallone). In S. Carrera, N. F. Tan, E. Karageorgiou and G. Ovacık (eds.), Global Asylum Governance and the European Union's Role. Rights and Responsibility in the Implementation of the United Nations Global Compact on Refugees. Springer “International Perspectives on Migration" Series, pp. 113-132.
(2023) ‘The Declaration on a Voluntary Solidarity Mechanism and EU Asylum Policy’ (external link) (with S. Carrera). In S. Carrera & M. İneli Ciğer (eds.), EU Responses to the Large-Scale Refugee Displacement from Ukraine: An Analysis on the Temporary Protection Directive and Its Implications for the Future EU Asylum Policy. European University Institute, Florence, Italy, pp. 499-526.
(2021) ‘Pushbacks and lack of accountability at the Greek-Turkish borders’ (external link) , CEPS Paper Liberty and Security in Europe, No. 2021-2