Bio
Dr Aleksandra Jolkina is a researcher in European and comparative migration and asylum law. She holds a PhD in Law from Queen Mary University of London (2021) and has previously taught EU Law at London School of Economics (LSE).
Aleksandra’s research currently concentrates on two broad areas: family migration and access to international protection. Her PhD thesis (under contract with Brill), critically examines the concept of marriages of convenience in EU and UK law in so far as it concerns the exercise of EU citizens’ right to family reunion. For her PhD, she has received the ELFA 2021 award for the best doctoral thesis on European law (proxime accessit).
Aleksandra is currently a fellow of re:constitution, a joint programme of the Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien and Democracy Reporting International. Her research project aims to provide a comparative analysis of Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish responses to the situation at the EU’s border with Belarus, particularly where it concerns access to the asylum procedure and compliance with the Rule of Law.
Recent publications (selected)
- ‘Seven Months in the Freezing Forest: Why events at the Latvian-Belarus border were long hidden from the public’ (Verfassungsblog, November 2022)
- ‘Legalising Refoulement: Pushbacks and Forcible ‘Voluntary’ Returns from the Latvian-Belarus Border’ (Refugee Law Initiative Blog, August 2022).
- ‘Trapped in a Lawless Zone: Forgotten Refugees at the Latvia-Belarus Border’ (Verfassungsblog, May 2022)