Madeleine Sumption is the Director of the Migration Observatory. She is a policy specialist focusing on the impacts of migration policies and the role of migrants in the labour market.
Madeleine’s research interests include the design of immigration policies and their economic and social impacts, labour migration, and the interaction between the economics and politics of migration policies. Recent focus areas include government policies towards immigrant investors, the impacts of Brexit on the UK’s immigration system, and the implementation of the EU Settlement Scheme.
Madeleine is a member of the Migration Advisory Committee, an independent panel that advises the UK Government on migration issues. From 2017 to 2022, she was Chair of the Migration Statistics User Forum, which brings together producers and users of migration data. Before joining Oxford, Madeleine was Director of Research for the international program at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) in Washington, DC. She remains a Non-resident Fellow with Migration Policy Institute Europe. Madeleine holds a PhD in Public Policy from the University of Maastricht. In 2017, she received an MBE for services to social science.
Madeleine is available to collaborate with early-career researchers working on immigration policy and its impacts on the UK and overseas.
Publications & Projects
Articles and book chapters
- Sumption, M. & Walsh, P. (2023). “The points system is dead! Long live the points system! Why immigration policymakers in the UK are never quite happy with their points systems” Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, DOI 1080/15562948.2022.2142719.
- Sumption, M. (2023). “Can investor residence and citizenship programmes be a policy success?” in “Citizenship and Residence Sales” edited by Dimitry Kochenov and Kristin Surak, Cambridge University Press.
- Sumption, M. (2020). “How useful are survey data for analyzing immigration policy?” Data & Policy, 2, 1-15.
- Sumption, M. (2019). “Is Employer Sponsorship a Good Way to Manage Labour Migration?” National Institute Economic Review, Issue 248, April 2019.
- Sumption, M. (2022). “Shortages, high-demand occupations, and the post-Brexit UK immigration system” Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Vol 38 Issue 1, pp97-111.
Policy reports
- Hall, T., Manning, A., and Sumption, M. (2023). Why are the latest net migration figures not a reliable guide to future trends? Migration Observatory.
- Sumption, M, Walsh, B., and Brindle, B. (2024). Net migration to the UK. Migration Observatory.
- Sumption, M., & Fernandez Reino, M. (2020). Unsettled Status 2020. Migration Observatory.
- Sumption, M. (2017). Location, Location, Location: Should different parts of the UK have different immigration policies? Migration Observatory.
- Sumption, M. (2017). Exploiting the Opportunity? Migrants in Low-skilled work after Brexit. Migration Observatory.
Commentary
- Sumption, M., & Brindle, B. (2024). The ban on care workers’ family members: what will be the impact. Migration Observatory.
- Brindle, B., & Sumption, M. (2022). How will new salary thresholds affect UK migration? Migration Observatory.
- Sumption, M. (2018) Measuring success. Migration Observatory.
