Betsy Fisher, ’14, is a lecturer at Michigan Law and the US director of Talent Beyond Boundaries, where she leads the organization’s efforts to advance US advocacy and support refugees to relocate to the US through employment-based opportunities.

Previously, Fisher was the director of strategy and the policy director at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP). In those roles, she coordinated the screening of IRAP’s potential clients, directed legal representation for clients in several jurisdictions, and led IRAP’s government relations work to expand and reform refugee and immigration law in the United States. She also served with IRAP as a staff attorney and intake coordinator based in Amman, Jordan.

Fisher is a frequent commentator and contributor on US immigration and refugee law in media outlets including The New York Times, NPR’s All Things Considered, and MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show.

Her academic research on the international law of statelessness and refugee resettlement includes publications in the Northeastern University Law Review, Michigan Law Review, the Wisconsin International Law Journal, the Michigan Journal of Gender and Law, and Forced Migration Review. She is a member of the Michigan and Minnesota bars.

Related Information

Education
  • Denison University, BA, magna cum laude, political science and Arabic
  • University of Michigan, MA, Middle Eastern and North African studies
  • University of Michigan, JD, magna cum laude

    • Recent Courses

    Featured Scholarship

    "Citizenship, Federalism, and Delayed Birth Registration in the United States"

    Akron Law Review

    WWW

    "A Fast Track to Refuge, or a Pathway to Nowhere? Designing Successful Priority 2 Group Designations"

    AILA Law Journal

    "Discretion in Immigration Law: A Partial Remedy for Stateless People in the United States"

    Northeastern University Law Review
    See All Scholarship

    News

    Portrait of Betsy Fisher
    News

    5Qs: Fisher Proposes Partial Solution to Issues of Stateless People

    In the Media

    CNN

    He was born to a US citizen soldier on an army base in Germany. Now he’s been deported to Jamaica, a country he’d never been to