Biography
Maciej Grześkowiak holds a PhD in law from the University of Warsaw, where he also lectured in human rights law. He is also a Research Affiliate at the Refugee Law Initiative of the University of London. His research focuses on international and EU migration and asylum law, and he has published extensively on various aspects of international, European, and national refugee protection frameworks. His work often employs empirical legal research, which led him to conduct fieldwork in Lebanon, Uganda, and Poland.
Maciej’s doctoral thesis examined the shift from durable asylum to temporary forms of protection for refugees and other forcibly displaced persons. In situations of large-scale influx, states increasingly resort to temporary and limited protection statuses which, over time, tend to become entrenched beyond the immediate crisis. He introduced the concept of ‘the gap between temporary refuge and asylum’ to describe this phenomenon.
Before joining the EUI, Maciej was also active as a practitioner. He spent over two years in the Lebanese-Syrian borderlands implementing humanitarian programmes with the Polish Center for International Aid. Upon returning to Poland, he worked at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and, since 2022, served as Chief Coordinator at the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights (Polish Ombudsman). In this capacity, he was closely involved in responding to the Polish-Belarusian border crisis and the situation of refugees from Ukraine.
At the EUI, Maciej’s project explores border walls in Europe, examining their legal status and impact on access to rights.