Julian Lehmann

Julian Lehmann is a project manager at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin, working on migration and human rights. His interests and expertise lie at the interface of law and policy, development and humanitarian assistance, and rights-based approaches. Currently, Julian is co-leading an evaluation of advocacy by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Refugee Initiative. He recently concluded a four-year policy and strategy evaluation with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and research on the European Union’s role in the Global Refugee Compact for the ASILE project. Other past works include policy advice and strategy evaluation for the EU Commission’s Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO), the German Federal Foreign Office, and the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, Germany’s largest development implementing organization. For these assignments, Julian has worked across a number of countries in Europe, Middle East and North Africa, as well as Central- and West-Africa. 

Julian’s 2020 book on European Union asylum law, which is based on his PhD research, studies how European Union authorities may or not reject asylum applications due to​‘protection’ received in the home country or another location. 

Julian’s commentary has appeared in Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Der Tagesspiegel, and Die Tageszeitung – taz, among other outlets. His 2015 book, titled Schiffbruch, takes stock of the challenges, achievements, and failures of asylum law and policy in the European Union. Before joining GPPi, Julian worked as a protection consultant for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the Morocco office. As a freelance consultant, he authored studies for the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg and for the European Council on Refugees and Exiles.

Julian was a Grotius Research Scholar at the University of Michigan in 2012 as well as a visiting scholar at the University of Lund in 2014, and he remains an affiliate to the Refugee Law Initiative at the University of London. He holds a master’s degree in international human rights law from the University of Essex and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the Dresden University of Technology. In 2008, he studied at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations as an exchange student. For his doctoral research, studies and postgraduate traineeships, Julian has received scholarships from the Villigst Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the German National Academic Foundation, and the EU’s Leonardo da Vinci program.