Alexander Betts is Professor of Forced Migration and International Affairs,[1] William Golding Senior Fellow in Politics at Brasenose College,[2] and Associate Head (Graduate and Research Training) of the Social Sciences Division at the University of Oxford.

[6] In 2021, he co-founded the Oxford SDG Impact Lab, which supports students from across Oxford University to collaborate with business to deliver the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and co-created the Refugee-Led Research Hub in Nairobi, Kenya which supports aspiring researchers with lived experience of displacement to become leaders in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies.

[7] The other strand of his work focuses on the relationship between international development and forced displacement, exploring the socio-economic integration of refugees within host countries.

It argues that this North-South impasse has sometimes been overcome through 'issue-linkages', connecting refugee protection to policy fields in which states have strategic interests, such as migration, security, and development.

It shows that where legal norms are ambiguous, elite political interests shape the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion.

Empirically, it examines the history of Rwandan and Zimbabwean diaspora, revealing the important role played by internal and external elites in mobilizing and sustaining diasporic engagement.

Drawing upon original qualitative and quantitative data from Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia, it reveals the limitations of existing 'self-reliance' programmes and the ambivalent and often disingenuous politics that underpins them.

Betts' work has been influential in reframing refugees as economic contributors,[13][14] and increasing recognition and funding for refugee-led organisations.

Together with Paul Collier, he developed an idea to employ Syrian refugees in already existing Special Economic Zones in Jordan, first published in a piece in Foreign Affairs.

[21] He was named in Foreign Policy magazine's top 100 global thinkers in 2016,[22] as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2016,[23] in Thinkers 50's radar list of emerging business influencers in 2017,[24] as a Bloomberg Businessweek 'gamechanger' in 2017,[25] and as a European Young Leader by Friends of Europe in 2020.

[27] He was also awarded the International Studies Association's 'Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration' Distinguished Book Prize for The Wealth of Refugees in 2022.

[28] He has received fellowships and grants from the British Academy, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), among others.