PhD in European Law from the University of Saarland, Germany.
Associate Professor of European Union Law and Researcher of the Ratio Legis and OBSERVARE of the Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa.
She is a Professor at the Instituto Superior de Ciências Policiais e Segurança Interna (with suspended activity).
She is a member and researcher of the Odysseus Network (Academic Network for Legal Studies on Immigration and Asylum in Europe), founded in 1999 and coordinated by the Institute of European Studies of the Free University of Brussels (ULB).
She is also a teacher at the Summer School of European Immigration and Asylum Law of the Free University of Brussels. He is a Member of the Portuguese Parliament and a full member of the European Affairs Committee.
She was Minister of Home Affairs (2015-2017) and Adviser and Coordinator of the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Unit of the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the EU, and headed the national delegation in the Strategic Committee on Immigration, Borders and Asylum of the European Union (2006-2012).
She is the author of extensive literature in the field of immigration and asylum, as well as of the EU Area of Freedom, Security and Justice.
