• Country: Washington D.D., USA
• No of vacancies: N/A
  
• Salary: N/A 
• Organization: UNHCR
• Gender: Both
• Deadline: February 7, 2024

PSU Fellowships
The fellows’ work will fit within PSU’s overall strategy. PSU provides comments on proposed legislation and regulations, submits amicus briefs on select international legal issues, and monitors U.S. government compliance with international standards. In addition, PSU advises the U.S. government on improving the domestic asylum system both at land borders and within the United States. PSU also focuses on regional protection issues, i.e. in the Americas (including Haitian and Cuban maritime interdiction issues), following U.S. diplomatic engagement with other asylum countries throughout the hemisphere, as well as related bilateral and multilateral initiatives. In the realm of statelessness, PSU writes Stateless Advisory Opinions, and conducts trainings and presentations on statelessness and nationality to a range of audiences. PSU also gathers information on protection situations in detention, at the U.S. southern border, and in the U.S. immigration courts, and works to develop pragmatic policy and practice alternatives. Additionally, PSU provides information on the laws, policies, and procedures for seeking asylum and related protection in the United States to persons of concern to UNHCR. Throughout all of these endeavors, UNHCR maintains close communication with government partners at the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and other agencies to ensure that our cooperative relationship is maintained.
Fellows’ areas of potential thematic engagement include:
• Law and policy analysis at the intersection of international and domestic law: the fellow will support the team that aims to bring U.S. domestic law on refugee and asylum issues in line with international standards. Work can include engagement in international treaty body reporting, strategic litigation, and regulatory comment.
• Regional protection policy: the fellow will support PSU’s growing work on protection policy and practice with UNHCR operations in Latin America (as relates to links to U.S. border policy); US maritime protection and Northern Caribbean policy and practice; and the interplay between U.S. border arrivals, U.S. domestic responses, and U.S. regional engagement with Latin American states, particularly Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia. Fluent Spanish is required.
• Protection and reception at the U.S. Southern Border: the fellow will support a dynamic presence along the U.S. southern border. The Fellow will play an integral leadership role in legal empowerment, working with legal service providers at the border to develop and execute strategies that empower asylum-seekers appearing pro se before U.S. authorities, as well as building networks for legal service providers themselves. Additionally, the fellow will participate in other protection initiatives, including providing support to individual case management, mapping and developing referral pathways for asylum-seekers and refugees, assisting in legal and humanitarian coordination, supporting shelter and other humanitarian interventions, monitoring and reporting on recent developments, and performing project management tasks.
• Detention and the individual case system: the fellow will work with the team that advocates for the reduction in the use of detention for asylum-seekers in the United States and seeks improvements in detention and alternatives to detention (ATD) policy and practice. Work will involve tracking and analyzing policy developments and assisting with individuals who contact UNHCR in search of legal assistance or protection information or support (including asylum-seekers, stateless people, and those in need of resettlement).
• Resettlement and Complementary Pathways: the fellow will support primarily with facilitating resettlement of refugees out of the Northern Caribbean. The fellow will conduct protection assessments for persons of concern located in the Northern Caribbean and conduct country of origin research. The fellow will complete resettlement interviews with refugees and draft Resettlement Registration Forms, including drafting a legal analysis of the refugee claim, to be submitted to various countries to advocate for their resettlement. The fellow will be involved with direct communication and some case management, as well as tracking and monitoring of cases. Spanish and/or Haitian Creole fluency are desirable.

Qualifications and Experience Required:

When submitting an application, prospective fellows are encouraged to detail their experience in the immigration and refugee field as well as which skills and substantive areas of knowledge they wish to develop during their fellowship period. Fellows:
• Must be a 2024 degree candidate or recent graduate from a U.S. law school.
• Must have completed coursework in international law; refugee law; and/or human rights; additional coursework in U.S. immigration law preferable.
• Preference for experience in U.S. asylum; refugee law; and/or other topics related to refugees, asylum-seekers, and statelessness.
• Experience with legal clinics in law school, or other forms of direct service experience with asylum-seekers or statelessness would be particularly helpful.
• Fluent Spanish is essential for fellows working on regional protection policy issues and highly desirable for other areas of work. Haitian Creole is highly desirable for the resettlement and complementary pathways area of work, although not a requirement.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Detail-oriented, with strong research and legal analysis skills.
• Self-directed, with ability to multi-task and prioritize with minimal supervision.

Terms of Fellowship:
• Candidates must demonstrate a guaranteed funding source for the one-year period of the fellowship in their cover letters. If funding is conditioned to being selected for the fellowship, candidates should indicate that in their cover letters. Candidates will not receive any form of funding or financial support from UNHCR. In recent years, many successful fellows have obtained funding through public interest post-graduate fellowships offered by their respective law schools, though funding opportunities may also exist through other organizations.
• Candidates are responsible for their housing, their legal stay in the United States, health insurance, and any other related documentation that will be required by UNHCR.
• The fellowship will begin in September 2024, or another time to be negotiated, and will last for 12 months.
• A fellowship does not create any expectation or entitlement to employment with UNHCR at the conclusion of the fellowship.
• In their cover letters, candidates may indicate their preference for a fellowship that focuses on one thematic area, or that encompasses several different thematic focus areas. Candidates may also signal in their cover letter if they have no preference and prefer UNHCR to match them with specific needs of the PSU team according to their background. Candidates who do not specify a preference will be evaluated for all fellowship positions.

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