PhD in European Law from the University of Saar, Germany.
Associate Professor of European Union Law and Researcher at Ratio Legis and OBSERVARE at the Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa.
She is a Professor at the Higher Institute of Police Sciences and Internal Security (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 for European Studies at the Free University of Brussels (ULB).
She is also a professor at the Summer School of European Immigration and Asylum Law at the Free University of Brussels. She is a deputy to the Assembly of the Republic and an effective member of the European Affairs Commission.
She was Minister of Internal Affairs (2015-2017) and Counselor and Coordinator of the Justice and Internal Affairs Unit (JHA) of the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the EU, having headed the national delegation in the Strategic Committee on Immigration, Borders and Asylum of the European Union (2006). -2012).
She is the author of a vast bibliography in the field of immigration and asylum, as well as the EU Area of Freedom, Security and Justice.