Bridging, not breaking: Keynote speaker spotlight on Mohammed Naeem

When Mohammed Naeem first imagined his future, it wasn’t in the realm of politics or advocacy.

Studying science, he had plans to become a surgeon – specifically a cardiothoracic surgeon. ‘I wanted to work on people’s hearts.’

But over time, Mohammed realised his calling to ‘solve problems’ would take him far beyond the operating theatre. It would bring him into the complex, often fragile architecture of global refugee protection – and into rooms where the very systems that once shaped his own family’s circumstances are now being re-examined.

Raised in Queens, New York, Mohammed came to the United States as a young child whose family had fled Afghanistan; his father sought asylum in the late 1980s. ‘I grew up surrounded by a vibrant, diverse refugee community,’ he says, speaking from a hotel room in Geneva last week. ‘And I realised the distinct disadvantage my community had been in [as a result of] not having space and place in rooms that had so deeply shaped their lives.’

That awareness, sharpened by lived experience, eventually merged with a professional instinct to fix what isn’t working. 

‘In medicine, you’re there to solve people’s problems,’ he reflects. ‘You’re not there to pontificate. And I think my own career has always just been about solving problems. Our advocacy isn’t for the sake of conducting it, it’s for the sake of actually solving for the challenges that we face as a system and as a society.’

Today, as Mohammed leads government relations and congressional work for Refugees International, he describes himself as being ‘in the trenches’ advocating for negotiating legislation, policy and funding in real time. But the weight of that work is never abstract. ‘Because my identity is threaded as one with the communities I serve,’ he notes. ‘[Yet] what an extraordinary honour to be in rooms that help shape what our system becomes. To not have to face the line of gunfire, or climb over mountains to get to the other side of it for some sense of safety and security, to not have to hide. 

‘I don’t take that privilege for granted. Frankly, my life could have turned out very differently. Every day, I feel like I’m living on borrowed time.’

That perspective is acute in places like Geneva, where the global refugee system convenes each year at UNHCR’s Executive Committee meeting. 

‘I enter these grand halls and think, what an extraordinary privilege to be here … in those very same ornate buildings where the plight of my family was being discussed,’ he says.

‘And we’re not there to hide. We’re there to be seen.’

Yet it’s precisely those halls of power, he argues, that need to be reconsidered. The international protection system is straining under political pressure, funding shortfalls and rigid structures that do not easily adapt. The presidency of Donald Trump, he notes, has exposed a troubling fragility: ‘With the flick of a finger, one leader could lower the number of refugees resettled by more than 100,000. That tells you how dependent the whole system is on a few States, and how vulnerable it is when those States withdraw [leadership and resources].’

Mohammed sees this as a pivotal moment. ‘It’s an opportunity to question and wrestle with the architecture as we’ve known it,’ he argues. If a single change in leadership can shake the whole edifice, then maybe it wasn’t built to withstand. He would like a more efficient, more adaptable, more responsive system, one that can expand to meet growing displacement, and one that recognises displacement is no longer in a vacuum. The interplay between principle and political reality is central to his thinking. 

‘It’s extraordinarily important that [humanitarian principles such as] impartiality grounds us,’ he says. ‘But across contexts where the realities are fundamentally political, we will continue to face humanitarian crises without enough resources.

'We have to reckon with whether the systems as currently designed can actually solve for the challenges we face.’

He laments old hierarchies, binaries between ‘donor’ and ‘host’ states. For him, breaking those binaries is as important as protecting the core principles of asylum and non-refoulement. ‘Any conversation that challenges asylum is a real slippery slope,’ he says. ‘And if States can send people back to conflict zones, that is morally unconscionable.’

He sees opportunity in the creativity and ambition of displaced communities themselves, and in reframing the narrative to highlight how inclusion benefits everyone. Not reductionist storytelling, not just data points. Rather, showing that welcoming refugees brings ingenuity, innovation and growth to our societies. 

‘That’s the secret sauce right there,’ he says.

Ultimately, Mohammed believes the politics of the future must be about bridging, not breaking. 

‘We’ve used too much ‘breaking politics’ to try to get across our points,’ he reflects. ‘We have to make the case together. Politics are about people, about relatedness and trust. If we can bring those principles into institutions of high power, that’s how we create foundational change. And I’m in it for the long run.’

Mohammed Naeem will deliver the opening keynote at the 2025 Kaldor Centre Conference, Building bridges: Advancing refugee protection in a divided world on Thursday, 23 October. Explore the program and register now.