Paul Scheffer (Nijmegen, 1954) is a Dutch publicist, essayist and academic whose writing on migration and integration has shaped public debate in the Netherlands and beyond. His 2000 essay 'Het multiculturele drama', published in NRC Handelsblad, sparked a national controversy that still resonates today. He held professorships at the University of Amsterdam and Tilburg University, and is the author of, among other works, The Land of Arrival (2007) and The Freedom of the Border (2016).
Scheffer was writer in residence for two years at Comenius Leergangen, where he worked on a book about Europe as a community of values, which was to be published in 2025.
Scheffer is a member of the Advisory Council on International Issues (AIV), the independent advisory body that advises the Dutch government on foreign policy.
Until 2021, Scheffer held the position of professor of European Studies at Tilburg University.
