Darfur refugee camp in Chad, 2005. Photo Courtesy: Mark Knobil, Pittsburgh, PA.
This month, we celebrate “World Refugee Day” on June 20, an international day designated by the United Nations to honor refugees. We celebrate the strength and courage of those who have been forced to flee their homes.
Dr. Stephanie Nawyn is an MSU associate professor of Sociology, whose work centers on gender studies, migration, refugees, with a focus on resettlement and protection in the Middle East.
Julian Trevino is a MSU Political Science and Prelaw student. He is also the Associated Students of Michigan State University representative for the College of Social Science. Julian has championed the cause for making East Lansing and MSU, a sanctuary city and campus.
Dr. Breanne Grace is a MSU Alumna who earned her PhD in Sociology in 2013 and is now an associate professor at the University of South Carolina's School of Social Work. Her research focuses on finding solutions for the compassionate resettling of displaced people.
Ormsby, Eric A. "The Refugee Crisis as Civil Liberties Crisis." Columbia Law Review117, no. 5 (2017): 1191-229.
Lippert, Randy. "Governing Refugees: The Relevance of Governmentality to Understanding the International Refugee Regime." Alternatives: Global, Local, Political24, no. 3 (1999): 295-328.
Morland, Lyn, and Tarima Levine. "Preschool: Collaborating with Refugee Resettlement Organizations: Providing a Head Start to Young Refugees." YC Young Children71, no. 4 (2016): 69-75.
Hodson, Margaret. "“Modern Day Trojan Horse?” Analyzing the Nexus between Islamophobia and Anti-Refugee Sentiment in the United States." Islamophobia Studies Journal5, no. 2 (2020): 267-82.
Green, Shannon N., Julie N. Snyder, and Kimberly Flowers. Stuck in Limbo: Refugees, Migrants, and the Food Insecure in Djibouti. Report. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), 2017. 10-18.
Baak, Melanie. "Once A Refugee, Always A Refugee?: The Haunting of the Refugee Label in Resettlement." In Refugee Journeys: Histories of Resettlement, Representation and Resistance, edited by Silverstein Jordana and Stevens Rachel, 51-70. Australia: ANU Press, 2021.
Khor, Swee Kheng, and David L. Heymann. Report. Council on Foreign Relations, 2020.
Brown, Alison, Peter Mackie, Kate Dickenson, and Tegegne Gebre-Egziabher. Urban Refugee Economies: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Report. International Institute for Environment and Development, 2018. 27-41.
Holzer, Elizabeth, and Kamryn Warren. "Humanitarian Spectacles from Below: A Study of Social Connections in Unsettled Contexts." Ethnography16, no. 4 (2015): 482-502.
Costello, Cathryn, Caroline Nalule, and Derya Ozkul. 2020. “Recognising refugees: Understanding the real routes to recognition.” Forced Migration Review vol. 65. Available at: https://www.fmreview.org/recognising-refugees/costello-nalule-ozkul.
Higgins, Claire. 2021. “With billions more allocated to immigrant detention, it’s another bleak year for refugees.” The Conversation, May 13, 2021. Available at: https://theconversation.com/with-billions-more-allocated-to-immigration-detention-its-another-bleak-year-for-refugees-160783.
Nawyn, Stephanie J. 2019. “Lower refugee limits are weakening resettlement in the US”. The Conversation, October 17, 2019. Available at: https://theconversation.com/lower-refugee-limits-are-weakening-resettlement-in-the-us-124970.
Refugees International, 2021. “Undermining Protection in the EU: What Nine Trends Tell Us About the Proposed Pact on Migration and Asylum.” Available at: https://www.refugeesinternational.org/reports/2021/6/1/undermining-protection-in-the-eu-what-nine-trends-tells-us-about-the-proposed-pact-on-migration-and-asylum.
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bearsby Dinaw Mengestu (2007)
Before Night Fallsby Reinaldo Arenas (2000)
Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian, My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph by Yusra Mardini (2018)
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembersby Loug Ung (2000)
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes Afterby Clemantine Wamariya & Elizabeth Weil (2018)
Goodbye Sarajevo: A True Story of Courage, Love and Survivalby Atka Reid & Hana Schofield (2012)
Half of a Yellow Sunby Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2013)
The House of the Mosqueby Kader Abdolah (2011)
The House of the Spiritsby Isabel Allende (1982)
The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoirby Kao Kalia Yang (2008)
The Lightless Sky: A Twelve-Year-Old's Refugee Harrowing Escape From Afghanistan and His Extraordinary Journey Across Half the Worldby Gulwali Passarlay (2017)
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldierby Ishmael Beah (2007)
Mapsby Nuruddin Farah (1986)
Music of Ghostsby Vaddey Ratner (2017)
The Pianist from Syria: A Memoirby Aeham Ahmad (2019)
The Refugeesby Viet Thanh Nguyen (2017)
Sea Prayerby Khaled Hosseini (2018)
A King in Hiding: How a Child Refugee Became a World Chess Champion by Fahim Mohammad. Publisher: Icon Books. Year of Publication (in UK): 2015. Age Range: 12+.
What You Wish For, Short Stories And Poems For Ages 12+ by a variety of celebrated authors. Publisher: Penguin. Age: 12+.
The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney. Publisher: Little, Brown and Company. Year of Publication: 2014. Age Range: 9+.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Child Soldier by Ismael Beah. Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Age: 14+.
Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees by Deborah Ellis. Publisher: Groundwood Books. Age: 12+.
Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher-Staples. Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Age: 12+
The Go-Away Bird by Warren Fitzgerald. Publisher: HarperCollins UK. Age: 12+
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Publisher: Bloomsbury. Age: 14+
Just the Facts: Refugees by Steve Maddocks. Publisher: Heinemann Library. Age: 13+.
The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo. Publisher: Harper Collins/Puffin. Age: 12+.
Chasing Hope: A Distance Running Novel by Mark Donnelly. Publisher: Independently Published. Age: 12+
Where the Streets Had a Name by Randa Abdel-Fattah Publisher: Scholastic Press Age: 11+.
Christophe`s Story by Nicki Cornwell. Publisher: Frances Lincoln. Age: 10-12.
Amnesty International. 2020. “The world’s refugees in numbers.” Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/refugees-asylum-seekers-and-migrants/global-refugee-crisis-statistics-and-facts/.
US News and World Report. 2020. “10 countries that accept the most refugees.” Available at: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/slideshows/10-countries-that-accept-the-most-refugees.
Toolkits UNHCR World Refugee Day toolkit: https://www.unhcr.org/609553414/world-refugee-day-2021-toolkit-pdf
UNHCR Teaching about Refugees: https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/teaching-about-refugees.html
World Health Organization. Report. World Health Organization, 2020.
Refugee Council USA: https://rcusa.org/get-involved/
Project Welcome: https://publish.illinois.edu/projectwelcome/world-refugee-day/world-refugee-day-2021/
Refugee Development Center, Lansing MI: https://refugeedevelopmentcenter.org/
Refugee Services, St. Vincent Catholic Charities: https://stvcc.org/services/refugee-services/
There is a long history of faith-based organizations serving and advocating for refugees around the world and especially in the United States. Here are just a few World Refugee Day resources from faith communities.
World Relief: https://worldrelief.org/blog-so-you-want-to-know-more-about-refugees-here-are-some-resources-that-can-help/
Episcopal Migration Ministries: https://episcopalmigrationministries.org/worldrefugeeday/
Church World Service: https://cwsglobal.org/learn/refugees-and-immigrants/
HIAS: https://www.hias.org/events/world-refugee-day-celebrating-refugees-impacts-our-communities