Forced Migration Studies Program

The Forced Migration Studies Project (FMSP) in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at Nazareth University provides a resource base for individuals and organizations interested in or working on topics related to forced migration and refugee outreach efforts. The program assists in:

  • Facilitating connections with community organizations engaged in refugee relief efforts and advocacy for people from refugee backgrounds.
  • Facilitating Rochester area inter-collegiate collaboration on refugee relief efforts and advocacy
  • Providing reading sources, data, and connections with community partners, for college faculty interested in incorporating topics on forced migration in their classes
  • Organizing presentations and colloquia on forced migration.
  • Conducting orientation workshops for those planning to work or are already working with refugee communities

How to get involved:

  • Students: Through off-campus internships, research opportunities, and service learning courses students have a variety of ways to become engaged with refugee communities.
  • Faculty: Faculty may consider incorporating a service learning or community engagement component into a course. Community-based research is also an opportunity to engage in meaningful scholarship relating to areas of forced migration.
About the Rochester refugee community
  • The Refugee Convention defines a refugee as someone who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country."
  • Rochester receives approximately 1 percent of the refugees that arrive in the United States each year. The primary resettlement agency is the Catholic Family Center of Rochester.
  • Refugee Resettlement Centers and Organizations in Rochester

Volunteer

See the Weider Community Engagement office for upcoming volunteer opportunities.