The RRN Mission

The RRN seeks to generate and mobilize knowledge among scholars, practitioners and policy makers to benefit people who have been forcibly displaced. Our goal is to build a network of networks which will promote connections throughout the field of refugee and forced migration studies by: facilitating interactions among the academic, practitioner and policy-making sectors; engaging new and established scholars from around the world in innovative online activities; and, creating spaces for the presentation and dissemination of the experiences and concerns of refugees themselves. This intensive animation of the field is intended to cultivate a multiplicity of new research groupings resulting in more dynamic and responsive research projects.

We want to provide a systematic and dedicated space for the sustained interactive engagement of the three sectors: Canadian and international researchers, NGO partners and government policy makers. This cross-sector approach is intended to ensure that the issues identified are relevant to the refugee field, that the relationships to sustain the research are in place and that the dissemination will be timely and appropriate. The cluster is to be grounded in the experiences of refugees and forced migrants and in the practices and policy making of those who seek to support them; responsive to emerging ideas among new and established scholars and practitioners; and,  flexible, able to form research teams appropriate in size, skills and perspectives to the issues being examined.

We are committed to a dialogical and participatory approach and to working virtually to produce, share, and consolidate knowledge across space. We envision a virtual research community and a 'virtual library' with full participation from those in the Global South and North. Our expected outcomes are 1) expansion of the global knowledge concerning refugee issues and forced migration, 2) improved communication concerning this knowledge within and between academic, policy-making and practice sectors in the Global South and North, and 3) alliance-building and active policy involvement in the development of national and international policy frameworks and humanitarian practices affecting refugees and forced migrants.