
MIGRATION AND DISPLACEMENT
MIGRATION AND DISPLACEMENT
This theme aims to provide research and policy expertise to support children and families that have been displaced. Our work has included projects focusing on the US-Mexico border, Bangladesh, and Colombia.
SELECTION OF PAST AND PRESENT PROJECTS AND HIGHLIGHTS
CHILDREN’S EXPERIENCE AND PARTICIPATION IN MAKING RECOMMENDATIONS

We led a project funded by a grant from the LEGO Foundation, which gathered and shared perspectives from young children and families who experience migration. The HC team played a key role in providing technical advice and guidance on interacting with children to hear their perspectives and writing up research findings. The lessons learned will be disseminated and discussed with community and local partners in an effort to improve services for young children who have to migrate.
FORGOTTEN MIGRANTS
The Humanitarian Collaborative, in partnership with the New American Story Project (NASP), launched Forgotten Migrants, a multimedia project that explores the migration of Haitians fleeing their country in search of refuge in the U.S. The project combines immigrant testimonies with insights from lawyers, activists, historians, and artists to shed light on the ongoing exodus from Haiti. Through collaborations with the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies and the Welcome With Dignity Campaign, the initiative aims to deepen public understanding of global migration by sharing human stories from diverse perspectives.
DOCUMENTARY FILM
One Practitioner Fellow working with the Humanitarian Collaborative, ACLU, Physicians for Human Rights, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), Save the Children, and others raised $240,000 to produce a documentary on children experiencing forced displacement in two regions: U.S./Mexico and Ukraine/Poland.
BORDER STORIES
In her class on the U.S./Mexico border, Professor Lucy Bassett introduced a storytelling project to help students explore the human consequences of immigration policy.
Telling the Whole Story: Batten Students Tackle the Border Crisis from a New Angle
This Global Life: El Salvador – podcast by Lauren Ott
Family Separation – collage by Cece Hohman
Border – collage by Maggie Matthews
Asylum – narrative by Gabby Cox
Border – short story by Ben Kava
Tried & True – collage by Christine Jarman
Holocaust – poem by Grant Campion
LIFE ON THE BORDER FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
This qualitative research study describes the experience of children and families in a tent encampment in Matamoros, Mexico and recommends strategies to support women, children and families living in this camp and elsewhere along the border.
HIGHLIGHTS
Network Agency: An Agent-based Model of Forced Migration from Ukraine, AAMAS, February 2024
A Generalizable Theory-Driven Agent-Based Framework to Study Conflict-Induced Forced Migration, AAAI, February 2024
Evidence on Child Migration and Displacement, UNICEF Innocenti Conference, January 2024
Are Orderly Borders Possible in an Era of Rising Climate Migration? Changing Climate, Changing Migration podcast episode, April 2023
Health and safety concerns of female asylum seekers living in an informal migrant camp in Matamoros, Mexico, Journal of Advanced Nursing, November 2022
Rural Poverty, Climate Change, and Family Migration from Guatemala, Brookings Institution, Future Development Blog, April 2022
How Resettling Afghan Refugees Might Help Afghanistan’s Future, The Washington Post, August 2021
Climate, Violence, and Honduran Migration to the United States, Brookings Institution, Future Development Blog, April 2021
Psychosocial Support Interventions in the Context of Forced Displacement: Process and Findings from a Systematic Review of the Global Literature, GIZ, February 2021
Psychosocial Support Interventions in the Context of Displacement: Recommendations for Practice, Research, and Policy from a Review of the Global Literature, GIZ, February 2021
Report on US-Mexico Border Conditions for Women and Children, April 2020
Q&A: Bruce Springsteen Spotlights Professor’s Nonprofit Work at the Border, February 2020
Winter Cold Brings New Challenges to Asylum Seekers Living in Matamoros, Mexico, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 2019