Religion &
Forced Migration Initiative
A program of Princeton University’s Office of Religious Life
About the Religion & Forced Migration Initiative
The Religion & Forced Migration Initiative (RFMI) explores, amplifies, and hopes to improve our collective understanding of the role of religion in forced migration. We do so as an Office of Religious Life (ORL) within a secular university, and in partnership with scholars, religious leaders, refugee advocates, and refugees themselves. This site is built, and will continue to develop, with and for refugees and those who work with them, as well as for educators, students, and community members who wish to learn about and advocate for refugees.
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About the Oral History Project
The Oral History Project on Religion and Resettlement is a growing archive of oral histories from resettled refugees and asylees in the United States whose religious and spiritual lives have been consequential to their journey, resettlement, and integration. We seek to gather and share oral histories from refugees, and are committed to collecting stories from, and involving, the full range of religious communities.
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Below are five excerpts from our archive.
Explore the Learning Materials
Our decision to create learning materials grew out of a desire to activate the oral history archive to ensure these inspiring, powerful, often overlooked stories were heard. These maps, lesson plans, and primers showcase the experiences of resettled refugees in the US in their own words by drawing from our oral history archive. These materials include information about refugees and the US refugee resettlement system, stories about refugees’ religious, ethnic, and cultural identities, and many more themes common across the oral history interviews we have conducted over the past two years.
