Committee on Forced Migration

The Columbia University Committee on Forced Migration is a University-wide initiative led by Professor Safwan M. Masri, Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development, and coordinated by Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh. The Committee was created by the Columbia Global Centers as a response to the dramatic increase in the number of forced migrants and migration crises around the world.

The Committee seeks to maximize Columbia’s ability to act as a platform to engage, support, and share information across its community of faculty, students, and staff on issues related to forced migration. Through workshops, research, and broad communications with academic experts and the world’s thought leaders in global migration, the Committee provides an institutional setting for over 80 faculty from across Columbia’s schools and affiliates to share research results, create interdisciplinary networks, and explore new approaches to addressing problems of forced migration. The Committee also mobilizes the University’s resources to respond to forced migration challenges, such as driving Columbia’s response to the Afghanistan crisis.

The Committee on Forced Migration is one of a number of forced migration-related activities the Global Centers supports, including the: 

• Columbia University Scholarship for Displaced Students
• Amman - Mellon Foundation Global Center’s Fellowship Program for Emerging Displaced Scholars
• New University in Exile Consortium

"Most current international crisis-related discourse is concerned with the coronavirus pandemic, yet in the decade prior to the appearance of Covid-19, a much larger global crisis has been unfolding. By the time a person finishes reading this, over one hundred people will have been compelled to leave their homes. Nearly half of those will become stateless as well – displaced not only within their countries, but forced to migrate across borders. The causes are numerous and complicated: natural and ecological disasters, development projects that claim or contaminate land and water, and primarily, violent conflict. Unspeakable horrors that need immediate attention and action. 

Columbia University and Columbia Global Centers affirm that, as an institution with global reach, we are determined to help meet the needs of our global society.  The haphazard results of leaving the response to international crises up to individual states has only underscored the necessity of unified strategies and shared information that respect our human connections across borders.  We are committed to research into the myriad issues involved in forced migration, and to engaging meaningfully in providing solutions." 

Safwan M. Masri, Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development