More than 100 million people have been displaced from their homes due to persecution or violence. Displaced persons include refugees, asylum seekers and those displaced internally within their countries of origin. Refugees and asylum seekers who manage to safely flee their country of origin seek stability in safe countries through the process of resettlement. With human displacement at a record high, public curiosity about refugees and asylum seekers, their journey(s), and how they can be best supported continues to grow. The Three Rs is an online community of academic experts, researchers, and civil society representatives located in North America and Western Europe.
Our shared mission is to produce and compile information on the psychosocial and community participation needs of refugees and asylum seekers during and after arriving in a safe country. Our goal is for The Three Rs platform to become the go-to repository of credible and reliable information on this topic. The Three Rs is supported by the Social Science Research Council and hosted by the University of Illinois Chicago. This platform is managed by a multidisciplinary team of applied health scholars, social scientists, and humanities researchers who believe that displaced persons not only deserve timely access to food, shelter, and security, but also the right to live with dignity and opportunities for meaningful integration and participation in resettlement communities. We also believe that achieving this vision is the shared responsibility of global citizens engaging in local action. Public policy makers, local politicians, neighborhood councils, refugee self-help groups and lay citizens will be at the forefront of these efforts. We hope that The Three Rs initiative offers these diverse stakeholders timely access to recent and reliable sources of information to inform their efforts.
Getting Started
If you’re interested in learning more about refugees and asylum seekers but are fairly new to this topic, we recommend reviewing the Frequently Asked Questions and Myths & Misperceptions page as a starting point.
When you’re ready, feel free to explore one or more of the Research Topics that the Three Rs platform focuses on. You can navigate to each topic from the Research Topics drop-down menu, or from this page here.
1. Psychosocial Impact of Displacement
2. Asylum and Resettlement Policies
3. Intersectional Identities
4. Civic Engagement and Community Integration
5. Public Health Issues
Each topic features four types of content:
- Original Reviews which synthesize and appraise the latest research related to a particular topic
- Expert Commentaries written by our many collaborators who are also topic experts summarizing their reflections, opinions, and recommendations
- Voices from the Community, which include first-person accounts from refugees, asylum seekers, and community advocates and service providers
- News and Updates, where we curate the most relevant and reliable sources of news published in the mainstream media from around the world.
In addition to the main research topics, The Three Rs website also includes a Database of Collaborators ; an Events Calendar which is sortable by month, and searchable by keyword; Resources for Teaching, Learning, and Advocacy and a Citations Library , which serves as a repository of research reports and non-research publications such as commentaries and white papers.
Get Involved
We would be unable to manage and sustain The Three Rs platform without the contributions of our collaborators. As a collaborator, you can be involved in one or more of the following ways:
Sign up to be featured in our Database of Collaborators. Once you sign up, we will contact you to verify your account and will provide more information about your collaborator profile. The collaborator database is searchable by keyword and serves as an opportunity to network with others who share your scholarly interests.
Contribute original research and review articles to be featured on The Three Rs website. Please send an email to [email protected] to initiate a conversation about this.
Recommend peer-review and non peer-reviewed literature to be included in our Citations Library. Complete this form with your recommended citations.
Recommend news stories relevant to the The Three Rs research topics. Complete this form to share news stories of interest.
Recommend teaching and learning resources relevant to the The Three Rs research topics. Complete this form to share resources of interest.
Share first-person accounts of life after resettlement and asylum. Please send an email to [insert admin email] to initiate a conversation about this.
If you have any questions, please contact us at Insert admin [email protected].
All submitted content will reviewed by our team before being approved for publication.