The Centre for Refugee Studies is engaged in research on refugee issues; it informs public discussion as well as policy development and practice innovation by international, governmental, advocacy and service organizations; and it supports teaching in refugee and migration studies. Refugee studies is conceived in broad terms, as being concerned with the displacement of populations and individuals across and within borders, for reasons of persecution, expulsion, violence, violation of fundamental human rights and loss of essential human security and livelihood. It covers not only accommodation, protection, and assistance for refugees through asylum, settlement, resettlement and reintegration, but also the prevention of displacement. Its approach is necessarily interdisciplinary and it respects diversity in perspectives.

This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS), one of the oldest and foremost research centres of its kind in the world today. When the CRS was first chartered by the York University Senate in 1988, it was only the second centre of its kind ever to be established in the new emerging research field of "refugee studies." The CRS was founded by a passionate group of engaged and activist scholars at York University led by Professor Howard Adelman who was one of the leaders of "Operation Lifeline" that organized sponsoring groups for the Indo-Chinese Refugees who came to Canada in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Later, Professor Adelman and other distinguished scholars established the Indo-Chinese Documentation Project at York University that eventually became the basis for the establishment of the CRS. The highly responsive, innovative, activist, and committed approach to the protection and advancement of refugee rights that was so evident in the CRS's founding roots are still very much evident today in the CRS's broad range of activities on behalf of the world's refugees and/or anyone who has been forcibly displaced, its policy relevant action research, and its ongoing contributions to public policy making, advocacy and education.

Over the course of 2013, we will be holding a series of special events to help mark the CRS's 25th Anniversary at York University. Please look for these CRS 25th Anniversary special events and activities on our CRS website. Please join us in celebrating and commemorating our Centre's accomplishments and achievements over its first quarter century and into the future. All are warmly welcomed to join us at these special events!

With Very Best Wishes,
James C. Simeon