Every Campus a Refuge (ECAR)

As of December 2023, 15 universities have ECAR chapters that host refugees, including James Madison University, Oklahoma State University, Washington State University, Wake Forest University, the University of Tulsa, and Siena College. Three other universities have inactive ECAR chapters that are no longer hosting refugees. ³

ECAR is a Private Sponsor Organization in the U.S. Department of State’s Welcome Corps. ⁴

History

Every Campus a Refuge was founded in September 2015 by Diya Abdo, an English professor at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, in response to Pope Francis’s call for every European parish to host at least one refugee family during the Syrian refugee crisis. Given the ample resources of universities, particularly housing, dining, and medical care, Abdo sought to encourage schools to host refugees. In January 2016, Guilford College began hosting refugees. Since then, the school has hosted refugees from Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia, Afghanistan, and Venezuela. ^{5 6 7}

Abdo was born in the Palestinian territories and grew up in Jordan as a refugee. In 2022, she published American Refugee: True Stories of the Refugee Experience. ^{8 9}

On establishing ECAR at Guilford College, Abdo wrote: ⁷

“…to do so with integrity meant that we needed to do this work in ways that understood our accountability as a predominantly white institution operating within and animated by white structures, whether these be academic, the U.S. government’s policies and practices, or our country’s colonial and imperial histories and contexts. Guilford College did not admit black students until 1962 and is built in a region that belonged to indigenous tribes. So, while hosting refugees on Guilford’s campus could be easily seen as an extension of the institution’s core values and historical legacy, the effort must also be rightly seen as necessitated by another legacy we have inherited—that of empire-building, colonialism, and global politics that have displaced and dispossessed the indigenous peoples of this land and others around the globe.” ⁷

After the election of President Donald Trump, many commenters believed that Abdo established ECAR in response to the President’s anti-immigration policies or rhetoric. Abdo has insisted that she “wasn’t thinking of Trump at all” when creating ECAR. However, she has acknowledged creating ECAR to combat cultural values and norms associated with then-President Trump: ⁸

“Trump is a gross manifestation — and by that, I mean large — of the ideas that have been tracking through narratives about immigration and refugees… It’s the same in Europe. There isn’t an outpouring of welcome that we would hope for in this time of catastrophe. There’s a lack of hospitality in this country; it’s more hostility and indifference.” ⁸

In 2017, Abdo designed two courses of study to be taught at Guilford College as minors based on the work of ECAR: “Every Campus A Refuge” and “Forced Migration and Resettlement Studies.” ⁷

Refugee Settlement

When universities partner with Every Campus a Refuge, Every Campus a Refuge connects the school with a local refugee resettlement agency to facilitate the incoming refugees at school housing located near campus amenities like grocery stores. Over an average of five months, the refugees are given financial, “cultural, social, and community integration support” until they can leave campus housing and move into their own homes. ¹

ECAR provides at least part of the funding to some of the universities for the refugee resettlement process. ¹ In 2022, ECAR provided $10,000 to six universities. ¹⁰

Funding

In 2021, Every Campus a Refuge was awarded an Innovation Prize by the J.M. Kaplan Fund. ¹¹

ECAR has also received funding from the Schultz Family Foundation. ¹²