Humanities and Social Sciences

Welcome to the La Trobe Refugee Research Centre (LaRRC)

The La Trobe Refugee Research Centre is a part of the School of Social Sciences and a core affiliate of La Trobe University’s Institute for Human Security. LaRRC works to promote the wellbeing, participation and social inclusion of people with refugee backgrounds through applied and foundation research, teaching, continuing education and professional development.

Through a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach, LaRRC aims to:

• To raise public awareness and contribute to national and global debate about the causes and consequences of forced displacement and their impacts on human security;
• To investigate the social determinants of wellbeing of people with refugee backgrounds and the contexts that promote optimal resettlement;
• To investigate the socio-political factors that hinder or promote social inclusion, among communities with refugee backgrounds;
  To promote access and equity to health and social services for communities with refugee backgrounds;
• To raise awareness of refugee issues through teaching in the undergraduate curriculum across University faculties.

The work of LaRRC is organized around three key themes:

• Displacement: focusing on the push and pull factors of forced displacement;
• Flight: focusing on issues from exile and the seeing of asylum;
• Refuge: focusing on issues of resettlement and refugee Diasporas