Reimagining Refuge: California for Just Migrant Futures brings scholars from the University of California together with artists, community organizations, and migrants across California and the US-Mexico border to advance more just futures for migrants and asylum seekers. Funded by a University of California Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives Grant (2025–2028), the project has two aims: 1) build a statewide network dedicated to imagining and building better futures for migrants and 2) conduct a multi-sited and multi-scalar analysis of U.S. migration policies, from migrants’ perspectives.

The Reimagining Refuge Network is a California-wide community of scholars, artists, and practitioners designing new forms of refuge. We offer annual seed grants to community organizers, artists, and UC faculty and graduate students, alongside regular workshops and convenings.

The Just Migrant Futures Study is a research program in which our lead faculty, UC students, and immigrant-serving NGOs partner to understand the impacts of U.S. enforcement practices and identify humane alternatives to detention, border militarization, and prolonged precarity. Centering youth and families, the study is based on interviews, participant observation, and art workshops across California, detention sites, border regions, and Mexico.