Global Refuge, formerly known as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, is a non-profit organization that supports

refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

s and migrants entering the United States. It is one of nine refugee resettlement agencies working with the

Office of Refugee Resettlement The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is a program of the Administration for Children and Families, an office within the United States Department of Health and Human Services, created with the passing of the United States Refugee Act of 1980 ( ...

and one of two that serves unaccompanied refugee minors. Global Refuge also advocates for policies and practices relating to

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as Permanent residency, permanent residents. Commuting, Commuter ...

and detention. As an organization, Global Refuge originates from the response of American Lutherans in 1939 to the needs of Europeans displaced because of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, but the roots of the organization reach back to the 1860s when the

New York Ministerium The New York Ministerium, also known as the Ministerium of New York, was an early Lutheran synod founded in 1786 in the U.S. state of New York. Throughout its history there were theological controversies that led to congregations withdrawing fr ...

and the

Pennsylvania Ministerium The Pennsylvania Ministerium was the first Lutheran church body in North America. With the encouragement of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711–1787), the Ministerium was founded at a Church Conference of Lutheran clergy on August 26, 1748. The ...

joined together to help and protect Lutheran immigrants in the US. Since then the organization's scope has expanded to include any refugees entering the US, support for

asylum seeker An asylum seeker is a person who leaves their country of residence, enters another country, and makes in that other country a formal application for the right of asylum according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 14. A per ...

s and migrants, and services to unaccompanied children (UACs). Global Refuge continues to be a

faith-based organization A faith-based organization is an organization whose values are based on faith and beliefs, which has a mission based on social values of the particular faith, and which most often draws its activists (leaders, staff, volunteers) from a particular ...

and maintains collaborative relationships with the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. As of December 31, 2023, it ...

and the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. the president and CEO is Krish O'Mara Vignarajah.

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* * {{Authority control Lutheran organizations Organizations established in 1939 Non-profit organizations based in Maryland Organizations based in Baltimore Refugee aid organizations in the United States Migration-related organizations based in the United States 1939 establishments in the United States Immigration political advocacy groups in the United States