Karen Jacobsen

Karen Jacobsen is the Henry J. Leir Professor in Global Migration at The Fletcher School at Tufts University. Her research explores urban displacement and global migration, with a focus on the livelihoods and financial resilience of migrants and refugees, and on climate- and environment-related mobility. She directs the Refugees in Towns Project at the Leir Institute for Migration and Human Security.

Jacobsen's research on migration makes her a trusted source on refugee and migration issues, humanitarian assistance in developing countries, urban impact, and climate change and migration. Alongside Carlos Alvarado, former president of Costa Rica, she leads the Leadership in Migration Initiative, which has gathered a braintrust on migration and produced trainings for rising stars who work for migration organizations. In the university-wide TRACE project, she is examining the convergence of human and wildlife trafficking and how technology can interrupt these activities.

She has consulted and worked closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other U.N. agencies and international NGOs. From 2013-2014, she led the Joint IDP Profiling Service (JIPS) at the U.N. in Geneva. As a research director at Feinstein International Center, she directed the Alchemy Project, which explored the use of microfinance to support people in refugee camps.

Her latest book, "Host Cities: How Refugees Are Transforming the World's Urban Settings" (Yale University Press, 2025), examines the impact of displacement on cities. Her previous books include: "Handbook of Forced Migration" (Edward Elgar); "A View from Below: Conducting Research in Conflict Zones" (Cambridge UP); and "The Economic Life of Refugees" (Lynne Rienner). She is a citizen of both South Africa and the U.S.