[4] Global Refuge also advocates for policies and practices relating to immigration and detention.

[5][6] 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,[7] but the roots of the organization reach back to the 1860s when the New York Ministerium and the Pennsylvania Ministerium joined together to help and protect Lutheran immigrants in the US.

[8] Since then the organization's scope has expanded to include any refugees entering the US, support for asylum seekers[9] and migrants,[10][11] and services to unaccompanied children (UACs).

Global Refuge continues to be a faith-based organization and maintains collaborative relationships with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

[12] As of 2019[update] the president and CEO is Krish O'Mara Vignarajah.