The Leir Institute's mission is to help policymakers and practitioners develop more equitable and sustainable responses to migration and its root causes by employing a human security approach.

[11] Disrupted Mobilities is a multimedia project inspired by the Leir-sponsored 2019 documentary, Waylaid in Tijuana, that currently explores: the intersecting effects of blocked asylum, deportation, and restricted cross-border movement in communities along the U.S.-Mexico border; and, how migrants journeying through Central America and Mexico assess risk and process information regarding entry into the United States.

RIT also conducts research in collaboration with practitioners, including the International Rescue Committee, Save the Children, Jesuit Refugee Service, and the Hello Neighbor Network.

[15] The Institute for Human Security (IHS) was founded in 2000 as a response to rapid global change following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

IHS was inaugurated to strengthen Fletcher’s impact on eradicating extreme misery, oppression, and violence and involved faculty working at the intersection of humanitarianism, development, human rights, and conflict resolution.

IHS was one of the earliest institutions advocating for human security as a field of study and producing academic literature on the subject.

[16] Dr. Peter Uvin, the Henry J. Leir Professor of International Humanitarian Studies at The Fletcher School at the time, was the Institute’s first director.

[26] [27] In 2014, the Carnegie Corporation of New York awarded the Leir Institute a $1 million grant to connect academics and policymakers and help professors influence policy, as part of the Corporation's “Rigor and Relevance Initiative.”[28][29][30] Leir was awarded funds to develop novel, feasible ways to bridge the gap between academics and policymakers working on the same complex foreign policy issues.

[31][29] Leir dedicated grant resources to developing and communicating strategies to enhance the legitimacy of fragile states across political, economic, justice and security sectors.

(https://sites.tufts.edu/ihs/about/) [29] In the past, Leir closely collaborated with the Center for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (CHRCR) at The Fletcher School.

CHRCR was later renamed the Program for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (PHRCR) and finally merged with the Leir Institute.

[2] [36][37] The Leir Institute and affiliated faculty and students contribute significantly to scholarship on migration and human security approaches.