John Thon Majok

Director , Refugee and Forced Displacement Initiative / Snr.  Advisor, Institutional Development , MPI

John Thon Majok is the Director of Refugee and Forced Displacement Initiative (RAFDI) at the Migration Policy Institute where he is also a Senior Advisor for Institutional Development.Majok provides leadership and strategic vision for RAFDI, which seeks to expand the space for new perspectives, constructive dialogue and sustainable solutions through evidence-based analysis, aiming to inform policies and improve approaches for understanding forced displacement in global context. From 2013 to 2025, Majok worked at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where he was the Founding Director of Refugee and Forced Displacement Initiative, Deputy Director of Development, Senior Director of Grants Management, and Senior Program Analyst for the Global Risk and Resilience Program.

While at the Wilson Center, Majok moderated,convened, presented, or spoke at many high-level events, including the Congressional Caucus on Global Migration at the U.S. House of Representatives, Consultations on Resettlement and Complementary Pathways in Geneva, and refugee policy symposium in The Hague. From 2010 to 2012, Majok worked as a contractor at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, where he developed and implemented strategic outreach plans for global alumni of the U.S. government exchange programs, including those of the Fulbright Program and International Visitor Leadership Program. From 2007 to 2009, he was a Program Officer at the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, where he managed a study abroad portfolio of the U.S. Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship Program,overseeing programs for U.S. students going to China, Russia, and Tajikistan.

Prior to this, he coordinated the global recruitment of skilled South Sudanese for the Diaspora Skills Transfer Program for Southern Sudan at the Academy for Educational Development.His research—informed by lived experience in refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia—focuses on conflict-induced forced displacement and refugee resilience, agency, self-reliance, education,resettlement, host country integration policies, and durable solutions to protracted displacements in global context, with a special interest in East Africa. He has written articles and contributed to publications, including RAFDI Working Group Report, “US Leadership Matters in Addressing Forced Displacement Crisis”, which he co-authored with Susan Martin and James Hollifield.

Majok graduated with high honors from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration and Policy. He holds a Master of Public Administration from George Mason University. He serves on the boards of directors of Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) USA, Refugee Investment Network, and the Center for Migration Studies.