This issue of Applied Psycholinguistics is the result of a special time in history that mobilized Canadian and German researchers in common cause to address the mass migrations of people from war-torn and environmentally scarred countries. In the Fall of 2015 Martha Crago, Editor-in-Chief of Applied Psycholinguistics (2006–2018), reached out to her colleagues in Canada and Germany, who in turn reached out to their colleagues. Within a very few months funding was secured on the Canadian side from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Immigration Refugee and Citizenship Canada and on the German side from the Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung (the Federal Ministry of Education and Research). This rapid response funding, in part, allowed Canadian and German researchers to meet at the Canadian Embassy in Berlin and form the collaborations that are the foundation of this Special Issue. It is with great pleasure that Applied Psycholinguistics brings this research to its readers. It embodies how language researchers can contribute their science and knowledge in a time of crisis.