While the United States has a long history of accepting immigrants from around the world fleeing persecution and war, the term “refugee” wasn’t defined until the mid-20th century following the massive exodus of Europeans displaced by World War II. At least 180,000 Europeans uprooted by the war arrived in the United States from 1933 to 1945, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, leading Congress to enact its first refugee legislation in 1948. Under the act, the United States admitted an additional 350,000 displaced people over the next four years, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

RESPONSIBILITIES

I created original portraits of 12 famous refugees who settled in the United States. I used the portraits for a web page that featured their biographies and as a series of instagram slides that featured quotations or biographical facts.