Volume I · A community archive

Americans whose families arrived as refugees.

We are children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other descendants of the millions of refugees who found safe haven in the United States.

"Refugees have been coming to our shores since the pilgrims fled religious persecution. The U.S. Congress enacted the first refugee legislation in 1948 following the admission of more than 250,000 displaced Europeans from World War II. This legislation provided for the admission of an additional 400,000 displaced Europeans in the coming years. Later laws provided for admission of persons fleeing Communism, largely from China, Hungary, Korea, Poland and Yugoslavia, and in the 1960s, Cubans fleeing Fidel Castro's regime…. The Refugee Act of 1980, which standardized federally-supported resettlement services for all refugees admitted to the United States…incorporates the definition of "refugee" used in the U.N. Refugee Convention and provides for regular and emergency admission of refugees of all nationalities.… Since 1975, the U.S. has resettled more than three million refugees."

— U.S. State Department, History of U.S. Refugee Resettlement