Amazing things created by refugees

  • Text by HUCK HQ
Displaced culture — In Huck 53 we explore real stories of refugees: What does it mean to be forced from your home and to set off for a new life with no guarantees? Here's a list of refugees who went on to make great things.

News stories can sometimes make us forget that refugees are also people. And people can do great things when they’re given the freedom to be safe. Here’s some examples of things we wouldn’t have if we tightened borders.

The iPhone

Steve Jobs grandmother was an Armenian refugee who lost her first husband in the war and moved to San Francisco with her parents. If you don’t want refugees in your country, don’t use an iPhone you hypocrite.
Apple Inc. CEO and co-founder, Steve Jobs health

Discovery of Immunological Tolerance

An Emeritus professor, Leslie Brent is approaching his nineties, and has behind him a legacy that evokes both terror and admiration. In 1938 he was one of the first Jews to escape anti-semitic prejudice in Nazi Germany on the Kindertransports, coming to the United Kingdom as a thirteen-year-old refugee. His family were not so fortunate. Despite suffering due to the absence of his parents and survivor’s guilt, Leslie had a successful academic career, climaxing with his co-discovery of immunological tolerance, which led to a Nobel prize. Read his full story in Huck 53 – The Change Issue, as part of our portrait series shot by Michael Vince Kim.
HUCK_Refugees_Leslie_04

The Mini

The creator of the Mini, Sir Alec Issigonis, was a Greek refugee who fled Turkey in 1922, ahead of the Great Fire of Smyrna and the Turkish re-possession of Smyrna at the end of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). Issigonis went into the motor industry as an engineer and designer and later designed the mini in response to fuel rationing brought about by the Suez Crisis.
Image2

Paper Planes

Calculated as the seventh best-selling song by a British artist in the digital era, Paper Planes was written and performed by MIA, a British hip hop artist who fled to the UK aged eleven from the Sri Lankan Civil War in which her father was a Tamil activist.

 

Check out the full article in Huck 53 – The Change Issue. Grab a copy in the Huck Shop  or subscribe today to make sure you don’t miss another issue.


Ad

Latest on Huck

Red shop frontage with "Open Out" branding and appointment-only signage.
Activism

Meet the trans-led hairdressers providing London with gender-affirming trims

Open Out — Since being founded in 2011, the Hoxton salon has become a crucial space the city’s LGBTQ+ community. Hannah Bentley caught up with co-founder Greygory Vass to hear about its growth, breaking down barbering binaries, and the recent Supreme Court ruling.

Written by: Hannah Bentley

Cyclists racing past Palestinian flag, yellow barriers, and spectators.
Sport

Gazan amputees secure Para-Cycling World Championships qualification

Gaza Sunbirds — Alaa al-Dali and Mohamed Asfour earned Palestine’s first-ever top-20 finish at the Para-Cycling World Cup in Belgium over the weekend.

Written by: Isaac Muk

Crowded festival site with tents, stalls and an illuminated red double-decker bus. Groups of people, including children, milling about on the muddy ground.
© Alan Tash Lodge
Music

New documentary revisits the radical history of UK free rave culture

Free Party: A Folk History — Directed by Aaron Trinder, it features first-hand stories from key crews including DiY, Spiral Tribe, Bedlam and Circus Warp, with public streaming available from May 30.

Written by: Isaac Muk

Weathered wooden building with a tall spire, person on horseback in foreground.
Culture

Rahim Fortune’s dreamlike vision of the Black American South

Reflections — In the Texas native’s debut solo show, he weaves familial history and documentary photography to challenge the region’s visual tropes.

Written by: Miss Rosen

A collage depicting a giant flup for mankind, with an image of the Earth surrounded by planets and people in sci-fi costumes.
Culture

Why Katy Perry’s space flight was one giant flop for mankind

Galactic girlbossing — In a widely-panned, 11-minute trip to the edge of the earth’s atmosphere, the ‘Women’s World’ singer joined an all-female space crew in an expensive vanity advert for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Newsletter columnist Emma Garland explains its apocalypse indicating signs.

Written by: Emma Garland

Three orange book covers with the title "Foreign Fruit" against a dark background.
Culture

Katie Goh: “I want people to engage with the politics of oranges”

Foreign Fruit — In her new book, the Edinburgh-based writer traces her personal history through the citrus fruit’s global spread, from a village in China to Californian groves. Angela Hui caught up with her to find out more.

Written by: Katie Goh

Huck is supported by our readers, subscribers and Club Huck members. It is also made possible by sponsorship from:

Accessibility Settings

Text

Applies the Open Dyslexic font, designed to improve readability for individuals with dyslexia.

Applies a more readable font throughout the website, improving readability.

Underlines links throughout the website, making them easier to distinguish.

Adjusts the font size for improved readability.

Visuals

Reduces animations and disables autoplaying videos across the website, reducing distractions and improving focus.

Reduces the colour saturation throughout the website to create a more soothing visual experience.

Increases the contrast of elements on the website, making text and interface elements easier to distinguish.