Flags and Refugee Identity

I work for a refugee community organization, where people from a wide range of countries who have entered the United States with refugee status work together to provide cultural, economic, and educational assistance. Like every generation of American immigrant before them, our clients embrace both their new American identities but also their native cultural background. Since flags are powerful symbols of cultural identity, they are seen a lot around the office.

Here's a flier from a recent soccer clinic that a lot of refugee girls took part in.

These flags represent six of the largest refugee communities currently arriving in the United States, and particularly my city of Portland, Oregon.