From Refugee to DiplomatThey fled. Then they came back to serve.
Europe

Yugoslavia and the Balkans: Refugees Who Became U.S. Diplomats

From Yugoslavia and the Balkans to the service of the United States.

Russian émigrés and displaced persons

After the Russian Revolution, many anti-Bolshevik Russians settled in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. World War II and the Communist takeover uprooted them again, and some came to the United States as displaced persons after 1948.

The wars of the 1990s

The breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s produced the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. The United States resettled well over one hundred thousand refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina, many in cities such as St. Louis, Chicago, and Utica.

Figures are approximate.

Diplomats from Yugoslavia and the Balkans

Alexander AkalovskyA displaced person admitted in 1949 who became one of the Department's Russian interpreters during the Cold War.Nikolina KulidzanA refugee from the Bosnian war who became a Foreign Service officer and a published novelist.