Portraits: The Illustrated Stories of Alaskans and their Immigration to the Great Land was published earlier this year through a partnership between the Alaska Immigration Justice Project, the Alaska Humanities Forum Leadership Anchorage program and the Center for Community Engagement and Learning at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Portraits honors Alaska’s rich diversity. In addition to the indigenous community that defines our state, Alaska is home to people from all over the world – over ten percent of our population is foreign born. The families depicted in Portraits are our friends and neighbors living in the shadows of our community.
Portraits gives voice to these families who face deportation and permanent separation because the system fails to provide realistic options. Through art and narrative, Portraits documents their lives, their contributions, and the impact that the fear of deportation and separation has on the children of our community.
A selected story from the publication:
The entire published work may be viewed online here.
The Alaska Immigration Justice Project is a non-profit agency that provides low-cost immigration legal assistance to immigrants and refugees in all immigration applications including citizenship, permanent resident status, work permits, asylum, family-based petitions and immigration petitions for immigrant victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking.
