9 visionaries you didn't know were refugees who changed America

In times of heightened terror threats, it’s easy to keep our guards up.

Following last month's deadly attacks in Paris, the current Syrian refugee crisis has stirred a global debate between those willing to help asylum-seekers, and those who are quick to close their doors over fears that extremists are taking advantage of the crisis to infiltrate Europe.

But if the United States hadn’t offered a home to the following refugees, we may have never reaped the benefits of their human potential.

NTRSCTN compiled a list of 10 influential refugees who found asylum in the U.S., and made incredible contributions to various fields, ranging from science to the arts. Their stories prove that when we invest in humanity, people can rise above their circumstances, and achieve great things.

Fled: Cuba

Career: Actor

Best known for: The Godfather Part III, Ocean’s Eleven and its sequels Ocean’s Twelve and Ocean’s Thirteen, and The Lost City

Born in Havana, Cuba, Andy Garcia and his family fled the country after the United States' Bay of Pigs Invasion, a failed attempt to topple Fidel Castro's regime, when he was 5 years old.

Although Garcia is best known for his role as Vincent Mancini in The Godfather Part III, for which he received Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for best supporting actor, he also sought to celebrate his roots and challenge Latino stereotypes in Hollywood. Garcia eventually came full circle in 2005 with The Lost City, a film that explores the Cuban Revolution and Castro’s rise to power.

Fled: Romania

Career: Gymnast

Best known for: Winning three Olympic gold medals in 1976

Nadia Comaneci is widely recognized as one of world's best gymnasts. She won three Olympic gold medals at the 1976 Summer Games, and became the first person in Olympic history to receive a perfect score of 10.

Born in Onesti, Romania, Comaneci had a successful career as a gymnast in her home country, but defected to the United States in 1989 to escape Romania's repressive government. Stateside, she coached gymnastics and toured to promote the sport. Comaneci married American gymnast Bart Conner in 1996, and became a U.S. citizen in 2001.

Fled: Germany

Career: Physicist

Best known for: E = mc2

Fled: Czechoslovakia

Career: Politician and diplomat

Best known for: Being the first female United States Secretary of State

Born Marie Jana Korbelova, Madeleine Albright and her family fled political turmoil twice. The first time, they escaped to England after the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia during World War II. Soon after, they returned to Prague when the country was liberated from the Germans. But after Czechoslovakia's Communist takeover in 1948, Albright’s family fled to the United States when she was 11, and settled in Denver, Colorado.

Albright pursued a successful career in politics, and eventually became the first female Secretary of State by unanimous vote and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the United States government.

Fled: Iran

Career: Writer and women's rights activist

Best known for: Her books, Women in Exile and Claiming Our Rights

During pre-revolutionary Iran, Mahnaz Afkhami served as Minister for Women’s Affairs (one of two female cabinet ministers at the time) and secretary-general of the Women’s Organization of Iran. In 1978, Afkhami traveled to the United Nations in New York to help establish an international research institute for women in Tehran, Iran's capital. Her husband then warned Afkhami that Islamic revolutionaries had condemned her feminist activities, and that she would likely get arrested if she returned home. Afkhami ultimately stayed in the United States, where she continued a life of activism.

In addition to publishing numerous books, Afkhami has served as president of international feminist think tank, The Sisterhood Is Global Institute, and is now president and CEO of an NGO called the Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace.

Fled: Cambodia

Career: Nurse and humanitarian

Best known for: Global refugee work

From 1975 to 1979, Theanvy Kuoch was a slave of the Khmer Rouge, which forced her to do heavy labor. Kuoch said she watched more than 19 of her relatives die from starvation and abuse in the regime's camps.

After the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, The Red Cross eventually found Kuoch and her family, and helped them relocate to a United Nations refugee camp. She spent two years working as a nurse at various camps before resettling in the United States.

Kuoch has since dedicated her life to helping fellow refugees who have suffered torture and persecution, and has won several awards for her work. In 1982, she and three American nurses founded Khmer Health Advocates, which provides health services to survivors of the Cambodian genocide.

Fled: China (exiled after participating in 1989 Tiananmen Square protests)

Career: Businessman

Best known for: Founding hedge fund Himalaya Capital

When Li Lu was a baby, his parents were sent to the labor camps for "re-education" during China’s Cultural Revolution. Lu became an active leader of the student-democracy movement, which eventually led to his exile after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. He fled to Hong Kong after Chinese authorities launched a two-month manhunt, and eventually made his way to the United States.

In the U.S., Lu pursued three undergraduate degrees simultaneously at Columbia University, and became the first student there to receive three separate degrees in a day. After college, he embraced capitalism as an investment banker. His biggest career success was founding the high-profile Manhattan hedge fund Himalaya Capital in 1997.

Lu also continues to fight for human rights and democracy in China.

Fled: Vietnam

Career: Spoken word artist and community activist

Best known for: Being the first Vietnamese-American man on Def Poetry Jam

Born in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam, Bao Phi fled the country during the Vietnam War in 1975, and resettled in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He first started doing performance-based poetry on his high school speech team.

Phi’s passion for spoken word grew, leading him to win the Minnesota Grand Poetry Slam twice, as well as two poetry slams at the legendary Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City. He was also the first Vietnamese-American man to appear on HBO's Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry.

Phi's first book, 2011's Song I Sing, received a favorable review in The New York Times.

Fled: Austria

Career: Chemist

Best known for: Developing the birth control pill

Born in Vienna, Austria, Carl Djerassi and his mother moved to the United States in 1939 to escape the growing Nazi threat. He earned a degree in chemistry from Kenyon College and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Djerassi's most famous contribution was the synthesis of norethisterone, "a potent orally available progestin analog" that was integral to the development of the birth control pill.