From Russia to the United States:
Dmitri’s Migration Story
as told to Kerri Bastin
I first came to the United States in 1991 when I was
19 years old. My first trip to the U.S. wasn’t to move here. I was in a
student exchange program in New York that lasted ten days. There, I met
a couple of people. This one guy I met, who is now my best friend, was
going to school in Tempe at Arizona State University, even though he is
actually from Bermuda. So the next time when I visited the U.S.,
I went to visit him. 
That is how I decided to go to
school in Arizona. So in 1992, I left Russia and moved to Arizona. At
the time, my life in Russia was very boring, and I actually hated my
school. I went to this engineering school that I totally hated, and in
Russia if you don’t go to college and you are male you have to go into
the army, which didn’t seem like a good option. The problem there was
that it was really difficult to switch schools. Basically, you would
lose all of your credits and once again, if you are a guy who is
eligible to serve, you would have to serve in the army first before you
could quit. This is kind of stupid because at the age of 16 or 17, that
is when you have to make a decision of where you want to go to college.
You don’t know anything at that age, and then you find out you hate it
and there is nothing you can do. So, I hated my school and I figured I
would come to Arizona.
When I first got here I was not expecting
“beautiful America” or something like that. Most Russian people that I
know would never think that because Russian propaganda during Communist
times was very good at showing how much poverty you had in the U.S.
But, even so, I was shocked when I got to New York. The buildings were
overwhelming. The hotel we stayed at had an all glass lounge on the top
floor, and I was afraid of heights. I would go to the edge and see all
the life down on the street below and I would be like “My God, that is
unbelievable!” That was pretty amazing. So I never really had any
expectations, like all Americans are rich, but it was just like
everything was different, and big and over the top.
When I first got to the United States I didn’t really have any problems
fitting in. I though that you usually have a problem if you think that
people are superior to you and that you are second class. I thought
that I was first class and they were second class! No, but seriously, a
lot of my friends feel the same way. Many Americans are naïve and it is
a naïve kind of culture in a way. Many Americans are surprised of all
the “wheelin’ and dealin’” that goes on in other countries. Like, for
instance, Americans will be surprised that in other countries people
will do things like add water to the gasoline to make more money. When
we talk about it they are like, “Oh, you can do that?” and I am like,
“Hell yeah, you can do that!” As for discrimination or
misunderstandings, I personally can not think of anything specific. 
If they did occur, it probably would have been language
related, like in the beginning when you don’t know all the slang. I
pretty much spoke English back then as I do now. I grew up learning
English in school, but when I got to the U.S. I listened to what the
people were saying and I just caught on quick. I don’t think everybody
can learn like that. Either you get it or you don’t. Discrimination
might also occur if your English is not up to par. Some people will
think that if you don’t speak well that you are stupid, or they feel
that you are below them, even though you can speak perfectly well in
your own language. I didn’t really have any problems with this though.
If people were to make some kind of comment, I would just think they
are stupid and I don’t really think anything of it. I think people from
the former Soviet states in central Asia might experience more problems.
In the beginning, part of the reason why I really liked it in America was because people would be so nice and so sweet and so into you. I found out later that it was all for show. For example, at first everybody would be asking me questions and would be really interested in me, but then they were like today “Oh you are Russian, that’s nice” and tomorrow it was “Oh have you seen our new dog?” They just weren’t interested anymore. I think many foreigners think that Americans are so nice and friendly, but they aren’t really all that. I mean, if you were to come to Russia, you may meet someone at a club, and the next day you find out they are taking you to some house and they are going to spend hundreds of dollars to throw you a party just because they met you the night before. Here, you might meet someone and maybe you will have a nice dinner, and then its “Nice to meet you, thank you very much,” and then they drive themselves back to their beautiful house at D.C. Ranch.
When I was in the United States in 1991, that was when the Soviet Union
disintegrated. When I got back to Russia, basically Yeltsin became
President, but Russia wasn’t really a different country. Things don’t
change that quickly. Economy wise it was about the same. The $500.00
that I needed in airfare to get to the United States was a lot of money
back then. I am still in close contact with my family in Russia. 
I visit often. I also send money back home for my parents
and my grandma, as they rely on it. Mostly everybody sends money back.
My family had a chance to come visit once. It was in 1996, when I
graduated from college with a degree in International Business. They
stayed for an entire year. It was actually kind of fun having them
around. My mother cooked all the time. I already had a car and all
that, but I was only making $19,500 a year and we were all staying in
an apartment, yet I can’t remember us ever being short on anything. I
remember going out and buying them clothes and stuff. I have no idea
how I did, ‘cause now I could never do it on that amount of money.
Today in Moscow, a lot of young people (thirty-something)
make way more money than we do here, and they have a way better living
than we have. There is probably very little that they can’t afford. And
it isn’t necessarily illegal money; they have more opportunities to
make the money legally. Those are the people who might think “Why you
want to live in America when you can be making money here?” Many of my
friends don’t want to visit America. They don’t like Bush and they
don’t like the security checks at the airport. I am like “Big deal, so
you have to take your shoes off.” I might move from the United States
to Europe one day, either the south of France or maybe Switzerland. A
person could definitely live in the south of France, but I will
probably never move back to Russia again.
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