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Crossing The Valley interactive projectIntroduction to the interview There are many different communities of European immigrants in Phoenix, as Polish, German, Bulgarian, Romanian, Bosnian, and Russian speaking community. At all, there are millions of Russian immigrants in the US and they even can not participate in a Green Card Lottery because amount of migrants from Russia already exceeded all sensible limits. In news you can see that Russian economic is growing, and that is true, but it still hard to survive in cities that are far away from Moscow, capital of Russian Federation. I am a Russian speaking myself, so when I got known that I need to interview a migrant, I had no doubt it will be someone from former Soviet Union. At one Russian party in Phoenix my friend introduced me to an interesting kid, who, as I found later, came from Saint-Petersburg, Russia. I and he are about the same age and we have a lot in common, so we quickly became good friends. So, few days ago, I grabbed some beer cans and came over to his apartment with a purpose of interviewing him. He was impressed, but, using my leading questions he told me his immigration story, that, actually, is really interesting and exciting. Before I start his story, I would to introduce you, the reader, in to the some points of russian geography. Russia is the largest country in the world that is located on two continents: Europe and Asia. The GDP per capita is about $10,700, and population below poverty line is about 20%. The huge natural resources let this country still to be afloat, but, in my opinion, not for a long time. click here to see the map of Russia USA. The country of oddities. The story of Dmitriy Semenchukov, russian kid, who migrated to the US right after he turned 16, his impressions, expressions, and discoveries. My mother got married to an american citizen in 2001. After spending six months she invited me over. At that time I was 16 and lived in Saint-Petersburg, Russia with my grandmother and was attending high school. After I finished my high school, I accepted her invitation and came to Phoenix, Arizona. When I step out from the plane I felt all the heat of Arizona’s weather. It was July 5, middle of the summer, 105 degrees, that’s about 30 degrees over the temperature that I have used to live in. My first biggest impression was how many overweight people are in the US. I experienced my second biggest expression when I went to Mexican cuisine-restaurant in downtown Scottsdale. There were people who did not how to hold fork and knife, even in high-end restaurants where one dish is between 25-30 dollars. Even though I had a chance to go back, I stayed here because my mother wanted me to stay with her. She was basically alone in here.
I have not had a chance to study English in Russia. Really, I did, but I was ditching English classes at high school because I did not think that I will move to the US. It was really hard for me to communicate with my stepfather and other people. After talking to my mother about this, she suggested me to go to college to study English. In fact, she decided to go with me, since her communication skills needed some improvement. That was a mistake! Sitting with my mother and trying to share a book was just as pleasant as Arizona’s 120’s degrees weather. I can barely stand with her in the same building. It got worse! After a teacher realized that we were related, she was giving us more attention and asked about twenty different questions every day. Finally, we both passed the class with an “A” grade. However, after coming to mutual agreement, we decided not ever take the same class together. It was really tough for me at first without having any of mine friends next to me. Actually, that was I one of the reason that pushed me to study English. Without having any friends whom I could hang out in real, I started to use internet a lot to find them. Internet was the only way for communication at that point. I spent countless hours in a web. I discovered a wholly new world that was previously something I never dealt with. I started to use a messenger that has an option to look up people in my area and my age. That is, how I met my first friend Roman who originally happened to be from the Saint-Petersburg, the city where I grew up. We talked on the phone and found that we have a lot in common. Eventually, we became best friends. Not long after I met Roman, I met a guy from Ukraine, who was attending high school. His name is Craig (Igor in Russian) He barely spoke Russian, because he already lived in the US for more than 10 years. So, I started to speak English with him and that significantly improved my communication skills. Since he lived in Phoenix more than ten years, all of his friends were Americans. One day, Craig introduced me to some of his friends, and we went to my first American party afterwards. That was a SHOCK!!! They did not have any vodka! All they were drinking is a light beer out of red and blue plastic cups (but they still got drunk as shit). All the music they were listening to was a hip-hop and rap, and almost every teenager was smoking marijuana. To be honest, not everyone was as friendly as I expected them to be. But, I knew that is only because I am not an American and I had a slight Russian accent. Actually, that helped me to pick up a hot chick at that night.
She SHOCKED me how open minded she was!!! (but Russian girls are still the best! :). Parties were a lot of fun but I could never get used to them. Back In Russia I was able to go to clubs, drink and smoke ever since I was twelve years old. It might strike some of you a little odd; however, to me to go to clubs and have fun was a weekly basis thing. I could not understand why you have to be 18 years of age to be able to purchase cigarettes and 21 years of age to but alcohol and go to clubs. Teenagers in the U.S. can be driving cars at the age of 16 but are not able to smoke or drink. Also, somebody can be taken to a war without even ever trying a beer. Teens are willing to fight and die for their country, but their country will not allow them to have a drink before they do?! I was pretty upset with these laws and have to wait for almost 5 years to feel like I used to before- like I can do whatever I want. That is how my first year and half years passed. I was impressed by the American system of law and justice. My first ticket I got by the club in Tempe around 3am for urinating in public. I could not find any place as a gas station or fast food restaurant, so I walked behind random building, where I got caught. In Russia, it was not a problem, until you are not in a real public place, but here I had to go court for that. My friends in Russia were laughing hard listening to that story, but to me it was not funny. I had to do forty hours of community work within a month. Later, I had few driving tickets, and I had to go to court as well. That is stupid, since, in few cases, I was agree and could pay a fine right away.
When I turned 18 I started to look for a job. I was impressed how easy it was to get one. Needless to say, that I spoke English fluently at that time. So, I got a position as an overnight maintenance associate at Wal-Mart. It sucked! My days-off were Monday and Tuesday and I basically was locked up from nightlife. My supervisors and co-workers knew me as a really hard worker. But, some of guys were joking a lot about my accent and my pronunciation. One day, one of black guys was a leader of our cleaning crew and he started to complain about my work without any reason. I have tried to call our supervisor to dissolve our problem, but he was a black guy too. So, he left with a smile on his face. At that point, I could not stand it anymore. I referred to that guy as “f***ing nigga.” So, I got fired from Wal-Mart. I can not say it was a bad experience for me, since about 90% of associates knew what was going on and they were on my side. I guess it was a breaking point for me after I got fired from my first job. I have changed my beliefs and values and realized that in America honesty does not always work and it is better to lie to cover something up rather than to say the truth. Many of my co-workers from Wal-Mart knew that I was experiencing difficulties with some people because of my accent, and they advised to talk to managers about that. I have never done it. This just not the way we do it in Russia. We do not ever tell on anyone no matter what the circumstances are and usually we deal with all of our work related problems one-on-one outside the work facilities. I realized that in order to get through some of the difficulties I need to talk to the managers first and to the co-workers. At this point I feel really comfortable with what I am and what I do. I live by myself in one bedroom apartment. I have a lot of Russian friends as well as Americans friends. I keep in touch with my friends from Russia by rather calling them or using internet. I am currently enrolled in Paradise Valley Community College, my major is psychology. I work as a waiter in a restaurant and make pretty good money. I have grown up for the past four and half years, not just physically but also mentally. I discovered a lot of places in old town Scottsdale where my friends and I can hang out at. I am planning on attending ASU next spring and continue with my psychology major. I still miss a lot of things about Russia but I am trying to keep myself in a positive mood, after all, I will go back to visit eventually.
Analysis of "USA. The country of oddities." Writing this interview, I remembered my own first years in the US, and I figured that it was not a best time for me either. Lack of friends to communicate, inability to do a lot of staff that we were able to do in Russia and countries of former Soviet Union, different language all around, all that makes teenagers-immigrants the most dangerous and critical part of migrants. “Many kids, especially girls, fall into the depression” (“Kids and migration”, Nikolaev S., 1998). Adaption goes really hard mostly because of communication skills. I know few kids who were bouncing from one school to another just because they could not stand jokes of their accents and were getting in fights. “It is just not an atmosphere they used to grow up” saying Tatiana Nemcova in her article “Russian kids in foreign schools.” Yes, that is right. Sometimes, I’m thinking it would be great if I was attending a high school in the US, but, on other hand, it would create a lot of hardships. And who knows, if I was able to go through them. Eastern-European teenagers-migrants are used to go clubs, bars, and lounges since around sixteen years old. Inability to do it here forces many of them to break the laws. They are getting fake ID’s, trying to go to clubs, getting caught, and, eventually, breaking their American future. As written in a russian-american newspaper “amount of kids with fake ID’s significantly increases over last few years, and those kids making troubles for club owners, when they get caught after the party being under influence of alcohol.” Immigrating with teenager kids may be a real test for parents, so, users of russian immigrating forum created a list of advices for parents the main point of which is to use anything to make you child speak a language of the country you are migrating to!
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That
is Dmitriy
