How does the Russian emigration in America

"I grew up in the village, and my children graduate from Harvard!" Screenwriter Lilya Kim talks about how Russian emigration works in America, and why Russian immigrants are living museums of their time.

Фото: Depositphotos

The younger a person was at the time of emigration, the easier, more natural and faster he assimilates, the author writes for Gazeta.ru. I'll tell you about the Russian emigration in Los Angeles. In the immigration service, they told me: they said there were approximately 700 people in California who had received an American residence permit (green card) and citizenship for a Soviet or Russian passport. After 1991, they count by countries of origin - Russia, Armenia, Ukraine, etc.

Russian is the fourth most common language in Los Angeles after Spanish, English and Chinese.

You can take exams in the DMV (for a driver's license, which is the main ID here).

I realized earlier that when I met an emigrant in another country, I could say for sure in which years he left. Each will be a living museum of the era. 1970, 1980, 1990, zero, “fat years”, the last “outcome”.

The younger a person was at the time of emigration, the easier, more natural and faster he assimilated.

Because the growth of personality continues, and he just takes the building material - experience, experiences - from the new environment, very quickly becoming part of it.

My kinder in less than a year (from 11 to 12 years) became a native speaker, having fully learned the behavioral matrix from my friends at school. She has become more American in a year than I ever can.

The more mature a person is, the more “formed” he is, the more “himself” he will have to cut off. Because you can’t pour a full glass of water. And this “root amputation” never heals completely and no one. No matter how well a person integrates into a new world, the phantom sensations of the “cut off part of themselves” will remain forever. As a person who has lost a leg, he will always move his fingers or stretch out to scratch it.

Фото: Depositphotos

The most beautiful part of emigration is probably valuable professionals who arrived a long time ago, in 1980's. Physicists, engineers, scientists. Every fourth NASA employee came from the former USSR. Because they had no choice.

No one could wait and hope that the country would ever return to the cause of his life. It was necessary to continue. And America willingly accepted them. She even hunted for them.

Now they have beautiful houses where their elderly parents live. These houses, no matter how “American” they may be, still carry the atmosphere of a professor's summer residence outside Moscow. Very old parents watch only Russian TV - news and TV shows. Children are absolute Americans, they speak Russian worse than English.

Grandchildren, if any, most often do not speak Russian at all. Maximum - understand grandparents. This is the best of the Soviet people.

With faith in internationalism, progress, science, humanism, humanity, mind, reading the Strugatskys, inviting writers to the house.

All the best that was in Soviet society. But here and their grandmother 80 + hotly outraged by voting at Eurovision, on Skype, constantly talking with her friends somewhere in Russia. Physically, the grandmother is here, but mentally - at home.

The eyes of these people are sad-sad. Their parents remained Soviet forever, the children became Americans, but they did not have a way out. And there seems to be nothing to complain about.

An attack of nostalgia is painful. I recently tested here. I saw a photo of my friends: the window of their house in the Tver region is open to the forest, and beyond the forest is a lake. And from the inability to breathe, feel, hear - such a pain!

As a longing for a man whom you love very much, but much stronger.

Фото: Depositphotos

Another “prosperous” part of emigration is the people who have thus retired. They have already earned enough to get tired of the absurdity of Russian life at some moment. Year or two, they rest. And then the longing begins. Because there is no special incentive to integrate into American life, but there is still a lot of energy. If it turns out to overcome the resistance "to start from scratch", then the second breath slowly opens. This also includes “wives of wealthy people with children” sent for deserved rest.

The third part - the most nervous - those who came because of professional ambitions. IT, cinema, biotechnology, alternative energy, science, sport - anything. Because at home everything leads “to the concrete wall”. This part of the emigration does not like to talk about the first stage. Because the green card of a valuable specialist is given for considerable achievements. And now a person with these achievements in the first years finds himself in the position of low level nobody. Because you have to go all the way first.

Waiting for confirmation of the diploma or the correct work, or the launch of its project, or a place in the laboratory. They will never tell you that they worked in unskilled work the first time. Because everyone from former colleagues heard something like: “Well, well. That's when you come back, like a beaten dog, I will first throw a stone at you, ”as screenwriter B. told me. Or another acquaintance came and started talking with the question:“ So what? Already regret that you left? Etc.

Фото: Depositphotos

In this part of emigration is the most active movement, and to any doubt from the outside is an aggressive reaction. That America is the best country in the world and I did everything right. Because, if you even doubt for a second, you can go crazy.

When the battle for a dream succeeds, it is only then that they are covered. There is no time before that. This is the biggest challenge.

And the fourth group of people - who came without much understanding of what they would be doing here. Won the green card in the lottery or "reunited" with the family. “Fled” from war, regime, society, etc. They tend to settle in West Hollywood - this is the local Brighton. As part of the Russian diaspora. And very often returned. Because they found out that without a super task there is no difference where to live. And at home everything was native. People, places. Everything is close and understandable. If they do not find most important tasks for themselves (at least “I grew up in the village, and my children will graduate from Harvard!”), They will return.

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