Why are our in the US always unhappy with everything

Yuri left the position of investment director in a Russian company for the sake of moving to the USA. As part of a series of materials about compatriots who have moved abroad, "Lenta.ru" publishes a Russian story about life in the States.

I went to the USA in one day, without any fees. I already had a tourist visa. It was easy to get it, because at the interview I was asked only two questions: “Where are you going?” And “What are you working for?”. After that, immediately issued all the necessary documents. It happened in the 2010 year when I came to America for the first time. The following year I arrived in the United States as a migrant.

The performances that took shape in the head from the films and stories of other people were fully confirmed. New York, in which I live and which I love, turned out to be a very comfortable city. Firstly, you can earn well here. This is very important for men. And, secondly, there are plenty of cultural events, just entertainment and, importantly, a lot of good restaurants. For me, this is a city that does not bother.

I live in a private house located in 35 minutes from the center. Moreover, the housing is located just in the city, and not in the suburbs, so the subway runs here, there are high-speed buses, free ferry.

It is unlikely that in Moscow one could find a good private house, from which in such a short time one can reach Red Square. All this would have been impossible in the first place because of Moscow traffic jams. In New York, buses have separate lines that do not drive cars. Yes, there are some incidents and accidents that slow down. But very seldom.

Фото: Depositphotos

About the first steps

At first, of course, it was difficult. It seems to me that those who say that everything was easy and simple with them, or some extremely happy people, or lie. Of course, there are people who can easily adapt, because, for example, relatives already live here. Often there are cases when parents move first to the USA and then their children are ready for anything.

I came to a country in which I had no one at all. The only contact was a close friend of my father who helped me once - he called his friend, and he gave me an apartment. I am very grateful for this help, but I did the rest myself.

Volodya, from whom I rented this apartment, was my first almost local advisor. He emigrated from the Ukrainian city of Khmelnitsky back in the 90. He was very supportive and assured me that the move was also hard for him. He ended up in the States with his parents and young son. We lived here in a one-room apartment and there were only 500 dollars in stock, which they managed to bring with them. Volodya found a job on the second day: he got a job at a factory, where he dismantled some dangerous light bulbs for five dollars an hour. Then there were no iPhones, no navigators, no Internet, and the stories that even in such conditions, people could get settled, reassured me.

Work

Just a few days later I started looking for a job. I understood that nobody would take me as the director of an investment company (and this was my last job in Russia), so I decided to recall the old skills from 90, when I was an advertiser. I sent my resume to all local Russian-language newspapers, radio, TV channels and advertising agencies. Four companies called me - the Kurier newspaper, the Russian Advertising newspaper, the Davidson media holding and the Russian television RTN.

I first worked as a sales manager for the Kurier newspaper, and then went to work on the Davidson web site. The president of the holding, Gregory Davidson, turned out to be Gregory, who had migrated from Moscow. During the collaboration, he gave me a lot of valuable advice for the first time.

At some point, I realized that I needed to open my own business. And then a good idea struck me: a huge number of migrants come to the USA, but there is no single company where a person who has just entered a new country could come and get help. The meeting from the airport, the search for a lawyer, employment, rental housing, placement of children in the garden, English language courses - there were simply no such services.

I searched the Internet, reread the newspapers and found that before me no one ever used the term "social adaptation." The niche was empty, and as soon as I started my business, a barrage of clients fell on me.

I expected that only entrepreneurs would apply to me, and less well-off people simply would not want to pay for this. But in fact, it turned out that many come to nowhere and they need a guide who will tell and accompany everything in all the necessary instances.

Brighton Beach. Photo: Andrey Barth

Country Features

One of the features of New York is that, even if a person has a lot of money, he cannot always rent the apartment he wants. Here you choose not, but choose you. In addition to money, you should have social security, a good credit history, recommendations from those people with whom you lived before. At least, this practice is common among most landlords.

Here, in many ways, has its own specifics. Sometimes Russian-speaking people simply do not understand this. They transfer their mentality and experience to America and resent why it’s different here. But this is another country. Here are the rules of life and we must adapt to them.

Medicine is paid for the rich and free for the poor. By the way, many do not know. If you earn a little and have income below a certain level, you can get free insurance. It is called Medicaid. It even includes expensive operations for which a person who has money would pay, say, 50 thousand dollars. It also includes the maintenance of childbirth, for which they usually give 15 thousands of dollars. It all depends on income.

However, when we say that the operation cost thousands of dollars in 50 to someone, this absolutely does not mean that the person took the entire amount at once and took it to the clinic. Usually this means that the person simply paid monthly insurance, the premium on which ranges from 500 to 1 thousands of dollars per month.

Negative and nostalgia

More and more negative information is heard about the United States in the media and among residents of other countries. Allegedly, there is a terrible food here, drugs are sold all around, schools are fired and no one controls it. Of course, there are a lot of problems. And with food, and with drugs, and with schools. Not yet perfect! Often, it all depends on the choice of place to live: there are criminal areas, and there are prosperous. In some stores, high-quality products, and in others - bad. And the more you earn, the better you live and the less you see "bad" America. Although, of course, there are problems, as elsewhere.

Do I miss Russia? No, I do not miss. Oddly enough, I do not feel this nostalgia. I would not want to return, as well as to look at what is happening there. I miss my relatives who stayed there, but not much for the country.

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