Success

September 4, 2012

The article from "Вечерний Бишкек" newspaper

http://www.vb.kg/interview/2012/09/03/198269_saltanat_libert_tysiachi_dollarov_mne_by_hvatilo.html

For 14 years Saltanat has lived and worked in the United States. But every year for three months she comes to Kyrgyzstan, where her parents and relatives live, in order to let her daughter "know her roots, Kyrgyz and Russian languages." On the basis of the American University in Central Asia Libert makes a research on governance in Kyrgyzstan.

Saltanat confesses that when she was a student, she did not ever dream about foreign countries, but after graduating from the Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology, Kyrgyz National University, she has decided to apply for the MUSKIE State Department program. She passed the competition and entered Master Program of Indiana University with a degree "Public Administration", and after she made her doctorate at the American University in Washington.

“The theme of migration became interesting for me, when I worked in the Bishkek office of the UN High Commissioner Office for Refugees. I studied this topic in summer internship in the office of the International Organization for Migration in Vienna. When I came to U.S., I decided to study this phenomenon in the case of immigrants from the Soviet Union, and to focus more on Kyrgyzstan. For this study, I had chosen those who are in the U.S. illegally, because as it turned out, on this subject there were no scientific articles,” Saltanat said.

First Saltanat met two immigrants, and explained that she is making such a study. There were many Kyrgyz people with illegal status, without work permits. Those who agreed to a confidential interview, opened their soul, and were delighted of the interest in their fate.

Some of those people crossed the border in the middle of 90s, others – only a few months ago, who had tourist visa, or decided to stay in the end of Work and Travel student program. Some of the immigrants came as members of government delegations. All of them thought that they could easily earn money in U.S. Some of the immigrants were trying to gather money for an apartment, others – for starting a business, another category of migrants were trying to earn money in order to provide their  children with good education. When all of immigrants came to U.S. they did not have any information, what should they expect in a foreign country. They did not know any particular organization, which could employ them, they did not know English, so they had very few chances to have prestige job, even if they had education.

Our illegal immigrants have to work in the United States at a construction site, sellers in a shop, housekeepers, nurses, in those fields, where the Americans do not want. 75 percent of surveyed people from Kyrgyzstan had higher education, and had good positions in their home country. Those people were not poor, because the value of relocation cost them quite expensive.

<< go to news list