a very finely written three page paper on my families immigration experiances.
...he was lucky and kept getting her salary lowered on a constant basis. Also, my dad’s new contracting business dropped. These two factors made it very difficult to pay the rent and support a family. America and immigration to America were always looked down upon in the Soviet Union, however now it seemed as if there was no choice. About 5 years before we moved, my aunt moved with her family and with my bachelor uncle to America. They told us about how amazing America was and how there were so many jobs. It was soon decided that my family including my grandparents would make the move. In order to move we first had to be granted a visa by the American embassy. My aunt told my mother that the embassy doesn’t grant visas easily, and that they wouldn’t grant a visa based by financial reasons; their Achilles heel however was discrimination. Since my family is Jewish, we told the embassy that we encountered discrimination on a constant basis. While discrimination was definitely encountered in all parts of the Soviet Union, including Uzbekistan, my parents defiantly exaggerated the case because the financial situation was getting desperate and we quickly needed to move. Once we were granted the visas, we took a plane to New York and then to Los Angeles. All we had was sheets, blankets, cloth, and other items that were absolutely needed for survival. We had about $1000 between the eight of us who came. Once in LA we lived in a two bedroom apartment shared between the eight of us. Although my parents (the only two out of the eight of us who were able to work) had no jobs, we lived on government handouts. Since we were granted the status of political refugees, we were entitled to many benefits including $800 for welfare just for my parents, full medical coverage, and food stamps. In about a year we moved out of the original apartment to get a new two bedroom apartment a few blocks away with my family (four people), my dad’s mom, and my dad’s grandma. We only had enough food on the table because of the generous welfare checks. We were living in absolute poverty. Because of the language and cultural barrier, it was at first very difficult for my parents to get their first jobs. However, my mom got a lucky brake and landed her first job. Our neighbors who were also Russian had a daughter who worked as a telemarketer for a Russian phone company. She helped my mother get situated selling phone plans to other Russians in Russian. This job paid minimum wage plus commissions. My dad took a different approach. He saved up enough money to but a carpet cleaning machine and put up fliers on telephone poles and advertised to friends that he would professionally clean their carpet for a reasonable amount. These two jobs plus the always decreasing welfare amount improved our situation, however I am sure that we were still in absolute poverty. My mother s...