Me: Oksana, tell me about your background. Tell me about your family and what they do.
Oksana: All right, well first I am 20 years old. I have a brother who is two years older than me. I live with both of my parents. Now my mom is a secretary for a dentist’s office and my dad owns his own construction company.
Me: What did they used to do in Ukraine?
Oksana: My dad was a construction worker and worked for the major power plant in town and my mom was a secretary at another local business.
Me: Well it sounds like your parents had decent jobs in Ukraine, then why did they move your family here?
Oksana: For opportunity
Me: What do you mean by opportunity?
Oksana: Well in my town in Ukraine, Dobrotuir, there were no opportunities for anyone. An education meant nothing there. Everyone there works at the major power plant in town. It is mostly the only source of jobs for the town. It is a very small town, has about 7,000 people in it and the power plant probably employs 75% percent of the people who live there. So like I said there are no other job opportunities.
Me: What do you mean by an education means nothing there?
Oksana: It means nothing there, because getting an education does nothing for you. The whole country is corrupt, the political system, the education system, the job market, all of it. The people who do go to college there do not actually work for their grades, but rather pay for their grades. Students just pay their teachers to get an A and to graduate. Once they get their degree they work off of their connections. The only people who can actually get a decent job are people with excellent connections. But in order to get those connections you usually have to pay someone or bribe them. It’s not like here where you must work to earn your degree and work to gain your connections. There you can just buy it all.
Me: How is the whole political system corrupt?
Oksana: The government does what they want. They say they are technically a democracy, but really no one has a voice. A while back there was the orange revolution. The current president was overthrown for rigging his election in his favor. He regained power and is still president today. With crimes, it is so easy to get out of it. If you drop a name or slip them some money you will get off. There is organized crime everywhere and the police are all in on it.
Me: Why do the people tolerate this? Why don’t they get their voice heard?
Oksana: Because it is all they know, so they deal with it. Before I came to America I never thought anything was wrong with it and neither did my parents. It was what we were used to. We thought government was this way everywhere.
Me: Well does the government do anything for its people?
Oksana: I once thought they did, but once I came here and saw that everything we have I realized not much. Ukraine is not part of the European Union, so our towns and roads are in very bad shape.
Me: What is the European Union?
Oksana: They make sure that the people’s taxes get put to good use. They restore cities streets and make sure that towns are very nice and in very good shape. You can tell the drastic difference between a country that is part of the union and one that is not.
Me: Why won’t they join the union?
Oksana: I’m not sure. Maybe they think they would lose power? I do know that if the became part of the European Union I would definitely move back.
Me: Ok so tell me about your experience when you first moved here?
Oksana: Well, we had some family here, whom I had never met before, so we lived with them for the first week that we lived in the U.S. While we lived with them, they helped us find an apartment. We moved to an apartment in the Ukraine Village in Chicago.
Me: So, since you first lived in the Ukraine village was it much of a difference?
Oksana: At first, it was still a change, but not so much. We were still surrounded greatly by our heritage. Most people living around us spoke Ukrainian. We were able to go to the same exact church here that we went to at home. Also, all of the stores sold the same type of goods that were in Ukraine and we ate the same type of food. Once I started school, I noticed a little difference. I knew no English, but I picked it up just by hearing it in everyday life. I went to a private school in the Ukrainian Village that was taught in English, so I was forced to pick it up very quickly. I also learned it greatly through watching TV. The different cartoons helped me learn it.
Me: Were there many differences between you and the other kids at your school?
Oksana: There were some now that I think about it, but not many and at the time I didn’t realize any of them. I was only ten years old when I moved here, so I was young. At that age you don’t notice each other’s difference you kind of all just get along. I also did not notice many differences because I went to a private school, so there were school uniforms. There was no emphasis on material possessions, so I did not got embraced into the American culture I guess until we moved into the suburbs.
Me: What do you me get embraced by the American culture? How did that change when you moved?
Oksana: It was a culture shock. You were able to see the different classes. I went to a public school there, so there was no dress code. Before this, I never thought about what clothes I wore or how I looked or what brands I had. This all changed when I switched schools. Here all the girls were different. They put such an emphasis on their material possessions. This was very different for me, because in Ukraine no one cared about possessions. Not only did the kids care, but also all of the adults did. They all worried about their cars and their houses. My family had trouble adjusting to this. But as time went on, I got swept up into the American culture of consumerism. I started living life like a traditional American Teenager. The whole American culture is based on material possessions and has such a large emphasis on buying things and gaining more money. There is a completely different emphasis on completely different values here.
Me: As you started embracing America’s culture, did you start to lose sight of your Ukrainian culture?
Oksana: In some ways yes, but my core Ukrainian values stuck with me. I still have a larger emphasis on family and relationships. I still believe and live by the values that I learned in Ukraine.
Me: Now, your parents, tell me about their transition to moving here. Typically adults and children experience a completely different experience when moving to a different country.
Oksana: Well my parents still hold true to all Ukrainian traditions. Unlike me, they have all Ukrainian friends. They still think like Ukrainians.
Me: What do you mean think like a Ukrainian?
Oksana: In Ukraine, people are very closed-minded. It is not there fault, because it is all they know. For example, my parents are extremely racists against anyone who is different in religion, race, and sexual orientation. It is just the way they grew up and they do not understand that it is ok to be different. They remain very close-minded. I on the other hand, have embraced the diversity. I am extremely open minded and I think that is because I see how my parents are so close minded and see how it’s wrong. They shut out all of the differences from their life instead of embracing them. They do not realize that embracing diversity is how you grow. It helps you understand the world much better.
Me: Do you think they will ever change?
Oksana: Probably not, but they are trying. They learn to tolerate the differences in the world. I try to talk to them and explain why it is ok, but they still hold their own opinion and I respect that. For example, they keep holding out for me to marry a Ukrainian male, but I know that will never happen. Currently I am dating a Muslim man. In the beginning they completely disagreed with it and hated him. But as time goes on they have learned to slowly be nice to him and start to accept him. They still do not agree with our relationship, but they have learned to tolerate it.
Me: Why do you think they start to tolerate these different things?
Oksana: I would say mostly because of me. They want me to be happy and do what I want. So they listen to me when I talk to them about it and they see how important it is to me, so they try. That is all I can ask.
Me: It sounds like your parents have made a pretty good living here. How did they find out how to do that while adjusting to the culture?
Oksana: Well it came with many years of hard work. When we first moved here, my dad was the only one who worked. He supported us completely by doing odd jobs. He realized in order to get a successful job that he needed to go back to school. So her did. He went back to school to gain a degree. He started working construction jobs and today he owns his own small construction company. My mom at first did not work. But then our family needed more money to survive, so she started doing odd jobs. She worked as a housekeeper at a hotel and then nannies for a while. She wanted more just like my dad. She realized she was working below her capable level. So she to went back to school. After she got her degree she got a secretary job for a dentists office. Now, both my parents can read and have learned to function in society. They have come a long way. They left everything they knew and started from scratch here. It has not been easy.
Me: Now that you lived here and there, what would you say the biggest difference between Ukraine and America is?
Oksana: The standard of living deffinately. In Ukraine we lived in a 1 bedroom apartment with four people. The kitchen was only big enough for one small table. There was a very limited water supply. In the 2nd biggest city in Ukraine hot water does not exist. The water they do have will only run for a few hours a day. They still heavily rely on wells. This makes the water supply very unsanitary. I remember to take a shower or bath I have to fill a bucket with water from the well and then heat it on the stove and then fill the tub up. It was a lot of work just to shower. In Ukraine people did not put emphasis on possessions. People owned only a few shirts and pants and wore the same thing over and over again. There is a small amount of rich people in Ukraine though. They are the people who run everything. There is very huge gap between the rich and the poor there. In Ukraine you barely have what you need, but here you have excess of things. You do not even have enough food to get by. But there I never thought it was bad, because it was all I knew and that is how everyone is. Another thing that is different is people’s values. In Ukraine, people focused on their families and relationships, not getting ahead or their appearance. There, people are very skillful. They can do things on their own that Americans would never be able to do. They are skillful, because they have to be. There they gained free land from the government and built their own home by themselves. Something most people would not be able to do.
Me: Why don’t people try to get ahead and change their way of living?
Oksana: Because it is all they know. They do not know how bad it really is compared to other places. I never realized how bad it was until I cam to America and then went back and visited. I could never live that way again. I am not saying that the way of living there is bad it’s just different.
Me: You say you went back, has it changed at all?
Oksana: It has changed some. It is more developed now with more stores. In the grocery stores there are more products than before. The only problem with that is that is that people still can’t afford the products. This is why agriculture is so important there. Every family has their own patch of land to grow things on. This is how they support themselves is by growing their own food. They can’t afford to buy it, so they do it themselves. This is another way how the Ukrainian people are more independent.
Me: After being here, would you ever go back?
Oksana: I really hope that I can. There is no younger generation of my family there and I would like to keep our family name there. Our family has lots of history there and I want it to remain there. Also, it is where my roots are and I would love to go back. But I am not sure if it will happen unless I can find a way to make a living there. Most likely I will move somewhere in Europe that is close. Some place where I can meet my necessitates and still be close. I know I do not want to stay in America.
Me: Why don’t you like America? I thought you said it was better here?
Oksana: The opportunities and education are better here but that is it. Americans do not have values. They do not care enough about each other, but rather care too much about themselves and their possessions and their careers. The society here is based on consumerism. People here are ok with buying foreign goods made in sweatshops. They do not care as long as they get their products. It is wrong. There is just to great of an emphasis on material items and money and not enough on human values and relationships.
Me: Where would you want your family raised?
Oksana: I am not sure. I want them to be able to have the opportunities that I did by living here and have the chance to gain a great education. But I also want them to have Ukrainian values.
Me: So do you think you will ever end up moving back?
Oksana: Right now I do not know. I really want to, but some things would have to change there. They definitely will have to join the European Union. If they do that I will definitely move back. My ideal situation would be to make some money here, enough to survive in Ukraine and then move back. I do not need to be rich; I just want to be happy.
