1 10 31 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/16159/archive/files/f006ac2d9990bc30f4586c671ba56eb4.png?Expires=1779321600&Signature=tcTEtTCvp%7EQRtMZh6iEOvCHR7a28S1On034ZTLal8IUhLwIHRgHwg7t1nBrc1j5-Q%7EsWEpOIQdzpEtfWt4zGKDKYYwQ5ZaAhQH1jc1ZX0TsFQYnSuVaYVjOV8Ts3sMyH10bBN8Py54ovN94lwlZ3E3hjKJeaADgnCdM0fDKkO5jmnxBF3BM5FHmHPSpwg9GsENagLsVjeSflIL1OZTZKbkhwGFS4PpVjuT6%7E%7EgUCnNrYa6bMWW%7ElH3fHBTe1bV5TjAC9ZEWv2RsVZkUqSoDioMRTZrzrYLFxyqDshKhsJFLBFF-yPRt7hUjwLvxzl7Kn2EVFbj0w9YeFzuOUdHbCuw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 7c1eeaf73a7efd1528441acae023166e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Spring 2024 Interviews Description An account of the resource Spring 2024 Interviews from Prof. Colleen Woods (IMMR400) and Prof. Anne Rush (HIST 465) at the University of Maryland. Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Bala Govindaraju Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Vasanthi Kandsamy Location The location of the interview <span xml:lang="en-us" lang="en-us" class="TextRun SCXW171178747 BCX0"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW171178747 BCX0">Clarksville</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW171178747 BCX0">, Montgomery Country, Maryland, United States</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW171178747 BCX0"> </span> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Vasanthi Kandsamy Description An account of the resource This interview between Bala Govindaraju and Vasanthi Kandsamy discusses Vasanthi’s experience growing up in India and migration to the United States. Vasanthi recounts her experience in the Indian educational system, family relationships, and labor migration. She also considers her racial-ethnic identification in India and the US. Vasanthi reflects on the difficulties communicating with family back home and family reunification. Throughout the discussion, Vasanthi shares how much had changed since her migration -- from the city side to increasing educated migrants moving to foreign countries for better opportunities. ***This interview is restricted to the University of Maryland College Park's campus. For more information, contact the Center for Global Migration Studies (globalmigration@umd.edu).*** This interview was conducted as part of an undergraduate final project for the University of Maryland, College Park course IMMR400 (Spring 2024). This course was led by Professor Colleen Woods of the Department of History, College of Arts and Humanities, and was sponsored by the Center for Global Migration Studies. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bala Govindaraju Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Center for Global Migration Studies Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource April 7, 2024 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The full rights of this oral history interview were given by the interviewee to the University of Maryland, College Park. This interview may be quoted from, published, or broadcast in any medium that the University of Maryland, College Park shall deem appropriate. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History Dharmapuri education family India maryland visa work https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/16159/archive/files/8cca7d31e217957d9ddde97018b966dc.png?Expires=1779321600&Signature=E1SSxeCp0%7Efrb2l8%7Ed7SGZ4aBuQDbDr6hWWJhGi6qEDGQ53dc5v8cldtSAO3v0M-s%7EwmLzyIzlekCf6%7EfFTj52t6V9RRjLjSzjgB5n3cKQlHBFcYMsP5IKFuF1amk9Y9B5BpqG%7E3lrCBZIRrK7PkinvGrBaWS%7E38KRiaZ-6iUD7JYfpxIgzYlyvOk7UthWvrbfd0isnP%7E-CR4Ge17VwaCCA6YONJySm1gXZLwhK4TZNR7LHP7bJ1fqh69lYecg8hLnpSe2SQBT0Le%7Et7SsgMwZdnS2Jox%7EWMaxEDvNNEb8HFkMb8oBKv5UXT2pG9oD1dsAFXUFYpb2BtN-3Rn1rdaw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 7c1eeaf73a7efd1528441acae023166e https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/16159/archive/files/2752c0eac564ebd3d5bcea2666dee46e.pdf?Expires=1779321600&Signature=N1tpFUgRAeyW7yTL05zIxr-yj46yeS80mmNsdDUFkqpAVL3rLvivMsFoAU8okVkidxm4KJ4WrPZCl0NPLgPrseI8V6y8ji9b7P8OMyNUoLeOOH5trpF2GL-w9U84btwglvIV-7Uiz-htLagQEnuo3On2lMthXeDXg71CFISZkWcdItmWyS7wlpACT-LYlkQow0s6lBHhJ37EPpFn-BY4KqhMY4z8mU%7EqNdVj1%7Ep4E9ggc5mgH%7EDZmIbCr4VHvEnCXcowyEqx-3GVXGvuhMnfrZ9-D6FANnrD-OJ5BdNOQ-xBGZeR91xbIIgbADlg4AZr5mJ%7EMAaJQrdhhynhPTjK0A__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 1aa27daef38d4470f2448dc277fd02fe PDF Text Text Transcript of Oral History Interview Conducted for University of Maryland IMMR400- Spring 2024 Instructor: Dr. Colleen Woods Interviewer’s Name: Claire O’Donnell Interviewee’s Name: Oleg Obolensky Interviewee’s County of Origin: Russia Interviewee’s Current Residence: Rockville, Montgomery Country, Maryland, United States Date of Interview: April 10, 2024 Place of Interview: In Person, College Park, Prince George’s County, Maryland, United States [via Voice Memo] Introduction: This interview between Claire O’Donnell and Oleg Obolensky discusses Oleg’s journey from Russia to the United States in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to complete postdoc research for one year on a J-1 visa. After he returned back to Russia, Oleg then traveled back to Pittsburgh to continue his research with an NSF NATO funded grant opportunity. In Pittsburgh, Oleg had his first son; then, he returned to Russia after one and a half years after his grant expired. After four months in Russia, Oleg moved to Frankfurt, Germany to work at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies. After remaining in Germany for a few years and having his second child, once Oleg’s first son reached school age, his family moved to permanently settle in Rockville, Maryland, where he currently works at the National Institute of Health. By mapping and sharing his immigration journey, Oleg describes assimilation into the United States compared to Germany and living through the collapse of the Soviet Union. Throughout this discussion, Oleg discusses how he received each work opportunity as being based on “luck”, presenting a theme of things happening to him by chance. Oleg’s story offers insights into how after the Fall of the Soviet Union, scientific collaboration between scientists in Russia, the United States, and Germany worked together to bridge research. In turn, these insights reveal how each scientific endeavor influenced Oleg’s immigration story. Keywords: Russia, Pittsburgh, Germany, Rockville, Physics, Science, Research, Opportunity, Soviet Union, Visa, Family �Claire: Thank you so much for agreeing to participate in this interview today. Before I begin, I would like to clarify that this interview will be recorded, transcribed and published in the Maryland Archive of Immigrant Voices. However, you have the option to have your name be omitted from the transcription and if you would like, you can read through the transcription yourself and request that certain information be left out of the published version after the interview. Would you like to be anonymous on the published version of this interview? Oleg: No. Claire: No? Okay, sounds good. Let's begin. So, thank you so much for agreeing to meet with me today and participate in this interview. Can we begin by having you state your name, age and tell me a little bit about yourself and your background? Oleg: My name is Oleg Obolensky, I’m 51 years old, uh (pause) no background? Claire: Like background? Oleg: Alright. I'm a (pause) staff scientist at the National Institute of Health. I'm educated as a theoretical physicist in, uh, St. Petersburg, Russia. And I worked as a theoretical physicist for many years and then at some point I came to the U.S. to be biophysicist. Claire: (pause) Thank you for that. So to begin, I would like to ask you questions about your childhood experiences and young adult life in Russia. So, I understand that you grew up in St. Petersburg. Can you tell me, um, about any stories that you have from your hometown? Oleg: Well, that's too general question. What kinds of stories? – Claire: – anything about growing up in that city, so like, what was it like for you? Anything like that? Anything you fondly remember? Oleg: Well, it was the typical Soviet large city. St. Petersburg is considered like the most, uh, educated, uh, and culture centered city in Russia. Uh, so it is an industrial city but it also has a lot of, uh, research and education, uh, centers and, uh, uh (pause) the citizens are proud to consider themselves, uh, culturally advanced – if you can say so – people. So, uh, so basically, if you don't take, uh, like suburbs where all the industry, uh, was located, you would end up with a lot of research institutions and uh people who were there were interested in, in culture, music theater, general, I don’t know, general knowledge, and that would be considered a cool thing to know about. �Claire: Can you expand a bit more on what like, so you mentioned there being a lot of culture, you mentioned theater and you mentioned art, and then you also mentioned industry being an important quality and it being a Soviet city. Could you expand a bit more on the culture aspect and then, like maybe later, talk about how it differentiates in like a Soviet city? Oleg: Well, Soviet city, I mean, it was typical for the time. Uh, the difference was that people there, uh, tend to pay more attention to culture, so as a kid, I was taken to theater and concerts regularly, even if I didn't want to (laughs) – Claire: – (laughs) – Oleg: – uh, I didn't like Opera and [inaudible word] uh – the only thing I was, uh, so I was still not taken, not frequently, I resisted, but, uh, in the intermissions they would serve you like small sandwiches with caviar and uh like delicious sweets. So that was, (laughs) – Claire: – (laughs) – Oleg: – I remember but I did like going to theater performances. It was both like for children and also like normal adult place– Claire: –Yeah. How often would you say that you went to these theater and opera performances? Oleg: Uh, I would say at least once a month, maybe more. Claire: That's cool. So, I was wondering if you could spend a bit more on what life was like growing up in the Soviet Union specifically. I know you mentioned a lot about like industry and that aspect of city life. Could you expand a bit more on that? Oleg: Well, industry, it was relatively high tech, uh, industry. So we lived, uh, actually across the street from a large plant called Svetlana and it was developing, uh, like, uh, optics, actually very high quality optics, which would be comparable to like, uh, [inaudible word] in Germany, and so they doing some space communication systems. And so my granddad worked in the Research Institute, uh, and they were also doing something, uh, related to, uh, communication, like regular electronic communication something, which I didn't understand and I suspect half of it was, uh, secret, so I don't know exactly what they were doing, but it was in some that direction. Claire: Interesting. So you mentioned, was that your father or your grandparents? Oleg: That was my maternal granddad. �Claire: Okay, cool. Um, how did your family and people around you discuss things, um, like the Soviet Union and things like that? And particularly, like, the fall of the Soviet Union, as well? Do you remember any like distinct things that shifted or anything? Oleg: Uh, well, I was too young, I just didn't know like, overheard what adults would say. Yeah. So my impression was that, uh, before the Perestroika1, 1985, uh, like late years for Brezhnev2, and then he was replaced by, uh, I forgot the name. There were like two old guys between him and Gorbachev3. One was KGB chief4 on drop off and there was some, also old but more like progressive, guy, but they were both very short lived. Anyway, so before that real fall of the Soviet Union, before Perestroika, my recollections were that people would tend to be, uh, moderately critical of the current, uh, political structure, uh, they could not imagine what else can be in place of the current structure, but they would criticize inefficiencies, uh, like, I don’t know, there were shortages of certain stuff in the stores, uh, there were inefficiencies of how schools are run, roads are bad, and so forth, so, and that the governance structure was that uh you have like, regular administrative uh government structure, like basically Mayor office and you have then some municipal, uh, entities, and they should take care of everyday stuff, garbage collection, what not. And then you had party, Communist Party, which would oversee that. So, in principle, you could go if you are not happy how your garbage is collected, then you would go to this municipal, uh, uh, government and say, I don't know, the garbage people don't do their job properly. So if it doesn't help, then you go to the party. And then the party would somehow apply pressure to make it, uh, better. So people could not imagine that it can be somehow different. And the criticism was mainly, uh, pointed at, you know, it's those small, everyday, uh, annoyances. And then, after Perestroika, it is, it was becoming quite rapidly worse and worse and people would complain that Perestroika led to collapse of a great state where people leave typically had no big problems at least, and now everything is just falling apart. And it was getting worse and worse. And the, uh, the worst time was like beginning of 90s. Claire: Okay. So, you said the beginning of 90s was when people were starting to complain that things were getting worse and worse – 1 During Perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to reduce the influence of the Communist party in the Soviet Union by decentralizing power from communist leadership and re-directing these authorities towards local control. Although Gorbachev’s policies failed and deprived him of a political power base due to the Soviet Union’s corrupted economy, Perestroika led to increasing public revelations about the Soviet Party, inciting nationalist and independence movements inside and outside of the U.S.S.R. 2 Lenoid Brezhnev was the General Secretary of the Soviet Union from 1980-1982. Brezhnev’s leadership is remembered for improving the Soviet Union’s national standing while also stabilizing the position of his ruling party. 3 Mikhail Gorbachev was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985-91, serving as president of Russia in 1990-91. Under his policies of Perestroika, his efforts led to the fall of communism in Russia. 4 The KGB was the Committee for State Security in the Soviet Union, responsible for foreign intelligence and domestic security agencies. �Oleg: – No, they would start after Perestroika. First of all, some of, some of them were conservative and they didn't like change. They would say what he's doing, uh, uh, he would, uh, destroy the relatively well functioning system, uh, why at all he needs to do that and so forth. Other, so, but most people would welcome that because they wanted, uh, uh, some kind of democracy. So they wanted that, uh, you know, in the newspapers in Soviet times, it was like a cryptic code. So you always had more or less the same, uh, headlines, same contents of the paper and the difference were on, in various small nuances and people will read that and they will try to deduce what's going on based on change of adjectives (pause) if it is like (pause) “brilliant” or “just talented.” (laughs) – Claire: – (laughs) Interesting. So you mentioned a lot about how like, like, “they believed” or like “they said.” Um, how old were you during this time period? And like, how did you form this perception of like, what was going on around you? Or was this understanding more like things you picked up later on in life? Oleg: Uh, Well, I was, at the beginning of Perestroika, I was 12. Uh, and, um, my parents would invite relatives and friends from time to time, and they would, uh, sit, you know, at the table, eat and discuss stuff and I would go around and I had nothing else to do. Uh. Some of my uncles would play with me in, uh, table soccer or something like that. Table hockey. Uh, so I was like, in the same room. So we had only two rooms, one was my bedroom and my sister's bedroom, we were in the same room. Uh, and the other room was like a bigger room, it was parents room and living room together. So we didn't have a separate living room. So we've had just two rooms like you what would call it here, one bedroom. Claire: Okay. That's a great point to sort of segway into more like talking about your family. I was wondering if you could talk a bit more about your family. Um, what was your family dynamic like growing up? Oleg: (sigh) (pause) Well it was a normal family. (laughs) I had, uh, my both parents worked. Uh, My dad, well, my dad, uh, by education he was uh an architect (pause). Architect and like civil engineer or something like that. So he would work uh like normal, regular hours, nine to five. When I was very little he worked, uh, in relatively unusual place, he was, I don't know how it's called, he was like, uh, person responsible for all the engineering parts of big, one of the most famous Russian theaters, actually. So he wouldn't do any, you know, uh anything connected to the place, performances, but he will do all this, uh, technical support, like how you get smoke on the scene, and if they need something to fall down, how you do that safely, and so forth. So how everything functions. Uh, but later on he, but, still, I was too young, I don't remember that much. But later on, he would work from nine to five, he went to the, uh, like, it was called Institute – I �don't know you will not call it institute here – It was some organization which did, uh, architectural development for the whole city. So they would design buildings, they had architects, engineers, whatever, and they would do the whole cycle, like all the utilities you need for that building, they will calculate how much you need to work from where to take the water, electricity, they will design the building and so forth. My mom was, uh, school teacher and she worked more or less irregular hours, so she would go to school in the morning, and then she could stay on and off if she had some events there, like teacher parents meetings or she would come home early but then she would check homework. I had an older sister, five and a half years, who I fought a lot, but loved. Uh, so [inaudible phrase], I think we lived pretty happily. My grandparents lived in the same city and, uh, whenever I was sick, my parents would drive me, actually we took a taxi, maybe drove sometimes, I remember both ways actually. They would just send me to my grandparents and I would stay there for a week while I was sick. Maybe half the time, not every time maybe, but sometimes (laughs) – Claire: – (laughs) Thank you for sharing that, um, well growing up did you have any close friends around you? What were they like? Oleg: I have a childhood friend whom I befriended, well uh, you know what dacha is? So in the 1960s, maybe late 50s, uh, government decided first that, uh, agricultural, uh, sector of Soviet economy was not doing well enough, not efficient enough. So they wanted first to get some extra source of uh food for the population. Plus, they wanted uh people to have something to do in their spare time, rather than you know, think about democracy (laughs) – Claire: – (laughs) – Oleg: – but this is like later reconstruction, but the fact is that in starting from late 50s, maybe early 60s, they will, started giving away parcels of land to whoever wanted them and usually it was done through the organizations where people worked. So my granddad, uh, institute got a parcel of land, and distributed it among the people who were there. So my granddad, uh, got a piece of land and they built a house there, and it was like summer residence. So, especially in the beginning, it was prohibited to build like two stories building, it should be only one story, and they tried to discourage people from staying, uh, like in the winter months, so it was supposed to be only like from spring to the fall, and, uh, later it became looser enforced, uh, but, uh, so we had like a small house and we would come there every summer. And I, uh, I found a friend, uh, when I was, I don't know, five, six years old. So we would meet every summer we would spend there two three months, like from from the early till the night, uh, and at that time, people didn't, uh, try to control the whereabouts of their children as much as they do now, so the only thing I needed was to show up a dinner (laughs) say Mom, I'm still alive (laughs) Give me some food. Sometimes we will do even like eat together, so I will not come home. I will eat at my friend's �house. Uh, so we will just spend two months relatively freely, so that was the best time of my whole year at that time. Claire: That sounds really nice. How did you, like your relationships with family and also friendships, change as you began to like grow up into your young adult years? Oleg: (pause) I don’t know. Claire: You don’t know? Oleg: Nothing changed. Claire: Okay. Um, so, at what age did you first decide to immigrate to the United States? Oleg: Let's see. (pause) 36, I guess. Claire: 36? Oleg: Yes. Claire: Okay, um, so what did you like, what did you do after like you graduated high school and everything like before you decided to move to the United States? Oleg: Well, since, as I told you, we lived in a, uh, part of the city which was like highly educated, It was unthinkable not to go to university. So the only question was, uh, which one? And, uh, at that time, you could not apply to different universities. You should pick one. Submit your documents there, then, uh, you should hold exams, and then you are either admitted or not. So if you're not, then it's kind of catastrophe. Because, uh, first of all, it's unthinkable not to go to school and second, uh, it happens right after school and then, uh, then if you are not at the university, then you are conscript so you automatically go to the army, which nobody wanted. Claire: So to clarify, if you didn't get into university you’d automatically – Oleg: – then you're 18 years old, and uh, (pause) so, uh, the only reason for you not to be drafted, was to be at the university or work for some, uh, like military establishment. So if you didn't get into university then you may want it doesn't matter. Okay. So you are 18 years old. And this is full, and you're drafted. Claire: Okay. So what did you decide to study? �Oleg: Well, I wanted to study physics all my life. Claire: Why physics? Oleg: Because I wanted to know how things work. My, I, think it's influence of my granddad, uh, who would read with me, uh, like science, popular books about mathematics and physics. And they were quite entertaining. And, uh, I like them. Uh, and I don't know, since age five, I remember that I wanted to be a physicist, uh, that's because between our house and my grandparents house there was a bus route, uh, number 38, I still remember, and the, the endpoint uh of this route was Youth institute, which I later realized it was actually only like, off campus location, not main campus, but still on this, uh, tablet where you have this uh route number, one of the endpoints was this Youth Institute. And I remember I was five years old, I was going home from my grandparents, I’d remember this plate and I told my uh, that, I don't remember who was there, and I said, when I grew up, I will work in this Youth Institute and turned out I did (laughs) – Claire: – (laughs) So what is that Institute? Like, what do you, what did you do? What did they do? Oleg: It is a part of Russian Academy of Sciences. And it does research. Uh, nowadays, it is mostly solid state and like semiconductor physics. Claire: So why do you think, like, that sign, like spoke to you at age five? Oleg: I don't know. (Pause) Well, I remember I asked what it is they told me, this is a good known, known, well known physical institution. And I said okay, I will work there. Claire: So kind of jumping forward a little bit. I'd like to transition to discuss more about your first immigration to the United States. You said you were 36, um – Oleg: – No. I did not immigrate to the United States. I was a postdoc. Claire: Postdoc? Oleg: Yeah, so I, uh, so I finished, uh high school. I went to, uh, university. Uh, and it's like here when you are in high school years, you already thinking about what university you would choose. Here you have some flexibility, there you are in a much more restricted situation. So you have to think even harder. So finally, we found a school, which had, uh, deep, uh, like deeper physics curriculum and it was connected to electrotechnical university. And (pause) I, I had to change schools, so I had to take a bus to get to the school, it wasn't, so, uh, in Russia, there are �no school buses. So you just, but there are more schools than here. They're smaller, but there are, there are more of them. Claire: Okay. Oleg: So you would just, uh, usually you have to walk to school it's I don't know two blocks three blocks away, at most. But I switched the school and I had to take bus and that school had this physics program and they had their graduates like better prepared and they had connections to that, uh, Institute. And then (pause), when I was in that school, I found out that, uh, at that university where I was going to live. That I actually don't remember clearly, maybe it was I knew about this, but I think it was, maybe I was just lucky. So when, at that school, and when we started going to that university like for after hours classes and some extra curriculum activities, I found out that there is one group, uh, (pause) which is based at this Youth Institute, so which is like attached to that Youth Institute. So it was like, uh, department which was organized by, at the time, not but now he's a Nobel Prize winner, Zhores Alferov who was head of the department there and since he was young scientist, he wanted to raise students to become scientists from like very early stage. So he organized this department at that university, electrotechnical university, and they will try to get the most, uh, uh, like promising students and they would, and who want to be scientists, and they will educate them at that department. So I learned that there is such a department And I, uh, uh, I signed up and I was chosen, uh, for that department and then we would start like uhh dividing our time between the regular university and this Youth Institute. So we would have regular classes like philosophy, history, P.E., whatever at the main university but all our, uh, major related classes were at the youth institute. Claire: Okay. Oleg: So we would spend – I don't know – three day there and two days at the University. Claire: Okay. Oleg: So I started working at the Youth Institute, like trying to do research since I was like a third year student, maybe even before that. Yeah, well, we started going there like from our first year, but first three years, but first I remember, so my friends at the University he had, his uncle, was quite famous physicist who created u, he was experimentalist, he created uh uh um (pause) scientific waves for uh transient industry in soviet union,you know, peinjunctions, LED, you know, led (pause) LED lights, pointed, you know whatever you have in city, players, everywhere, whatever you see in red spot now it can be blue or green. So, this is radiational in your remote control. This is, uh, radiation emitted when electrons go through, uh, the connection of two different materials to uh, different semiconductors so when they go through that, uh, junction they make light. It can be red light, it can be infrared light, your remote, uh, but uh, that �guy he created, uh, this, uh like he was, uh, scientific advisor when, uh, in Soviet Union they started semiconductor industry. So he put us, uh, uh, in a lab from our first year, but the only tasks we were trusted to was doing securital aux. I remember it was our project, it was a two story lab, big lab, and they wanted to open the door, uh, not going down but, uh, so we did the wiring and all the stuff, but since third year we started doing more, uh, science, like real science. And, uh, we were, uh, like, immersed into these activities. So I knew all the scientists in our department and after I graduated from the university, I went to what you would call a Ph. D program. And at that time I worked, uh, uh, I mean like a normal scientist already. And, uh, after you do your Ph. D, you, uh, it's normal to do a postdoc. So since I was working in a group there, uh, and we had collaborators all over the world, uh, my Russian boss knew a guy from Pittsburgh who worked in the similar, like, complementary direction. So he was working in, uh, studying a phenomenon called Bremsstrahlung.5 It's a radiation emitted by, uh, any charged particles when they bend their trajectory. And, uh, in Soviet Union, there was a guy who discovered that this standard radiation can be complemented by another type of radiation which is also branch strong, but the origin of this, not the accelerating particles, but the atoms in, uh, which create the field in which those, uh, particles travel. So that was like complimentary things about the same basically physical phenomenon, but taking them from different ends, like different subjects in the same, uh, picture. So they sent me to Pittsburgh as a postdoc, to like, bridge the gap, to try to build something which would be like unifying concept, uh, unifying formalism describing this, so I was going there for one year and then it was not like, I wanted to immigrate. Claire: Yeah. It was like a temporary – Oleg: – yeah, it was like a postdoc position. Claire: Did you have like uh, a temporary work status to gain permission to live in the United States or like – Oleg: – uh – Claire: – do you remember – Oleg: – the first time we went there, I was on J-1 Visa6, which is a scientific exchange. Uh, in principle, it requires you to return to your home country and spend at least two years there. Claire: Okay. So to clarify, it's like one year in Pittsburgh and then you go back to, for two years. 5 Bremsstrahlung is electromagnetic radiation that occurs when a charged particle decelerates due to deflection by another charged particle. During this process, the moving particle loses kinetic energy, which is converted into radiation. 6 J-1 exchange visitor visa for educational and cultural exchange programs that are designated by the Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. �Oleg: Uh, it's supposed to work that way. It, it, there are loopholes, and I know people who somehow waived this J-1 one requirement, but on the other hand, where I work now there is a guy, uh, Leonardo. He had to return to his home country and spend their two years, even though, like scientific director of our institution wrote to USCIS7 asking this to be waived, but still didn't work. Claire: So, just to continue on with that timeline, so you went to Pittsburgh – Oleg: – so we went to Pittsburgh in 2000. Uh, originally, it was for one year and we started working, and my scientific supervisor was, uh, relatively happy with me. So he actually offered me to, uh, switch my position from this visiting, whatever it is called fellow something. And I said no, we want to go home. We agreed. Uh, but he couldn't find any suitable candidate to replace me. So we had to stay there longer. So instead of one year, we spent, stayed there, year and a half, maybe. Claire: Year and a half. Okay. Were you, um, like, how did you feel about this movement process? Like did you want to go back to Russia or do you want to stay in the United States? Like, how did you feel at the time about, like these moves and everything? Oleg: Uh, well, I was excited to, to work in a different country in different environment in different culture, because I only knew Soviet research culture. And it was very interesting to see how people work, uh, in the United States. Claire: What are some of the differences you noticed? Right away and then also like reflecting on your work now? Oleg: Uh, here people are more polite. So, they would, even if they see that, you are, you are completely wrong. And, uh, whatever you are doing is complete bullshit. They will not tell you that. Uh, they will just keep silent, they will say okay, and uh, yeah, they will not even try it later on to approach you well, some of them who would but, uh, only if they like know you. If it is a complete stranger and he tells me something wrong, I wouldn't argue. I would just keep, I would say to myself, forget about it, it's like, wasting two hours for this seminar. In Russia is much more direct and aggressive, so they would start arguing with the speaker. And sometimes it's even counterproductive. For, I don't know if a speaker devoted one month saying that this assumption and that assumption, uh, hold, and then the person who comes to a seminar listens to that first time, he starts arguing that those assumptions don't hold. And, uh, you know, the person said, you know, I studied this and I know this, (laughs), it's true. Uh, but, so in a sense, it is more, 7 USCIS is the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. This is a government organization that oversees aspects of immigration related to obtaining citizenship and VISA status. �uh, (pause), it is more direct interaction in Russia than here. On the other hand, uh, (pause) on the other hand, people here (pause) probably, uh (pause), eh, so, on average, so average person here would (pause) spend more (pause) time working. Uh, (pause) no, so, you know, it's not, you know, apple to apple comparisons.Where I worked with there was like a place for fanatics. So people there would come to work with I don't know, with, uh, fire in their eyes, and they want to do that and they will. I myself, like slept in the office on put together chairs because I didn't want to spend time going home even though I lived like 15 minutes away. Uh, so those people would work harder than the average Western scientist, but there are people who would come like, two days a week for, I don't know, for several hours, just to you know, be around the scene and they will leave and they will not care about anything. Claire: Hm. Interesting. Oleg: But I don't think it's comparable. It's different time, different place. Different culture. Claire: Yeah, definitely. Could you talk a bit more about like, the culture of the United States that surprised you outside of your work environment. Like is there anything, I know it's not like super comparable, it's very different, but any like shocks or surprises? [Section of transcript cut out as someone came into the room to try to use the space] Oleg: Uh, I’m trying to recall, so you interested in that moment, what I felt then? Claire: Yeah, yeah. Oleg: Well, so we lived in Pittsburgh, and it was, uh, so University of Pittsburgh, it's like in the middle of the city. It is like a university area, and there are two universities: Pittsburgh University and Carnegie Mellon. They're very close. Uh, but still, it is a city. It's not like UMD here, where you have your own campus, and nobody else here. So there it was mixed. So it was kind of city but with a lot of students and, uh, teachers and researchers. And I think what struck me at that time is– it was, um (pause) so we had a lot of like (pause), uh a lot of people (pause) feeling not free, but (pause) like relaxing, like chilling out. So people would go into restaurants; we would go to a restaurant. We had group meetings at a restaurant every week. Uh, students would like sit on the grass, uh in the park. There was like a botanical garden and, uh, we saw a lot of students there like, some of them studying, probably like here, now. Claire: Yeah, very similar. Oleg: Yeah. And it was not typical at all for us. So, uh, in Russia, they were in Soviet Union. Well, it was Russia already, but still it was like, Soviet based, uh, reality. So people would not go �to restaurants that often. Uh, if they study they would study at home or in the library (pause). If you want to party with party at home, if you want to play with your friends, you would go, you wouldn't, you wouldn't do that just on campus. So you could see people like sitting on the benches and doing nothing but they will just wait till the next, uh, uh, we call it pairs. So we had like a 1.5, two 45 minutes joined, lessons, like 45 minutes, 5 break, and then 45, and then sometimes the lecture will not even make the break. And we had like them, uh, sequential, so we will have three or four such pairs and very rarely you would have like an empty pair. Then you would like, you would have one hour and 45 minutes free and then you will probably go to, we also had like a botanical garden across the street. But it wasn't typical and I would, I wouldn't go there, I would find some quiet place and do something. Yeah, so here I felt it's more like, like relaxed. Maybe. Claire: Did you know English prior to coming here or did you learn it when you came here? ` Oleg: (pause) Well, technically, I knew English, but, uh, I could not speak. Well, I could say something. But I could not understand people at all. So whatever they were saying, it was complete music to me. I couldn't, uh, figure out where one word ends and the next one starts. So it was like continuous (pause) because we didn't just have, so all our English studies, it was, uh, more or less theoretical. So we never watched movies, uh, in school, we never talk to real people, so it was only textbooks and we will read so I, I had relatively, (pause) relatively high level, so I could build more or less complicated phrases, sentences, but, uh, understanding was almost zero. Claire: Did that ever influence like your work aspect? Like when you first came here for your postdoc or like anything about navigating the city or anything like that? Oleg: Yeah, of course. Uh, sometimes, so my advisor was, he is a quite generous and kind man and he tried to help us. So he put us in his house. Claire: Oh, that’s nice. Oleg: He would, uh, he would do group meetings at a restaurant and he would pay for that. Uh, and he tried to give us tips on what to see, how to get there. Uh, but I remember many times when he would advise us to do something. And then, uh, when we started doing that, we realized that actually it's not like he, we thought told us and then it turned out that we just misunderstood him. Claire: Hm. That's interesting. How fast were you able to pick up the language then? Like, when do you feel like you were fully, like, able to learn how to understand people better? �Oleg: I still don't understand people sometimes. I cannot understand, uh, any songs which I hear on the radio. I can pick up a few words here and there, but, and then in American, or I don’t know, English music is completely different from Russian. So here you have very, well, I don't know about rap and such stuff, but even regular songs like pop music, they have very complicated sentences with no rhymes and, uh, so there are some, but it is very hard to do that. So Russian music is much simpler. So you have, uh, all your, you have rhymes, certainly. And then all your words would fit into music very, very easily. So they complement each other much better. It's much simpler. Claire: That makes sense. Oleg: So I still don't understand and when southern people talk I also understand 30% (laughs). Claire: (laughs) that’s fair. Um, I was wondering if you could, like extending the timeline a little bit more so, you came here for postdoc and then you went back to Russia after like a year and a half – Oleg: – Mhm – Claire: – when did you come back here again? Oleg: Ah. Yeah. So we went, (pause) actually, it was my wife who wanted to return, so for her there was no question that we coming back because she's very attached to her family. And I was more flexible. I didn't care much. I didn't like, really wanted to stay. Claire: She wanted to return to Russia? Oleg: She wanted to return to Russia, and I was more or less ambivalent and I would say we can stay here, we can go home. Don't care much. Uh, so we returned home and then, uh, (pause) I returned to my work and, uh, we had a group of people, uh, and we were more or less friends. And once I came, a guy at work told me, you know that (pause) so (pause) well here you have to apply for grants. Uh, so we had like stable salary, but if you want to go to a conference, if you want to buy some extra equipment or even if you want to increase your salary, you have to apply for grants. Uh, so it was like I don't know, I arrived like one week ago and I'm in our office and we shared an office. Uh, there were like three of us. Uh, and he told me, you know that, uh, now it's close to deadline for grant application for NSF NATO award and it's only two pages and, uh, basically they only look at your achievements and recommendations. So you don't have to go into details about your scientific program or project you're gonna work. So it was, uh, in bureaucratic terms, it was quite easy. So you have to describe your achievements, people you want to work with, and your like, the general idea of your project. And, uh, that’s it, like two �pages maybe. And he said, Why don't you apply for that? And since I just came, and I said why? And he said they will give you money and then the chances are very, very little, very small, because they give out only 20 awards per year for all, uh, fields. It's like science and arts and everything. But he said, uh, you have to play many stage games so you’ll win in one of them. So he said just do two pages, ask your professor Pratt to write your recommendation letter. And I did that and I did not expect that I would get it. So it wasn't like planned. Yeah, I didn't think I would get– the chances were, uh, almost zero– but somehow I got this grant and then, uh, once I get it, of course, why not use it? Yeah. So it took us, uh, so we came back in 2001. (pause) I think it’s like, took us a year for this project to be approved, and then all this bureaucracy stuff. So I think we came back to the US after one year, like in the late 2002. Claire: Okay. Where did you move to in the U.S.? Did you go back to Pittsburgh or somewhere else? Oleg: Yes. So, since it was– the project– a continuation of what I was doing in Pittsburgh, and Professor Pratt wrote me a recommendation letter and some of his friends. So it was, of course like, natural to go there. Claire: Yeah. Makes sense. Um, how did you feel about moving back to the United States? Oleg: Uh, I did like the idea. So, uh, so while we were here for the first time, as I mentioned, Professor Pratt, was very generous and kind and he helped us a lot and he would organize for us all sorts of things that we enjoyed staying here. So, for example, if we had a conference, he would arrange that we would rent a car, and then we would drive, and the conference could be in Texas for example. So we will drive, uh, in that car from here, well from Pittsburgh, to Texas or to Colorado or whatever. And, uh, (pause) he will say don't rush. Take your time drive carefully. You'll look at whatever you find on the way and then uh, when, when we wanted to travel, like we bought an old car and he would let me go like for one weekend. We would drive to Florida. So, I knew that can get a lot of interest and stuff. And I knew the guy and I liked him. I still like him a lot. So I was – Claire: – You were excited? – Oleg: – Yes. Claire: That's cool. Um, how long were you in Pittsburgh for this grant project? Oleg: Uh, again, one year and a half. Claire: About a year and a half. What did you decide to do after that? �Oleg: Uh, at that time, well, we decided to return to Russia. Uh, at that time, uh, my son was born, uh, and actually, so my project was for one year, so I got decent money, $42,600. It was grant for everything. So that was my salary. And it was, so my salary was like $30,000 and then I had $12,000 for conferences and stuff. And that was much more than I had when I was a postdoc. So when I was a postdoc, uh, so they, at the University of Pittsburgh, they had some, uh, fixed stipends. I don't know how they call it, (pause), uh, like fellowships, and it was, I don't know, like $10,000 a year. And I, when I, just, uh, when we were discussing it before we went, I asked some of my friends who, so my, uh, few of my, uh, school friends emigrated and I asked them, so what do you think, can we live off 10,000? And they say, Absolutely not. So anyway, I asked them to increase and they, I think the best they could do was $12,000 a year. And there were two of us. And it was quite hard. So we, had I remember, we were buying this bread for 67 cents in giant, which is like was the cheapest one and you could, you know, press it into a small bowl. And we would eat, uh, ground meat, like with pasta all day long, because it was the cheapest. Uh, but still, and then I will get more money and it was for one year. Uh, but then, my son was born and he was very young. (pause) So he was born in November. Yeah. So, uh, he was born in November. So, he basically was born when my grant, uh, expired. Yeah. So we asked for an extension, and, uh, the NSF, or NATO, probably it was NSF, so they said you can extend but we will not give you more money. So, uh, my professor had to come up with some, uh, financing. But we still are grateful to him [the professor] because he [the son] was very, uh, young. And we didn't want to travel with our newborn child. So we stayed till May 2004Claire: – Okay – Oleg: – No. Four, yes. Claire: And then you went to Russia. Oleg: So we went back to Russia. Claire: Okay. How long were you in Russia then? Oleg: Uh, I personally was in Russia for (pause) four months? It was 2000, it was 2004. So we came in, like in May, (pause), uh, and I got sick, and I got into, uh, these hospitals specialized in infectious diseases. And they couldn't figure out what with me and I stayed there for three weeks or so. Uh, and then I returned to work and I didn't like it a bit. Not, not the work but like – Claire: – the environment? �Oleg: Yeah, so I got used to American style of life. And when I came back, I didn't like all these Russian realities. Uh, ao I wasn't quite happy. And then in, uh, August 2004, uh, head of my Russian group, so he was collaborating with many people, I mean, our group, so we had like joint, uh, research projects. So one of the research directions was connected to Pittsburgh, but the other one was connected with, uh, research of, uh, Walter Greiner8, and he's actually very famous nuclear physicist who predicted, uh, super heavy nuclear to be stable. So all this, uh, acceleration experiments, where people collide, uh, heavy nuclei, what they try to achieve, they want to check if his prediction. So, you, is correct. So what you have, so our Mendeleev table, you have, uh, elements from one hydrogen and then you go to, I don't know, 90s, where you have very heavy elements and they become unstable. So when you have uranium, plutonium, they are radioactive and they spontaneously decay. So you cannot have them, uh, for a long time. So they have, their not nuclear are not stable. And if you go to even higher the decay even faster. So if your uranium can, depending on the isotope, uh, some of them stable, but some of them are not. If you go to higher, you cannot find anything. So people achieved, look at 107, highest charge of the nucleus, but it was very short lived when they collide in the in the, uh, collider particles, if you go to higher, so what he predicted that, then you can reach an island of stability. So if you go to like 130, then those, uh, elements will be stable. So he was quite famous because of this work. And he was influential enough to, uh, start a new institute. So he worked at Goethe University in Frankfurt, uh, and uh, he wanted to start a new institution, which would be like partially affiliated with University of Frankfurt, but partially independent. And he joined forces with another guy, who I don't know, he, I don't even remember his name. He's like neuro, neurosurgeon and neuroscientist, something with the brains. So they study how brains work and our guy was nuclear physicist. So those two guys, uh, they both like were famous. And they wanted to create like, Interdisciplinary Research Center. And they started what they call Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies. And they were like recruiting people for that institution. And since our group collaborated with Walter Greiner, he invited my, uh, group leader Andrei Soloviev, to be research fellow, which is basically like full professor there. And he said, uh, suggest me a couple of like low ranking people who we put in right. So, uh, Andre called me– he was in Frankfurt at the time– he called me and said, we are doing this, would you like to join us? Uh, and I said Yes. And it was like very, very early stages. So, there was no even director. They were just like founding fathers, but no administrative stuff. So she said, you can come, uh if you are interested. So I went to Frankfurt and it was like, end of August to beginning of September 2004. So I spent like four months in Russia. Claire: Okay. How long did you stay in Frankfurt after that, and what type of work were you doing there? Because it was such an institution. 8 Walter Greiner was a German theoretical physicist, who spent time researching atomic physics, nuclear physics, and elementary particle physics; he studied physics at the University of Frankfurt and became an assistant professor at the University of Maryland from 1962 to 1964. �Oleg: Uh, well there we actually continued what would they have started working on while I'm on while I was in the U.S., so they started doing cluster research, okay. So a cluster is a collection of several atoms, but it is not a molecule, so you can have, I don’t know, an alcohol molecule which you might be aware of like CT, C2H5OH.9 So this is like chemical molecule where your atoms are bound by chemical bonds. Clusters, it's when you have, uh, a collection of atoms that may be bigger than molecules, smaller than molecules, but they are not, uh, chemical molecules in traditional sense, you can have I don't know 10 sodium atoms together. So it is not a molecule. It's just like a small clump of matter. And at that time, it was relatively fashionable direction, people tried to understand how you go from, uh, atoms to solids to bulk properties, atoms and bulk properties, even if the same element if you if you have sodium, sodium atom, or sodium two, which is like natural molecule, chemical molecule, uh, have completely different, not completely but quite different, uh, properties and bulk sodium, uh, and they wanted to see what goes in between and at that time, technology, uh, developed, so that people were able to create such clumps of matter. So we were, and they started doing that, and when I came back from the U.S., I like I joined the group, and I started doing that and we continue doing that in Frankfurt. Claire: How did you like Germany? What did you think of it? Oleg: I loved Germany. Claire: You loved Germany? Oleg: Yes. I like that they have such a perfect order in everything. Claire: Mhm. What do you mean by that? Oleg: Everything, I mean, public transportation, all buses, uh, spotless. They go by minute. They, uh, the streets are cleaned. People are organized. If they tell you 2pm, it is 2pm. Uh, in the offices, they, I mean, they keep their stuff organized. I mean, it's (pause) so everything is very well oiled and organized. And, uh, aesthetically, it's also beautiful and I, it’s very old and I like history. So I liked it very much. Claire: Yeah, that's cool. Did your, um, wife and kid come with you as well when he went to Germany? Oleg: Uh, not initially. So I went alone, just to see what’s, what’s going on. If it is indeed, will be finally implemented.We did not have, so the building was still under construction. So we worked in the university. And at some point we had to move, uh, so it was not clear what's going on. And 9 C2H5OH is the compound for Ethanol, which is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. �we just came from the U.S. My son was very young. So it was not, uh, an option for us to go three of us. Claire: Yeah. When did they end up moving to Germany with you? Oleg: I think, so I went like August to September. Then I came back for the New Years. (pause) And I think then I returned, to Frankfurt, and then I came back for them. So I think it was like March 2005. Claire: Okay. That makes sense. Um, How did, like, what was it like moving a family to Germany, now? Like now that you have a kid. Oled: (pause) Uh (pause) I don't remember any particular difficulties. Uh, my wife was very easygoing. She does not collect stuff. She's not attached to stuff and she’s uh, she can do with what she have, what she has. So it wasn't a problem. I rented an apartment, uh, and now I don't remember about furniture. (pause) Uh, we had, yeah, I got, I think from IKEA, one bed. We had one small table. One chair. And then I think that’s it. Yeah, the second room was completely empty. Claire: Um, How long were you in Germany? Oleg: Until end of 2007. Claire: Okay. Where did you go after that? Oleg: We went directly to the U.S. Claire: Okay. And this was when you moved to Rockville? Oleg: Mhm. Claire: Why did you decide to move to rockville? Oleg: Because (pause) at that time (pause) by the end of 2006, sometime after a couple of years in Germany, we understood that (pause) it is very difficult to assimilate. So it's all good. Everything's fine, but you are an outsider, and uh you’re gonna stay an outsider. There is no way you will be accepted into that culture. German culture. Yes. So that was one reason so, if, but it wasn't, like a really urgent reason.The other reason was that my son was growing up. And we started thinking where we want him to grow up. And we had basically three options. We could go back to Russia and raise him as a standard Russian kid. We could raise him in Germany, �because I had basically job, uh, stability and it was developing well so there was no, uh, reason for us to be afraid that we would need to find something else in Germany, so I would work there 10 more years and should not be a problem. Uh, so that was the second option. And the third option was to go back to the U.S. and uh, since he was born in the U.S., so he is a citizen. So the third option was to raise him as a U.S. kid. Since he already is a citizen, so why not? And we decided which country and culture would be better for him. (pause) And since we felt, in Germany, that we will not be assimilated. And, uh, (pause) yeah, he was like closing to the school age and he didn't speak German and so we decided that it is either Russia or U.S. and we chose U.S. Claire: Why did you prefer the U.S. over Russia? Oleg: We felt that, I felt that, there he will have more opportunities and the quality of life is certainly higher. So I saw that if we can do that we should at least try. Claire: Was your wife, like, in support of that decision? Or was she when you worked with her? Oleg: Uh, she was ambivalent. So she wanted to go back to be with the family. Uh, on the other hand, she saw that, indeed maybe, uh, so, I think I pushed for the more – Claire: – to go to the U.S.? Oleg: Yeah, so I was telling her, let's go if I can find job in the U.S.. Let's go there for a few years. Uh, he will learn English, he wouldn't be a native speaker. Uh, he will grow up a little. Maybe we will get green cards and then we will have freedom to move between the countries as we wish. And then we decide later, do we want to stay in the U.S. or go back to Russia? Claire: Okay, that makes sense. And you had your second son in Germany, right? Oleg: Right. Claire: Okay. So how was his citizen status, like played into this? Did he have Russian citizenship or – Oleg: – he had Russian citizenship, he did not have German citizenship. Claire: Okay, so Germany doesn't have birthright citizenship? Oleg: No, they don't. And it would require many years for him to acquire German citizenship. �Claire: Okay, interesting. Um, so how did you find a job in the United States that would like lead you to? Oleg: Ah, I'm just a very lucky person. (laughs) – Claire: – (laughs) – Oleg: Completely randomly. I mean, uh, I have a group mate, uh, my one of, maybe my best friend, we were in, so in Russia, you don't do as you do here, everybody takes their own class and then everybody takes different classes, so we had the concept of groups, where you have a certain number of people, usually like 20, and then they would go together to everything. Claire: Yeah. Oleg: (pause) I don't even think we had any subjects for choice. So we couldn't choose anything I think. So it was pre programmed. Claire: Yeah. Oleg: So we would like see the same people six, eight hours a day for five years. Claire: Yeah. Oleg: So this girl, uh, she started, uh, studying in another university and then she transferred to us and she got into our group and we just befriended, uh, she was (pause) no, yeah, so she came in this in the second year. So she, uh (pause), she got married and then she divorced, and then she moved to the U.S. not even finishing up University in Russia. Of course, her mom works here. She works at NIST, or she worked at NIST, I don't know where she works now. Uh, so she, she went to UMD I think. Claire: Okay. Oleg: (pause) and she, they lived here, in, uh, in Bethesda, near Montgomery Mall. So I just called her and I said, Masha, do you know any opportunities somewhere in the US? Uh, and I actually was thinking about even changing my career into, uh, into IT. Cause, uh, so, it was, everything was fine at work. But it was very, uh, intense. Yeah. So it was very competitive, uh, so we have had this, our group leader who like he was like, full professor, and I was like, uh, one step below him. And then we got, I don't know, seven, uh, graduate student and like, four postdocs, and we had visiting scientists and, uh, it was very hard, I worked a lot, cause, so, I had to help him with all these grant proposals, uh, all this, like, social net, not social, like scientific �networkings, so I had to prepare a draft for him to send letters to different scientists. Uh, and I would be involved in organizing like, seminars and conferences. So we invited people from all over the Europe and from the US, so he wanted to be on the map. So he wanted to have a lot of communications with other groups abroad, so everybody knows him, he is like in the network. So we had to organize a lot of events. Uh, so I was doing this more or less administrative stuff. But on the other hand, I had to, uh, oversee all our students and do work myself. And when you oversee work with student, you have to not just see what he or she is doing, you sometimes need to help or even do it yourself. So I was doing like three jobs for myself for students and this and it was very hard. Uh, so I even had doubts if I wanted to continue in science, and I was like playing with this idea of why not go to IT field where money is better and work is simpler. Yeah. So my friend, Masha told me, so she has, uh, she has a friend who was married to a guy who works who worked where I work now. And, uh, she said, let me ask Tatiana, maybe Lesha may help you. So this guy, send me coordinates of this person who hires, uh, uh, uh actually, IT guys so this is mostly IT. So, we, uh, our institution mostly maintains updates and whatever, various medical databases, so they need a lot of programmers. Claire: Yeah. Oleg: So he's, she, so that guy who worked there, send me the, uh, coordinates of that guy who is overseeing, who was overseeing, hiring. And he said we hire all the time, just email him and ask if you have anything. So I emailed him and he responded to me and he send me like a questionnaire like with different programming tasks. And since I'm not an educated coder, so I did, wrote a lot of codes but scientific codes, so I was mainly interested in efficiency in terms of the, uh, how you calculate, say integrals numerically without losing precision and fast, and maybe you can come up with another method where you don't have to do it at all, maybe you can approximate it somehow. So I was coding, but it was a completely different type of coding. So she sent me this questionnaire very with coding questions like, I don't know how better memory is allocated in code A or code B, and why. (pause) So I tried to reply and, uh, I sent it. I now understand that I was completely below level, whatever, (laughs) possibly even couldn't even hope for that. But since I submitted my application, the questionnaire was probably unsatisfactory. He didn't tell me of course, the guy. But my resume caught the eye of my current principal investigator who is a physicist by education. And we are probably the only one group doing physics at that place. And he was looking for people with exactly my qualifications, so he wanted, um, quantum calculations, quantum mechanics, and uh, since it was like, submitted in and then it was like, standard procedure when they distributed, he saw my resume and he, uh, called me, we did, uh, phone interview. Then he invited me to come here for in-person interview, and then we moved. Claire: Thank you for sharing that. Um, so you haven't gone back since, like you stayed since you moved to rockville, here? �Oleg: Yeah, so we went directly from Frankfurt to Rockville. Claire: Okay, cool. Um, how was, so you mentioned that a simulation in Germany was, like, harder. Um, would you say that it's easier in the United States or like, how were you able to form a community here? Oleg: Well, it's not harder in Germany than in the United States. It all depends on the, uh, on your group. On your, uh, professor or principal investigator, yeah. So there in Germany we were trying to establish a name. So we will completely over the grid and we tried to emerge as an advanced group doing advanced stuff. And to do that you have to work very hard. Yeah. Uh, here it is more relaxed. It is government and you have job security. Uh, and there is no point in, uh, you know trying to organize a conference, because first it is the government it is not possible to do basically, resolve the bureaucracy. (laughs) Second, there is no point, if you need to talk to your colleagues, you can go to some conference and talk to them there so you don't have to push for visibility. Claire: Okay, that makes sense. How was it able, like socially, to make friends here, like were you able to form communities in any way? Oleg: (Pause) Well, here it was relatively easy. Uh, (pause) So say in Pittsburgh, we befriended a Secretary at the Department who knew our professor for a very long time, she was his personal secretary for a while. Uh, so she was invited to all our group events, so we befriended her and one guy in the group. And that was basically it. Uh, we met few Russians in Pittsburgh, while I was working too much and there was basically no time. In Frankfort, it was very similar. I actually again befriended the Secretary of the Department. (laughs) But just because, uh, I was alone, uh, and again, I was, especially first months. Yeah. And she was a German lady she was like 50 years old. And she was very punctual. And she would show up at work, like 6:55 in the morning, and I had nothing else to do and I wanted to do some science, so I would come to work also like around seven, and we would, uh, intersect like near coffee machine. And, uh, she would help me with Germany, like with sketching around and knowing what to do, where to buy things, and that developed into a friendship. But again, no locals. Yeah, but when we moved to Frank–, to Rockville here, we had two kids, and we went to all these, you know, kids' places like the playground. I don't know, like gyms. And then you have a lot of parents. And while kids are playing you stay with parents and you're forced to communicate. So this way, we did acquire some friends, and we could even pick and choose which ones we wanted. (laughs) – Claire: – (laughs) That makes sense. I guess, thinking now on like, how long you've lived in Rockville? Do you have any like, thoughts on living so close to DC or anything or like, how like, that experience is? I guess. �Oleg: That's I don't understand what – Claire: – (laughs) I’m just gonna skip that question that’s not making any sense. Um, do you have any plans for the future regarding where you live? Do you think you'll stay here? Could you ever see yourself moving back to Russia or anywhere else? Oleg: (pause) Probably not, probably not. So we got settled in here, uh, so probably will just stay here. Claire: Yeah, that makes sense. Um, I think that kind of concludes everything. I don't want to keep you too long. Um, thank you so much for allowing me to interview you today. Is there anything else you would like to share with me about your story or experience? – Oleg: – No, If you have any questions which you think like later on, you realize that it would have been nice, nice to ask him, you still can do that. Claire: Okay, thank you so much. Oleg: No problem. � https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/16159/archive/files/eb2a48c683258cf5545caa74f1a8c010.mp3?Expires=1779321600&Signature=StRAV7O9B8XxLHssHp-nM%7EfIEr1h-8muQrjSKgxHMytOyrzegcg6arRKJG7fRPl-YK6PkC2PaAJjXEyVNoGJ-CYSRNGz3Z87Cl9pu5LLZ9aPxePjgFOj3kMBFoGlwy4svQLy9PaHmaHC5kx66VxVGseYfhXSQwZm1ed8o8dF8NU-luAvPXeSMMiL3lSE9o%7EnHJRwJsULObqgf4LZotHTNkBRky1JfnKQUXcYNqbt0bdMJuXbE4ZBrjX3xKhrWEU9SvwniEXoD6yuLeSIoUg78OzlD4Z7I0GwIR-zAhQq%7EZIRRVqywC1OUEEC7phC5Bvv7J%7EPPia6KX3YY4J1e30NyQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 80b7fa32bbb7eaf1dfb327ce8c898deb Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Spring 2024 Interviews Description An account of the resource Spring 2024 Interviews from Prof. Colleen Woods (IMMR400) and Prof. Anne Rush (HIST 465) at the University of Maryland. Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Claire O’Donnell Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Oleg Obolensky Location The location of the interview Rockville, Montgomery Country, Maryland, United States Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Oleg Obolensky Description An account of the resource This interview between Claire O’Donnell and Oleg Obolensky discusses Oleg’s journey from Russia to the United States in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to complete postdoc research for one year on a J-1 visa. After he returned back to Russia, Oleg then traveled back to Pittsburgh to continue his research with an NSF NATO funded grant opportunity. In Pittsburgh, Oleg had his first son; then, he returned to Russia after one and a half years after his grant expired. After four months in Russia, Oleg moved to Frankfurt, Germany to work at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies. After remaining in Germany for a few years and having his second child, once Oleg’s first son reached school age, his family moved to permanently settle in Rockville, Maryland, where he currently works at the National Institute of Health. By mapping and sharing his immigration journey, Oleg describes assimilation into the United States compared to Germany and living through the collapse of the Soviet Union. Throughout this discussion, Oleg discusses how he received each work opportunity as being based on “luck”, presenting a theme of things happening to him by chance. Oleg’s story offers insights into how after the Fall of the Soviet Union, scientific collaboration between scientists in Russia, the United States, and Germany worked together to bridge research. In turn, these insights reveal how each scientific endeavor influenced Oleg’s immigration story. This interview was conducted as part of an undergraduate final project for the University of Maryland, College Park course IMMR400 (Spring 2024). This course was led by Professor Colleen Woods of the Department of History, College of Arts and Humanities, and was sponsored by the Center for Global Migration Studies. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Claire O’Donnell Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Center for Global Migration Studies Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource April 10, 2024 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The full rights of this oral history interview were given by the interviewee to the University of Maryland, College Park. This interview may be quoted from, published, or broadcast in any medium that the University of Maryland, College Park shall deem appropriate. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Marjorie Antonio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF, jpeg family Germany Opportunity Physics Pittsburgh Research Rockville Russia science Soviet Union visa https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/16159/archive/files/bfa20ca741ee2154add39d0db5248ebc.png?Expires=1779321600&Signature=HSWOXpW-cZ8DfQ2Kii395PsEhb92k%7Em-Sb3wIA0TA1dT61JIsdw5yUTClj5cSCRSsVWrE5Cmev8TgssH0IGwwqJ7clpVhkysvTPaiitOJNYLAQ-t5wRuUqsFOUB96NoF051LONd3xnLE%7EcbkgWso9ubq5zrI2x8DV3qB--%7EGDpzgHNFUOPH2KdzUVZ6hVqkKK6U13nxmDvLYleTMw%7Es8lyz9UlQB0u13-dWZ6zOY79V-Pys4a-X%7EmR6FAHG8upqA3XKJpEs8uTnhFRnGlF9KgyIzL0guUuOWbhOn1pddbjrCrHPW5Y4hidQM4S5gV1GijeGH3kshZYSJuHfzFl0TGQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 7c1eeaf73a7efd1528441acae023166e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Spring 2020 Interviews Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview of Maurice Tchasso Description An account of the resource This interview between Elsa Tchasso and Maurice Tchasso explores Maurice's immigration journey to the United States. Maurice talks about his life in his native country and the reasons that pushed him to immigrate in the US. He later on describes the immigration process and his life in the US. ***This interview is restricted to the University of Maryland College Park's campus. For more information, contact the Center for Global Migration Studies (globalmigration@umd.edu).*** This interview was conducted as part of an undergraduate final project for the University of Maryland, College Park course IMMR 400 (Spring 2020). This course was led by Professor Robert Chiles of the Department of History, College of Arts and Humanities, and was sponsored by the Center for Global Migration Studies. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Paulette Elsa Tchasso Madzo Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Center for Global Migration Studies Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource April 12, 2020 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF, MP3 Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History asylee Cameroon Citizenship culture family food Green Card politics visa https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/16159/archive/files/a7a499fd172d9b3f54d2f6828eabd6c8.png?Expires=1779321600&Signature=jPrni1RM%7E9azKLVdgQmFOWrzBN6atYj1rRQ26sQOSo5Jl1BSy7xsuCJ1LsDYijOpWAjuuI-a6690eAuir-Cwgtyg5OCvIzOXS6GDr7gD91eYKnBEcnfzs49B5PzgqJyhPmRNVYMXC2uVz6302t-r6YMg-4vKNJqJrlXL0YEqgiQq2vUFtRv%7Ev%7EhHeyiJDMC0fkeDaFbtplEzEFfMd30vTQTSASPTFTBjQA-n79IRldr%7E1BoOZF3EtdBAggD4Dz4A59R2%7EDmnACpVdvfo2P-WoU9UL1ybTwO-x1YoprYRzfk-obq1Ws9D5rOqW9UjLa4OjcO8SKneLws5exFlfBYQBA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 7c1eeaf73a7efd1528441acae023166e https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/16159/archive/files/da931a71a4e49263e522c9223c07b90c.mp3?Expires=1779321600&Signature=D%7EOmafiuXTO7r5rX1JgUaHbgOmz2F14br9YbHnnYf90KbCX%7EhF8jJz%7EtwLhU8CaGQ5orM4d40YO6NG21Bt3FGBJBawEIlVi2po6mPa0FuWH5BB1MTvLnRwzutDW1JT66H5iRdayZfY159WRRV-ff7Fsyg4mZxsuLLPDwsqexMOzNw3COX9Qu40lVtm2AramlXasZtpIbgHyIj2qEs8p8EXXk58kHC7uwbuYGTYWUNEi2MrdfRYHYKehLwPg4A4xnUKyunYfUDRUctViUicTYTRGlZycWlN0yAmhYuVvcJTbhl5u5AdAKIofwVz%7EYwE6Jc%7E4OVZMdUzVA2TvjJwSTHg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 686596598e19a42824f629111ea6e4e7 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/16159/archive/files/cf9969bd8af4e11858842bfcb741093b.pdf?Expires=1779321600&Signature=AjEtMBiqh1huCj-gcpZAGFC8S0GvPmGrF9nluDZF33e-cGb%7ErwafneuKHazmoOj3K4thnI3u1C0Xuo2TZT8mhs8mOEt1Akfdi7FjODLrzUzz6PypeXEHaLT57sCyLi4pxy%7EVGWfykTaEwzIAv8AxIN%7EaJE6w1wDnts4kTudFq9afFrqg%7Et%7Ei94o73JAV0ysmGxURbVHAfJSPC9r9-gYjrepDN8F3Yd7ThoGpc94Bk-4o%7E4zuaqHAcbl9vcxS3B6NtvueqBtc5Gs62e17M9hOTd3DKBZz9gGZ52GWhg-qmsoeXx49caoG7Hs5PI5lQ75Qf4rdun1mlqCFXLtNMpWpDQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 690a229953be2e9785a4277f348278e3 PDF Text Text Transcript for Oral History Interview Conducted for University of Maryland Course IMMR 400 – Spring 2020 Instructor: Dr. Robert Chiles Interviewer’s (Student’s) name: Retu Domnic Interviewee’s name: Nallathambi Domnic Interviewee’s Country of Origin: India Interviewee’s Current Residence: Denton, Caroline County, Maryland, United States Date of Interview: April 28, 2020 Place of Interview: Denton, Caroline County, Maryland, United States Introduction: This interview between Retu Domnic and Nallathambi Domnic goes in depth on what the immigration process was like for Nallathambi Domnic and his family. Nallathambi Domnic is a 52-year-old Indian American who was born in India on September 23, 1967. He then moved to Bahrain in 1991 in order to provide for his family back in India. He met his wife in 1992 back in Bahrain as they were working for the same company. They then had their child in 1999 and migrated to the United States of America in 2003. Nallathambi’s dream was provide the best education for his child and he believed the American school system was the best. He also wanted better job opportunities for his line of work which would be possible in America. Keywords: India, Tamil, assimilation, biculturalism, green card, visa, culture, Asia, race, immigration, family, Indian, jobs �Retu Domnic: My name is Retu Domnic and today I will be interviewing Nallathambi Domnic who is an immigrant and also my dad. Can you please introduce yourself? Nallathambi Domnic: My name is Nallathambi Domnic. Retu: Okay, and we can go ahead and start with the questions. Um so, what was it like back home? Nallathambi: I am [part of] a family of six. I am the fourth member of the family, like uh after my father’s retirement from a government company, I was the only bread winner for my––the whole family, so I had to come out of the country to earn a living. So, I was working in Bahrain for almost like 12 years then, then I thought I could migrate to U.S. for the better fortune and prospects. Well, my daughter was born in Bahrain, like so we left Bahrain around 2003 June when my daughter was 2 and a half years old. The main reason for us to come to U.S. was uh for better prospects and uh my daughter’s education because we were in the Gulf, the education was not much to do after your high school graduation you have to look for a new college elsewhere so that’s a reason we thought we could move to U.S. Retu: So how was it possible for you to come to America, like what was that like? Nallathambi: When my daughter was born in Bahrain, I just was browsing, that’s the introduction of the new internet system, so I was just browsing all the companies in U.S. in my field what I was working for. And uh I got an opportunity to just apply for a few of them, maybe around 20 or 25. On that 6 responded and 3 were very much interested in me, hiring. So, I just went through the process. During that time one of my brother-in-law was in New Jersey who used to help me out during the immigration process with the lawyers. Then um the––the company which I came for, the—the boss was very accommodating and helpful in during the process so it’s a long process to come to U.S. So, we have to file a H1B visa to––other then––I mean to say it’s an employment visa to get into the country. So, we applied, and it took almost 6 or 7 months to go through the process and I got it approved. That’s––that’s the reason I’m here today. �Retu: Okay, so what did you have when you first came to America, like did you have any like money or like valuables? Nallathambi: No when we started from Bahrain, we had to leave everything there. Like uh we couldn’t bring much only rather than some U.S. dollars, like we converted everything there and brought around $2,000. The rest we started from the scratch here, all the housing and things like that when we [I] started new job. So, we started from the scratches. Retu: So, were you the only person working in your family at the time, when you first came to America? Nallathambi: Yeah, the visa, H1B is only granted for uh me, and my wife and daughter were [my] dependent. In other words, uh it’s called H1B and the dependents are H4. H4 visa, the people are not eligible to work, so. And my wife was uh––she is a master’s degree holder and uh unfortunately, she was not eligible to work. Um so, she used to be my de––she was legally here, me and my daught––she and my daughter, but my wife couldn’t work because of the immigration policy. For almost ten years until my status––not status, I mean the immigration policy changed, my wife uh couldn’t work legally anywhere. Being [having] a master’s in accounts, she couldn’t—she got a job, but she couldn’t work legally. She used to do all the voluntary work in the church, local community and she was doing the tax preparation for AARP voluntarily without any monetary benefits. So almost ten years, then uh like in around um 2014 or ‘15 I think the immigration passed a law like uh that dependants can work like who are fighting for their permanent residence, um and that is still uh on process like the dependents can work. So there, after that only, Retu and my wife, Anne, got their work permits. Retu: So, what was it like when you first arrived to America? You mentioned that your brotherin-law helped you? So, was he like a part of settling you in or how was it like first coming here? �Nallathambi: In 2003 June, I just landed in uh JFK, that was in New York, but my work was in Maryland, Denton, Maryland. But I happened to meet my brother-in-law in the airport who drove me to New Jersey. So, from there we used to commute because initially we did not have a house, I used to just come and go on a weekly basis, just see the places. First, eh I bought a––I got a room in a—in a Countryside Inn for a week and I stayed there and uh go to work then slowly, slowly tried to get a rented place where I work. Then finally after a month I moved my family here. ‘Till then they were living in my brother in law’s house in New Jersey. Uhm. Retu: So, when you settled down in Denton did you join a community of other Indians or did you join a different community? Nallathambi: In Denton we don’t have much Indian community, so we had our local church community where we part––we have active participation and—and my wife used to do lot of voluntary work in the church, so we got involved in the local community as church. Retu: So, do you wish that was different, like do you wish there were more Indians where you lived? Nallathambi: Yeah of course I wish, but fortunately or unfortunately I got a job in Denton, Maryland (laughing), so I––because when I come to the country, I cannot just skip job anywhere as I want because the immigration policy is such, I have to get a sponsorship or an employer to sponsor me to get––‘till I get my green card. So, I had to work for certain companies or a certain employer. Retu: Is there anything you regret about that? Like coming and working for like one company? Nallathambi: Yeah of course I regret because, usually we like to live in a––with our own community, like the Indian community, but unfortunately, I did not get an opportunity to mingle because all I––if I have to mingle, I have to go drive out like one and a half to two hours away, to just to get along with the Indian community that was not possible every time. So yeah, I do regret for coming and �joining in Denton, Maryland (laughing). And I also regret that my wife, uh being a master’s graduate, could not be employed uh to support me (clears throat) for almost ten years she was just doing some volunteer work in the church and helping the local AAR––AARP for the tax returns and all she used to do in the library. Other than that, there was no monetary benefits, which was difficult when a child like Retu was growing up, like she couldn’t do much in a monetary, only my earnings were the only thing, it was tough for us because just we moved from another country, and we have to start from the scratch with one employment we had really a tough time but we just managed. Retu: Do you think if Retu would have grown up with the Indian community that she would have grown up differently? Or like–– Nallathambi: Yeah, of course she would’ve gone different uh ideas and getting along with friends because now she is isolated when she meets any of our Indian friends, where she has to get into the groove to learn more things because whatever we learn at home is different from the community. So yeah, she was really lacking of that kind of uh involvement with the community, yeah. Retu: So, do you want your child to assimilate into American culture, keep your roots, or both? Nallathambi: I like to do both, as Retu is doing from the beginning. My wife also had the same idea of doing both. She put her in different ballet classes and the American dances and also simultaneously she taught the Indian classical dance, Bharatanatyam, which she is also learning and uh, as for the dances, even the culture we like to mingle with other Indian community and the American culture also. So, I prefer to do both for Retu. Retu: So, did you ever visit or like go back to your home country? Nallathambi: Yea the H1B visa its uh—it’s uh, validity of the visa is like six years, so within that six years, the employer has to file for a green card, the permanent residence, so through the employment process. Then in the meantime, once it’s approved �then I could stay longer, so during my fourth year, almost––first, every three years we have—like for six years term, like three years we have to renew our visa, the H1B. So, we have to go outside the country to stamp the visa and come back. So that’s what I did like in 2007, ‘06 I think, April, we had to go out of U.S. to India, to get it stamped for the renewal. So, I filed the renewal from the old company, and I left the country, so the papers were in the immigration for the renewal process. So, once I went to India my––the old boss where I was working for, he withdrew the petition because he ran out of business so unfortunately, he has to–– the business was not going good, so he was rel––he was uh liable to me, like when I come back, he has to give an employment. He was selling—wanted to sell the company so he withdrew the petition which I filed for. That if he would’ve done here, I would’ve gotten another job and got a sponsorship but since I left the country, I––I––there’s no means of coming back because the visa was expired, I was there for the renewal to stamp the new visa on the passport and come back. So, when he withdrew the petition, I––I got stuck. I couldn’t come back, so I had to look for another. Because Retu was studying at the time, she had just uh finished her schooling in April, and we had to come back for the next uh year, beginning like before like from August or something, but we couldn’t come because I was not having a job then I found a job in New York, through one of my friends and I uh got it. So, the immigration process took almost six/ seven months to get it approved. So, finally we came back on 2007, February. We left the country on April 2006 and came back around 2007 February. So almost seven months we were in India, just doing the––getting a job and filing for the immigration. So, it was a tough time for us, because whether we are coming back, we were not aware, we were not sure of it. So finally, we came back in 2007 February. Retu: Does that make you frust––frustrated with like the whole immigration process? Nallathambi: Yeah, of course uh it was uh, too much frustrating because I got a job, but the paperwork took––filing through the—through attorney to the immigration, it took almost seven months to get. Because the employer said it’s okay, I—I have a job, �but to go through the process it almost took seven months to get it approved. Yeah, it’s really frustrating because uh I was not working for seven months, I couldn’t work there or here, so it was tough time for me and my family. Retu: So, do you think you working in New York for that amount of time had an effect on your family? Nallathambi: Yes, of course because I used to come home only on the weekends, I couldn’t do much for the support the family, just only earn. All the things was taken care of by my wife for the daughter like schooling, uh going taking her around for all this community work and things like that. It was tough on me, just being there for the whole week, coming only for the weekend. And also, it took a lot of toll on my wife’s health too. She couldn’t––that’s the reason we lost her. She used to care more for the family and do stuff and don’t––did not care much for her health, and wouldn’t say anything that she had issues, because of the situations. Yeah, I wish uh if the immigration policy was good when we come to the country, we can go anywhere as we want to work. We were lacking on––I was lacking on that. So, I couldn’t come look for loc––another job locally where I could commute every day from home. I––I stayed in New York for the job. That’s the reason like uh, it was tough for us the whole family for almost ten years ‘till we got the green card. Retu: Would you ever want to migrate back to India? Nallathambi: No, not at this point because when we came here uh my wife was––the second reason to come here one was my wife was having breast cancer when Retu was like two years old. And uh she had a mastectomy on her left breast. Then we thought we could do for a better treatment here, so that’s also another reason to come to U.S. Yeah, she was doing good like every year we used to have a thorough check up but uh another time, like around 2013 she had another lumpectomy in her other breast and yeah. It was tough for us like uh whenever these things happen, and finally in 2000––2019, September, she––we lost her. Unfortunately, she had another, the cancer had spread all over her body and it was �so severe and she was under treatment but we never expected this would happen, but unfortunately, we lost her and at this point I don’t think I could migrate back to India, because with all this situation we came across here, we like to live here. Retu: So, if you didn’t have your green card and your like permanent residency um and you were still under H1 visa would you––would it be different like then would you want to migrate back? Nallathambi: Yes, of course because no point in just staying every––working for three, three years extension because it costs more money for the renewal and also its very tough to like with the salaries we have, unless we have a green card or permanent resident, yeah. Retu: So, do you feel you are treated unfairly in America because of your race? Nallathambi: Uh yeah, I feel sometimes because, of course, I’ve been treated differently but indirectly, in other words like uh I did my degree back home, I didn’t do my education here and it all matters here because after I got my green card I was trying to apply to a lot of companies for the same pose what I worked for, but there are lot of vacancies around but you know it all depends, like it’ll come to the final phase of the interview and they’ll drop you off because I don’t have a education here. I did only, like back home, all my educations are––since I didn’t do that’s a––I feel that’s the main point for me to be dropped off, or so I am lacking with that kind of situation, so yeah, I do feel that. Its uh––since I have been come from India it all matters. Uh they say it’s like uh, it’s, what to say, like yeah. I feel the discrimination is still going on. In my case I could really feel it because of the employment. Uh everywhere I go I really been treated that. I don’t know how long, but now I have been in a better place to work. Retu: Other than like getting jobs, have––have you experienced like getting treated unfairly like in everyday life? �Nallathambi: Yeah, everyday life, actually even the job I say, like I—I am from the––I was the project manager in a sign company where I worked, all my years almost 20, 25 years, but now I work for a retail company because I have not been given a job, like what I was, in the local companies where I live around. Retu: That you are qualified for? Nallathambi: Qualified for. I am not getting it so I have to go to another field, start from the scratch, it takes lot of time and effort to come back and start a new job but situation is there, that’s what uh–– Retu: So along with that, um your wife, was she––like her education was it like banking? Nallathambi: No, she was basically an accountant, master’s degree––master’s in accounts but she also, the same way I’ve been treated, like wherever she goes, “Oh you have a beautiful like education,” “You are qualified,” but when it comes to the final thing, they say, “We are sorry,” because it’s all about––it’s kind of a discrimination because they don’t give a job since she has not done her education here. And finally, she ending up getting a job as a bank teller being an accountant so that’s really unfair, but what to do, we have to survive, we have to get a job so she was working there for almost four years. Retu: So, in the future, do you think like things will change and people will not be discriminated against? Nallathambi: Yeah, of course I do believe because it all depends on the immigration policy because once the people come to know about––because nobody’s aware of this kind of situation, locally. Unless if we’re in of course in New York City or Jersey or Washington, Baltimore, you see people coming under H1B on a regular basis, people are aware, but locally, like Denton, Maryland nobody is aware what is H1B. So, unless people come to know what we are, because they think that we are just coming to the country and getting their jobs, it’s not like that. We have been qualified and we are––H1B is a speciality occupation job, so immigration will not �just approve a job, or we come here just like that. They––it goes almost six, seven months for the process. So, they filter all the things and then give an approval. So, when these things come up to the higher level, I think everybody comes to know what we are, and the discrimination automatically goes down and people respect, it’s not a kind of respect, at least we could get along with people freely as the others do. Retu: How did you hold on to your culture or like what have you done to hold on to your culture? Nallathambi: Just doing the basic as we did from the childhood. There’s nothing new for the culture to, we have already been used to it. So, we just came here like ten years back, but only thing we tried to––me and my wife tried to implement all these local, like the culture towards Retu because she was growing as a kid, uh the more thing is we used to take her to a lot of Indian um gatherings and friends and families we move around and also watch the international channels from the––the back home channels to keep her more uh involved in the cultural activities. And also teaching her the cultural dance which she is now doing uh every year recital on that uh dances, so. Retu: So, finally, what do you hope people will gain from your story? Nallathambi: Yeah, the main thing people will come to know is like the process of the legal immigrant and the illegal immigrant. As we know, in America there are so many illegal people coming to this country. And once they get a case filed on their name, and within like three––two to three months they get their all facilities like food stamps, medical, everything is government––okay, of course they pay back when they get a job, but—but legally when people come in, there are so much restrictions. We don’t have any––only thing we get is salary we get paid for the work we do. Apart from that we don’t get any benefits like uh especially for the dependents, even if they are sick or anything, we have to go on our own to get medical facilities and stuff like that. But now, of course things have changed. I’m �talking about like ten years back. It was so tough, we did not have any insurance in the company, we were not given. So, when we come here, we just work and take––and we pay taxes as a regular local Americans do, but—but uh the benefits, we don’t have anything as an immigrant. We’ve gone through a lot. Because with one salary, it was not enough for the whole thing to go. Um it was really tough on us. With my story, I just conclude saying that in future maybe the immigration policy can be more friendly towards the immigrants. Thank you. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Spring 2020 Interviews Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Retu Domnic Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Nallathambi Domnic Location The location of the interview Deton, Caroline County, Maryland, USA Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data doc, MP3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview of Nallathambi Domnic Description An account of the resource This interview between Retu Domnic and NallathambiDomnic goes in depth on what the immigration process was like for Nallathambi Domnic and his family. Nallathambi Domnic is a 52-year-old Indian American who was born in India on September 23, 1967. He then moved to Bahrain in 1991 in order to provide for his family back in India. He met his wife in 1992 back in Bahrain as they were working for the same company. They then had their child in 1999 and migrated to the United States of America in 2003. Nallathambi’s dream was provide the best education for his child and he believed the American school system was the best. He also wanted better job opportunities for his line of work which would be possible in America. This interview was conducted as part of an undergraduate final project for the University of Maryland, College Park course IMMR 400 (Spring 2020). This course was led by Professor Robert Chiles of the Department of History, College of Arts and Humanities, and was sponsored by the Center for Global Migration Studies. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Retu Domnic Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Center for Global Migration Studies Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource April 28, 2020 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The full rights of this oral history interview were given by the interviewee to the University of Maryland, College Park. This interview may be quoted from, published, or broadcast in any medium that the University of Maryland, College Park shall deem appropriate. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF, MP3 Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History Asia assimilation culture family Green Card H1B India jobs race visa https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/16159/archive/files/6829b79f89b459ee9e1010e658e83a7e.png?Expires=1779321600&Signature=DN9jGjLD%7EQ8wJVaqUrSMsognp%7Erec4o7%7ECH0NlN6Red2VhSw-V7l7XfICIm7v8WjU0dUs1Kuf67tyJ99uLgHgm-qdI3Zb7bKKDIfnCG1sUCAdGj2olpWN-34BXrUt7Et88u%7ERdWZ21DsoY99eoHDFvPppJX4Ebf2LzXdWb5xFPAtqnd374pwfU4Yaun88dMfoWcwBuels7rC3B%7EwuUcCsCDbUESSYIkpyAY3FwJWAt2RHy8d1bgtg7RZCIm%7ETLXgteg17XMVY0Dc5zUcyD2pK3efLDjc2SQfaescQyY8cVcny1bZhmzLFjV2OPmGoqKRw--Nmz6XxpFheOPvVRiqqg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 7c1eeaf73a7efd1528441acae023166e https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/16159/archive/files/f7a6274b6a1a29a6ee9ba75e20f34831.mp4?Expires=1779321600&Signature=MQqeSJL-N5e5gC-iQqBvXdugQ3-aUNm2TCU8UIIelJ30oMPH27cWwe1l6LIXucrld8a58MRE4xMzX51VkfqVRxPjws06o-d7bTfM0-epmzsXVIfYdoNJav5yLNwnC2NR3H4BnoAR64%7EfHRWs1ORWoBPAgrjk3JNHzzzTN6TCC%7EpnG2r5FEOs1S58gyvqw-V4m7X9uPftfU5f4bhJHz7sQGDhDpqPK2nsp8F3JjK-9GvUz2NQs8B0lKJoDYPAo31k9iJlFXWW0XWyMFVDBoqHpThQ3tXl2O%7EME0N%7EeIKK5EK6r9k1imhKYn2BNU1jnFjCmhzjcuuyUZijuGsZ00WmQw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM db5e11d1f53b9e3b9cc9506c95f58b8c https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/16159/archive/files/b563224e7cb3596dac001089046ed20e.pdf?Expires=1779321600&Signature=sV-hZUwuy4ju11lmQTDF13E3Psj7KKgyuiZCVxFeAVSY1TcikeITmEtgrBD3yLRvb1VpuAKE9FCOHPeXgP-rSbgoX0em%7Ed0GYbuuky-qvWysvbAF5KpgbiesCbiBONRgBZc5XHRXD2xQEpXEcsxgT4tFd-yrKnHfN-UBdBatixAH1wVUWLHaZl2zwTBkalXF39yeqLAp9eBYsk%7EDqha9XXA0zy1eOZ1tLLWjWvW9BnccBIBpYMOqdtJIWqakpYFhlJlp2eQEpefo3xXAyO2NFmA7IRrwdIYFTzuFaIph7Bjqq-kSYTU-JYGrELJEmVqnapmqGJTqGFJelEgzh8qHOg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM d60fee254a710facb8f85f7633392f03 PDF Text Text Transcript for Oral History Interview Conducted for University of Maryland Course IMMR400 — Spring 2020 Instructor: Dr. Robert Chiles Interviewer’s name: Abel Dereje Interviewee’s name: Tegest Kebede Interviewee’s Country of Origin: Ethiopia Introduction: This is an interview with Tegest Kebede conducted by Abel Dereje. In this interview, Tegest describes living in Ethiopia as a child and her personal experiences with the Derg, the military junta that ruled the country from 1974 to 1991. Tegest also speaks about her education in Ethiopia, the ways that her family helped her move to the United States, and how she learned English. Key Words: Ethiopia, Derg, school, politics, religion, language, family, visa Abel: Hi, I'm Abel Dereje and this is my mother, Tegest Kebede. Tegest: Hi. Abel: Um so, mom, I'm going to be interviewing you on uh your experiences of coming from Ethiopia to America. Tegest: Okay. Abel: Uh, so first of all, what kinds of things did you hear about America growing up? Tegest: Oh yeah, um I heard a lot of good things. Um, so um, my two—my aunt—my aunt’s two daughters and one of her son lived here, and they live a good life. Um I’m seeing picture but, uh you know, it was nice and I really wanted to come here after I finish my school. Abel: Okay. Uh, did you already—oh, well so you already had family in America, uh and did uh they help you out when you were here? Tegest: Yes, they help me. Uh, even to come [to the US] they help me. Abel: Okay. Tegest: Yeah, they pay my ticket, they—they help me with the process to come here. Yeah. �Abel: Okay. Um and were you allowed to practice your religion when you were in Ethiopia without any problems? Tegest: Yes. Abel: Okay. Tegest: But the—the only problem is um we can’t—um, we don’t have to be in trouble like in the politics [tried not to get in trouble for political reasons]. Other than that, all Ethiopian people, most of them, are Christian. We can practice our religion. Abel: Okay. Well, that's good. Ah, well, so um going more about the Derg, did they take away anything from your family while, uh, while you were there? Tegest: Yes, they did. So, um my—my father was uh working. He used to work in the bank. Uh, the—the bank director was, uh, he was—I was a kid, I don’t know what’s going on, but um he was in jail. Because of that, my father was out of the job, and then the Derg took uh my, um, my grandparents’ land, um. And um they took my father's house too because he's out of the job. So, so much—so much change happened to me especially. Abel: Wow. Tegest: Yeah. Abel: Okay um. And uh so when—how was your family doing more like financially when the Derg were around? Like, you know, how were you guys? Tegest: So, um, so what uh—after the—the everything gone, my father lost job and um we were devastated. So, we don’t have any support, and because of all that my dad has left, left the town, and we don’t know where he was. So, we was—my mom was struggling a lot. I was the only kid at the time, and um. So, uh my dad’s family uh was [doing] better. They have uh, you know, they were rich, I mean not rich-rich, but they have that better than my mom, so um my mom asked for help. So, what she can do, maybe if they can help me and my aunt said, you know, “If you don’t mind, uh can she stay with me.” So, she have her own like one—three kids, so I was went there and I was the fourth kid and um it was okay for a moment, but at the time, until I get to middle school, so. It was okay, sometimes I go visit my mom, my mom was always struggling, and in the middle uh she marry—she marry to my, um, my stepdad, so she have—she started another family after that. Abel: Okay. Wow. Um, well, so, when you were uh—while you were growing up and, you know, aside from what the Derg were doing to you, were you witnessing other bad things that were happening to people while you were there? Tegest: Yeah, just so many things happening. Um my aunt, always um she’s like, uh, she’s so afraid and everything, so she was always telling us, “If anybody go to jail, I’m not going to bring �you anything. You’re going to be starving to death and I don’t want any kids to be in trouble in this house!” (Abel laughing sounding shocked) Uh, you know, I don’t know much but—but outside it’s happening, there’s teenager, kids, and this—this like under-twenty-years-old kids they get to jail and they [the Derg] just get to somebody’s house in the middle of the night, grabbing them, put them in jail, and by—by two days, after three days, they kill them. And then it was too much trouble. And then even one time um me and my aunt’s family, all of us, we try—we went to go—it was a holiday, we trying to go out of—out of town. It was like around four o’clock in the morning, and we saw someone is dead on the ground and my aunt get out of the car and start crying and screaming and her husband is like trying to pull her to back to the car. But (sighs) it was traumatize life. And I'll never forget. So, I—I was sick of that. But, I mean, I know it’s passed now. Abel: I'm sorry to hear that. Um, okay. So obviously there was no lack—or there was no um free speech um when you were growing up there. Uh so how did this affect, Ethiopia or, you know, even just people from your experiences? Tegest: Yes. Um, it effect um Ethiopian people still—I think still now. There is [was] no freedom of speech. If someone said something about Derg, about, uh, about anything about the economy, you can’t ask any kind of question, anything, even uh sometimes uh people are jail if you, you know, ask any kind of question in front of police anything. You know, you got to jail yourself. After that, nobody can see you. I don’t know what they do to them sometimes. So, what I remember, um, it was like too much. Abel: Okay. Okay. Um so, on a different note how was your education, you know, while you were growing up when the Derg were there? Uh, would you send us to school in Ethiopia? Your children. Tegest: Uh, no, not at that time, I don’t think there’s nobody to go to Ethiopian school. Um, to know the culture, yes. But to educate, uh even for myself, um I had a poor education, you know? There is no—right now there is computer and everything, but back—back then, no, there is no help. You just someone—you know? It’s not good in general. Abel: Okay. Tegest: It wasn’t good. Abel: So, uh what like there was—how was the teachers, like did they—were they helping you even inside and outside of the classroom? Or, yeah. Tegest: Not outside. But inside, um you know, they’ll just try to teach us. There is uh—uh, you know, well-educated teachers, and then the [other] teacher doesn’t have enough education, and then he can’t even help us. Just they do whatever they want. I mean, (Abel: “Wow”) it was very hard. Abel: So, some are educated and some were not, but they just became teachers. �Tegest: Not really. They just being teacher and then get—get, you know, salary. Abel: Oh wow, okay. Tegest: That's all, they don’t—they’re a not experienced teacher. Abel: And you guys, did you have textbooks and other things like that? Tegest: No, not much there, we don’t. I mean um sometimes—the only thing I remember, we have English book, and then if I have that book, it’s not—I can’t own it. [Books were shared] between maybe two people or three people were allowed to own. Before I eat my lunch, I have to do my homework and then I pass it to the second person. One book for three people, that was English. That's the only book I have, I remember it was English book. The rest [of the classes] is like um no, we just lecture, uh the teacher lecture in the class and then he have to—we don’t have like, example, like biology book, I don’t have biology book. But the teacher have to write it on the chalkboard, it’s like we need to copy through chalkboard. Abel: Okay. Tegest: I mean like a notebook! We need to make notebook! (claps hands for emphasis) Abel: Okay. Tegest: Ourself, yeah. Abel: But was there—did they—you know, was there enough materials like notebooks and things like that or was that even hard to come by? Tegest: No, we don’t have—we don’t have any, uh enough notebook. I mean, notebook to buy notebook to write it down? Abel: Yeah. Tegest: Yeah! We have it. It was a little expensive, but yeah, we have pencil, we have, I remember, there is a small [area to buy] uh stationery. We used to go in and we’d buy exercise book, pencil, and pen. Abel: Okay. Tegest: Yeah. Abel: Interesting. So that means that learning was hard without the textbook, because when you got home you didn't have anything else to continue studying, right? Tegest: No but I have notes anyway. We need to copy the notes and sometimes I understand it, sometimes I don’t. �Abel: Oh, okay. Tegest: Well, we can’t uh go back to the school and ask the teacher, and you know, it—it was very hard. Abel: And there were no tutors, right? Tegest: No tutors. Um, no. Abel: Okay. Tegest: Nobody can tutor you; you have to tutor yourself. Abel: (laughs) Okay, um. All right, uh so, how did you get to America? Um and uh how hard was it to come here from start to finish, in the whole process? Tegest: Okay, um, to come here, uh to start from—from Ethiopia, it was a little bit—very difficult, you know? At the time, it was like age limited. So, um a family friend, um, a family friend asking somebody else [to help me], you know, through—through people, you go through people if you have—if you know somebody. If you don’t, you can’t [do the process]. So, we go through people and finally I got my passport, and after the passport is this process, you have to go here and there, you know, by—by a bus, or you can walk and—but the thing is, um, what I like about that, uh after you get your passport, it’s not really—I didn’t see it very difficult, but it takes time and you have to back and forth. But after that, uh I need to go to American embassy to get visa. And then by the first time when I go, I didn't get the visa. I went—I think I went two times or three times. So, you line up outside and you wait, when you get your turn, they will interview um whatever they feel like. They can see your face and they say no. They deny you. I don’t know the reason, but after that, you know, from what I did, what I did in the beginning, by the end. And um still family help me, you know. Through family member, you know, he had business back home, uh you know? A family member, and because of that he talk to the—the embassy who work here and then, you know? It was very hard, but I made it. Abel: Ha, congratulations. Tegest: Thank God! Abel: Right, thank God. Tegest: Yeah. Abel: Ah, okay. So, when you came here to America, what did you leave behind in Ethiopia and what or who did you intend to bring over someday? �Tegest: So, I, by my father’s side, they're good and, you know, they can—they can take care of themself, but, uh, the part I left there, my—my mom’s side, my mom have, um, my mom have like two children and um. But if I bring them, it would be nice. I have two sister and one brother. But unfortunately, right now my mom is passed away, but if I bring those [siblings] it will be nice. I'll be happy. Abel: Okay. Um so, what was it like getting settled into America? Did you have trouble getting used to the culture when you were first here or for the first few years or anything like that? Tegest: Hmm, not really. Um, what um was trouble me is the language. Abel: Okay. Tegest: So, I have a little difficult to understand. Some of the people speak louder, some of like they speak faster. But, um, I catch up real good, real in a—in a short time. In about a year. And, which—which really help me is um watching TV! Abel: Oh, okay. Tegest: My—my aunt's daughter have a baby, uh and I used to—I use to help them to take care of her. So— Abel: Leila. Tegest: Yeah, her name is Leila. So, it's really help me talking to her, watching TV, watching cartoon. I think that’s—that’s the thing that help me to catch up and understand English quick. Abel: Okay, so you didn't have, uh, like some kind of—nobody gave you a book of English terms or something and said this is what you need to know, like you just picked it up by conversation. Or what did you— Tegest: I pick it up by conversation, (Abel: “Okay”) really. Yeah, conversation and, um, and watching my TV. Abel: Oh, and was that difficult still? Tegest: Yeah, it was difficult. Yeah. Abel: Okay. Tegest: It was. Abel: Okay. Tegest: Not easy, so. �Abel: But you learned anyway. (laughs) Tegest: I learn it anyway. And um by—by that time, it was like, uh I miss Ethiopia, uh I was lonely here. Um even though, uh this—this my family members around, but I missing that [inaudible] back home. Abel: The experience of being with other Ethiopians? Tegest: Uh, yeah. I guess, let me see, it like make me cry for two years? And after that, you know, I felt comfortable here. Abel: Ha, aww. Tegest: I’m the one telling people, “It's okay you'll get used to it. When you get here it’s a little difficult, but you can do it. You will manage to escape this lonely and, you know, uh homesick and everything.” So. Abel: Wow, man. You lived very—you lived very different than I did. Tegest: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you guys are lucky you were born here, liji [child]. Abel: (laughs) We are. Um, and finally, uh do you consider yourself an American or are you really just Ethiopian? Tegest: No, I’m um, I live here long enough. When I came here, I was 24? 20, no—23 or 24. Abel: Only a couple of years older than me. Tegest: Yeah, and I don’t have anything there [in Ethiopia]. I mean, even my children, my oldest son is 22 now. Yeah, I'm considering I’m American. Abel: Okay. Tegest: And I'm proud of it! Abel: Well, congrats on being American. Tegest: Thank you! (both laugh) Abel: All right, thanks mom. Tegest: You’re welcome. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Spring 2020 Interviews Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Abel Dereje Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Tegest Kebede Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data docx, MP4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview of Tegest Kebede Description An account of the resource This is an interview with Tegest Kebede conducted by Abel Dereje. In this interview, Tegest describes living in Ethiopia as a child and her personal experiences with the Derg, the military junta that ruled the country from 1974 to 1991. Tegest also speaks about her education in Ethiopia, the ways that her family helped her move to the United States, and how she learned English. This interview was conducted as part of an undergraduate final project for the University of Maryland, College Park course IMMR 400 (Spring 2020). This course was led by Professor Robert Chiles of the Department of History, College of Arts and Humanities, and was sponsored by the Center for Global Migration Studies. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Abel Dereje Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Center for Global Migration Studies Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Spring 2020 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The full rights of this oral history interview were given by the interviewee to the University of Maryland, College Park. This interview may be quoted from, published, or broadcast in any medium that the University of Maryland, College Park shall deem appropriate. 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For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Spring 2019 Interviews Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Austin Kleber Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed "Monica Geller" Location The location of the interview Silver Spring, Maryland, USA Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data PDF Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview of "Monica Geller" Description An account of the resource This interview between Austin Kleber and "Monica Geller" (pseudonym) explores Monica's experience as an immigrant in the United States. She speaks about the cultural differences she had to navigate as well as the isolation and sadness that accompanied her move into a new country and new community. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Austin Kleber Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Center for Global Migration Studies Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource February 27, 2019 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The full rights of this oral history interview were given by the interviewee to the University of Maryland, College Park. This interview may be quoted from, published, or broadcast in any medium that the University of Maryland, College Park shall deem appropriate. 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For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Spring 2019 Interviews Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Dercem Kaya Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Nico Alvarez Location The location of the interview College Park, Prince George's County, Maryland, United States Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data PDF, MP3, JPG Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview of Nico Alvarez Description An account of the resource This interview between Nico Alvarez and Dercem (Derc) Kaya explores Nico's experiences migrating as a child from Spain the United States. Nico discusses his experiences in school, his observations on cultural differences between Spain and the U.S., his parents' careers (which brought them to the U.S.), and the decision and ability to stay in the U.S. once his family moved back to Spain. This interview was conducted as part of an undergraduate final project for the University of Maryland, College Park course HIST 428M (Spring 2019). This course was led by Professor Anne Rush of the Department of History, College of Arts and Humanities, and was sponsored by the Center for Global Migration Studies. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dercem Kaya Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Center for Global Migration Studies Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 7, 2019 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The full rights of this oral history interview were given by the interviewee to the University of Maryland, College Park. This interview may be quoted from, published, or broadcast in any medium that the University of Maryland, College Park shall deem appropriate. 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For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource African and African Diaspora Immigrant Oral Histories Subject The topic of the resource Description An account of the resource This collection contains oral histories of migrants from Africa and the African Diaspora (drawn largely from the Caribbean, Central America, and South America). In April 2020, the Center for Global Migration Studies, in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture, will hold a symposium entitled “Making African America: Immigration and the Changing Dynamics of Blackness.” The stories in this collection demonstrate some of the key themes of the symposium: transnational ties to homeland countries; the intersectional experience of being an immigrant and black in the United States; and migrants’ influences on U.S. culture, politics, and society. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Center for Global Migration Studies Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF, JPG, MP3, M4A Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Sebastian Luna Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Lambert Aryee Location The location of the interview University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data M4A, PDF, JPG Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview of Lambert Aryee Description An account of the resource This interview between Lambert Aryee and Sebastian Luna explores Lambert's experiences migrating from Ghana to the United States as a child. Lambert discusses the cultural differences, efforts to assimilate, and his blended family structure. This interview was conducted as part of an undergraduate final project for the University of Maryland, College Park course HIST 428M (Spring 2019). This course was led by Professor Anne Rush of the Department of History, College of Arts and Humanities, and was sponsored by the Center for Global Migration Studies. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sebastian Luna Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Center for Global Migration Studies Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1, 2019 Relation A related resource The full rights of this oral history interview were given by the interviewee to the University of Maryland, College Park. This interview may be quoted from, published, or broadcast in any medium that the University of Maryland, College Park shall deem appropriate. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource M4A, PDF, JPG Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History accent Africa American Dream assimilation Central America childhood childhood migration Communication community culture Culture Shock education family reunification Ghana grandparents higher education identity movies Nicaragua Opportunity racism siblings stereotypes teacher technology visa weather https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/16159/archive/files/688c29b754ed323f69d0f1d26d855865.jpg?Expires=1779321600&Signature=nDP8-j43XD59u4o8JRZQX6Q0wc-Gc5sA5B3Tng%7Eqgy5GKBOde6FntL9NQztB0KMIqGW7yEXGrtot8VKnhrWXDrhPKVmXacEy812MXmfUOlv0XSdNsFNPLNiSSE%7EiwmFM9SzqPiluTqLX7Os4tAC3ccm1rAP2rv1U6QwBLRc4e7auBbzmyJ7MjmhjuR9Ih6cDJ-MHuGWqj-3Pwk5-9qa4G%7EQFyHUTniRnVjV4VBz7s8Rm4hFx79hgKtQmWtY531SOq9UoAV9JMtnWCkGxz93-e0NK3ztugxHxA53EtN2P7jmFRUymOZKiCCaY9XU2PZEob8BT-6RJxDNitN8uOK2irA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 304db8a7852e4f4390d69d3fcadee785 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/16159/archive/files/b361d9b32bc59b673ac6f99fde30dff7.pdf?Expires=1779321600&Signature=C6wKtEjv9nvPnpvmfQqIXkirM1QkeSsXKbMBLEJQlYGJNxH02Y47yLam5lY7qMiz4H8hIClZQWvitYKtkyains4RpPg0cuf8-OGzyxyvNMHuVql5CSHQWbTl-AxQ1UiFanbeEqHiksas-JoYb6tGkii6Q3rsX397C7Pd0qbZCrubhwum5SsvqEMY6G1I5J%7EOQdeWUJvB8f5lFzGPlk-zga2xcVwj4fwiYJncSuIXny8GFoUC0l4hrituMleR7HtTlDJwBn9UOmdWTrJYa4rxdvqMEQhIwtW4wX-0U6Um3Zi29TwAwDyp4%7EYz2zHHaSL3rILoDRfISzSUqT44fCEnWA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 391e7ea9aab29d6fa8d1582334f59aa7 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/16159/archive/files/b0519eb4d6481ca2d234f8132ecebeee.mp3?Expires=1779321600&Signature=ag9VrKtyJ4apwFUaaS6gBODfkLXXXMGTDjjayV5tNIJxWArWsFB8-pVZ6izOxb59o8WUf9MUc92LB9G0o5oqGBe9c3OGxHDAfeznZFf1R-F8tA80zxEILmC1NTmtkwNBWbYjQgtdUvWS78eMay%7E8PrO-c3gYu7E0DZ1pAPEOkyh2NT3ojZ9-%7Ebk47A1ZZRSIv2oubUt5F%7E0pc9Y4MTSTTifeIvcNt%7E2bhppcJikES2LmQ8M0uL-zpVHqTLtXsU0XD%7EiqIhF10ncIwnixWEwwsHeAb0bqdCKCkEh2dD35sdj9qvgZrAN9z1klKw1zysioxXd5TcFl51Jld8-z-c007w__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 40006e0e3712f2e8d9c00f12765e63ad Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Spring 2019 Interviews Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Ivonne Gonzales Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Blanca Henriquez Location The location of the interview Silver Spring, Maryland, USA Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data MP3, PDF, JPG Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview of Blanca Henriquez Description An account of the resource This interview between Blanca Henriquez and Ivonne Gonzalez explores Blanca's experiences growing up during the Salvadoran Civil War and how she came to the United States. Blanca and her family were able to immigrate due to her father's work visa. This interview was conducted as part of an undergraduate final project for the University of Maryland, College Park course HIST 428M (Spring 2019). This course was led by Professor Anne Rush of the Department of History, College of Arts and Humanities, and was sponsored by the Center for Global Migration Studies. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ivonne Gonzalez Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Center for Global Migration Studies Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 11, 2019 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The full rights of this oral history interview were given by the interviewee to the University of Maryland, College Park. This interview may be quoted from, published, or broadcast in any medium that the University of Maryland, College Park shall deem appropriate. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MP3, PDF, JPG Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History American Dream Catholicism Central America childhood childhood migration Children civil war culture education El Salvador employment family family reunification gender roles grandparents Green Card higher education immigration process jobs language Language Barrier motherhood religion safety Salvadoran Civil War siblings traditions visa https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/16159/archive/files/4e46ef26f95be3066d3ee52df48ddc71.jpg?Expires=1779321600&Signature=NMAvGtW0mIBHUUn7xxLFVFpJABIW37r5Oe4w0ladXPpPBOl1IdNOHBFH3xdcSm11rNtc5P8YjkDQZv8C1Yt2ya5-xBB1vmIJRh7k%7E3%7E8SpcOtKO1NKVHGrB5sdCzWLnnxAgSOo8dyVWmFjK5mVrUQ911w9DtpnVjOikaa%7E17DxxG4vvgl2xq1ji8ehGJkmK3qreWSR7rWKLQhkR7T5qSGrn2P5sdCcj-dw5tYbKQBsToPg4FU6VTAdytbzYkjnZPbEvf8QF3c4cF6qH4N8XDQLz11a77ljDp4BYzylBDvu-lIEi9bxVwxyL1XImFacqAk42I22BTP0EdXwNeeFWsrw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM d264268db2fba458f4e177840696ac07 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/16159/archive/files/f5b347dfec7f208637de855855d68066.pdf?Expires=1779321600&Signature=BZQkJ6x7%7EoX080d5G563LqgdnMUrCpjRxszmYcqRM5H0eMMaooDskp%7EsEXJlIxfwQx1lFlK1SLo00fsnkwjbILDdt-NO63hmUhwz50FOH3bzBEjb5mAU%7EbzpmvneSU2xkYGT07bs4ynwnhp4CrIwMhZv5713r688PbsGhwG6uuLhipB47PB1Ef3Qy%7ESgE9mOqfUH3E6Ha%7ExlO9WeehKKprsbpq3KdTN45qKdn5BV8o5Nd9fRvfBrnn9fVa5a67r1PTDuEdZadhALtfAP-wkhJXvI6C0QWaOM-UKvH8jibeYjjqYEGf2gsEgtMXQN0U3oB6OZvsdxR4RY2qHc8oWJAQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM c0a904b4a16e33f966a7aaff97139583 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/16159/archive/files/e230250bc2d742052da30ff9535ccda7.mp3?Expires=1779321600&Signature=h4F9zEF8hycShjzWT6u%7E6rJKyAs7YrCiefwVpz9bXRVY4JMmwNkIgD3pcyeksWQQa95Wj1yXcazIM%7EnKz-5I9WYG%7ETSCbyiq%7EkeNuRW6LXleQ0DW3HUIhRvY4Uqf9GNgxYacDBwwQnAGKssfHkowxamkUWoX4NFNAOkEkDHkAzJs2PFXe3sJqeF2wtafCeAt9KfLFWTchiYDurpYmeRJGp4X4Q0iNgF2lflShrRQV5z7MR4p4G6aJv1MkeFxv8Q5p28qmf9clvejKRZ5Y5E9q-G02dFt43FVgB6T5C8d9ss5VmZM%7EfORFCYdLZzZIfFOFFQ8JkIKaQZCqt6JPoMxmQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 1b333211efc54781e560e04a83975ce2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Spring 2019 Interviews Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Nicholas Banai Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed John Zhang Location The location of the interview College Park, Maryland, USA Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data PDF, MP3, JPG Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview of John Zhang Description An account of the resource This interview between Nicholas Banai and John Zhang explores John's experiences as an immigrant to the United States from China. At 18 years old, John traveled from Zhuhai to the University of California, Davis to get his bachelor's degree. Now a graduate student at the University of Maryland, John discusses his conversion to Christianity and the differences between China and the United States. This interview was conducted as part of an undergraduate final project for the University of Maryland, College Park course HIST428M (Spring 2019). This course was led by Professor Anne Rush of the History Department, College of Arts and Humanities, and was sponsored by the Center for Global Migration Studies. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nicholas Banai Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Center for Global Migration Studies Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 6, 2019 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The full rights of this oral history interview were given by the interviewee to the University of Maryland, College Park. This interview may be quoted from, published, or broadcast in any medium that the University of Maryland, College Park shall deem appropriate. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MP3, PDF Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History censorship China Christianity cultural differences Diversity East Asia education engineering ethnicity food Green Card higher education immigration process Language Barrier movies parents politics Protests religion science sponsorship Student Visa US politics visa