- Immigrants Among Us: Why they come to America
- Video: Conversations about becoming and being an immigrant in New Hampshire
- Liliya Mayevsky: Her parents brought her to the U.S. to live in a country free of persecution
- Sebastian Fuentes: ‘The dream of coming to America is definitely a hard one that few people can achieve’
- Glory Wabe: Proudest of her contributions to nursing in New Hampshire
- Geshe Gendun Gyatso-Konchuck: ‘People should see a wider perspective of other countries and other people’
- Ekoue Abroussa: ‘The people who are giving education, they are the best people in New Hampshire’
- Ali Sekou: ‘If you want to change things then be the ambassador of that change’
- Snizhana Riabko: ‘We are very happy that we have been welcomed like this’
- Maria Elena Letona: ‘I’m actually very scared for the United States as a country’
- Caroline Oguda: A lot of immigrants come because they are forced by circumstances
- Kateryna Nazaroya: ‘We are very thankful for everything’
- Sarah Walker: ‘We are good people’
Country of origin: UKRAINE
Liliya Mayevsky came to the U.S. with her family as refugees in 1996, when she was 18. She arrived with her parents, two older brothers, and her grandmother. Her grandmother’s lifelong dream was to live in a free country.
Her parents feared the communist regime and wanted to provide a better future for their children. They were not Communist Party members, which excluded them from opportunity. They faced persecution because of their religious beliefs and they wanted their children to have education and opportunities not available to them.
She is a caseworker for Building Community for New Hampshire (BCNH), which works with the state’s Ukrainian community. She and one other staff member handle about a 200-person caseload of Ukrainian refugees in the state.
She is the mother of three – two high school twins, and one daughter at Saint Anselm College. Her parents are retired now and her grandmother died two years ago at the age of 92, having lived for over 25 years in a free country.
Her message to New Hampshire’s people is:
“When immigrants come here, they all want to get a job because a job will provide them more than benefits from the state. So everybody wants to get the job and they want to get an education. So I would say 90%, they’re not takers.They’re just givers. They pay taxes. They even, for the first job, they will take a job that Americans don’t want. They will take hard jobs. So they’re not takers, they add to America.”