Between Two Worlds
These are people who decided to leave everything they knew, and that's already taking some of the strongest people of a society and putting them into your country.
Viktoriya Babenko
Grilled cheese and tomato soup is a familiar all-American comfort food combo you can find at restaurants all over the country. To the shock of her friends, Viktoriya Babenko had never heard of it until her senior year of college. Viktoriya always felt like American traditions and culture went over her head. She never quite felt a visceral “All-American” connection, despite having been raised from the age of three in Los Angeles, California.
Viktoriya’s family emigrated from Ukraine after the fall of the USSR in 1991. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, her grandparents were successful researchers at state-run facilities, and her mother and uncle had an established life in Kyiv, the capital city. The life they had built and the life savings they had in the bank disappeared virtually overnight. Viktoria’s family suddenly faced struggles to find new work, feeling unsafe amid rising crime rates and financial instability. She and her family were selected by the U.S. lottery system and were granted Jewish refugee status.
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Country of Origin: Ukraine
The first few years of getting established in the U.S. came with language barriers, struggles to put food on the table, and a constant workload. But, government aid for refugees and her grandparents' work as babysitters and caregivers helped. Her single mother simultaneously worked and pursued higher education, Together, Viktoriya family worked toward a better life.
Viktoriya's Resident Alien Card
Viktoriya, now a Ph.D. candidate in Cognitive Science at UCSB beams with pride that her mother is now a partner at her accounting firm and her uncle has become a lead engineer at his company. Support from the Jewish Family Service of LA in her early years and welfare coupled with her family’s sheer strength, determination, and willpower has led to a life of success and comfort in the United States. She’s realized what some Americans often overlook about immigrants. “These are people who decided to leave everything they knew, and that's already taking some of the strongest people of a society and putting them into your country,” she says. Despite her success, Viktoriya cannot help but acknowledge that the so-called “equal” opportunity that is supposed to exist in this country, isn’t exactly equal.
Watch Viktoriya’s story below. Click here to read the transcript of Viktoriya's video interview.
