MINNEAPOLIS, MN – More than 215,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled to the US after escaping Russia’s war against Ukraine, according to the United Citizenship and Immigration Services. Many are leaving friends and family behind, not knowing if they will ever see them again.
Snow covers demolished buildings in kyiv, Ukraine, 9 months after the Russian invasion. For mother and daughter Elizabeth Surzhko and Viktoria Bolotina, snow may be the only thing similar in their new home in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“It has been very difficult in Ukraine in the last month because there is no electricity,” said Bolotina, 21.
The kyiv natives arrived in the United States less than a month ago, leaving their father and husband behind.
RUSSIA’S PUTIN SAYS UKRAINE WAR COULD BE A ‘LONG PROCESS’, INSISTS HE HAS NOT ‘GON MAD’ ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Mother and daughter Elizabeth Surzhko and Viktoria Bolotina came to Minneapolis with their younger sister and daughter Polina. The eldest daughter and mother are looking for work, while Polina attends kindergarten.
(Fox News/Mills Hayes)
“I don’t know if I’ll see him again. I love him very much,” Bolotina said as she fought back tears.
They are among the millions of Ukrainians who fled after Russia invaded the country last February.
“The number one priority for us is to go to work and get a job,” Bolotina said. “Also, I would love to go to university and work and study at the same time.”
Bolotina is currently taking online night classes at a Ukrainian university due to the time difference in Minnesota. Her sister, Polina, is in kindergarten. For now, she helps her mother translate and navigate life in the US.
New York City, Chicago and Seattle have welcomed the most Ukrainian families through I-134 supporters, according to United Citizenship and Immigration Services.
They are both looking for a job like their roommate, Alexandra Chirkova, who owns a beauty salon in Berdyansk and has more than 10 years of experience in cosmetology. In Ukraine, cosmetology is more similar to the American version of a beautician. Chirkova frequently worked with her clients on permanent makeup, lip fillers and other skin care treatments.
“I am looking for that job here, but I know it is very difficult to get a license here, I don’t know how to get it,” Chirkova said.
The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service says the majority of Ukrainian refugees are women and children, which means they also face childcare issues.
“There are often language barriers that prevent Ukrainians from working in their chosen field,” said President and CEO Krish O’mara Vignarajah. “Transportation is a big obstacle. They don’t have access to cars.”
TIME NAMES UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT ZELENSKY ITS 2022 ‘PERSON OF THE YEAR’
Vignarajah says she hopes the administration understands that “these refugees need, not just short-term protection, but long-term support and a permanent path to long-term status.”
US Service Ukraine Director Aswar Rahman helps Ukrainian families come to the United States. He saw the suffering of the Ukrainian people on the news and took a flight in March last year to help. Rahman said his first family arrived at the end of the summer and now they have welcomed 12 families in total since then.
The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service says the majority of Ukrainian refugees are mothers and children.
(Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service)
On April 21, 2022, the US announced a key step in fulfilling President Biden’s commitment to welcome Ukrainians fleeing Russian invasion. Provides a pathway for Ukrainian citizens and their immediate family members outside of the US to come to the country and temporarily stay on a 2-year probation period.
For refugees looking to go to college or get professional certifications they need to continue their previous careers, Rahman isn’t sure if they should invest their time in that or work to earn money, since their stay for now is limited.
“One thing I wish the government would do to allow people to plan for the long term is to make it clear that we do not intend to send anyone back, any of our friends, to places that are not even livable right now. Rahman said, “I hope the government will eventually expand.”
Rahman is now in Poland, due to the dangerous fighting in the Ukraine, to recruit more families. He says the opportunity to address the labor shortage in the US is staggering.
“Minnesota right now has at least 100,000 job openings and we’re a state of 5 million people,” Rahman said. “We have such a need for people to come [to] our public schools, and I’m sure our private schools too. We all need students. We are all suffering. We all need new members of the community.”
The group American Service in Ukraine says they are looking for volunteers in the Minneapolis area to pick up refugees from the airport, help them find housing and help them get jobs.
(Fox News/Mills Hayes)
UKRAINE’S STRATEGY TO FIGHT PUTIN’S WINTER OFFENSIVE: “WE NEED TO WIN THIS WAR AS SOON AS POSSIBLE”
Tent Partnership for Refugees works with the business community to put refugees to work. In September, they hosted a US business summit where 45 of the leading US brands, including Amazon, Hilton, Pfizer and PepsiCo, pledged to collectively hire more than 22,000 refugees in the US. .for the next three years.
Yaron Schwartz is Associate Director of Global Partnerships and US Lead at Tent. He says there are business benefits to hiring refugees according to a study by the Tax Policy Institute.
CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“Most employers reported that refugees have lower turnover rates than the average employee,” Schwartz said. “American consumers were actually more likely to buy a product from a company that had agreed to hire refugees.”
Fox reached out to Minnesota US Representative Ilhan Omar and Senator Amy Klobuchar on Monday about the government extending the time Ukrainians can stay in the United States and have not heard back.
