Journeys to freedom

For nearly every immigrant, freedom is America's attraction. A European, an Asian and a Hispanic talk about how they got independence.

By Tony Rehagen ~ Southeast Missourian

Nataliya Agashchuk started her life over at age 39.

It was three years ago that Agashchuk uprooted herself from Odessa, Ukraine, and came to the United States in search of something better. What she's found is a freedom and an opportunity to improve her life she could have only dreamed of in her native land. She's found a family, a career and an identity.

"After 39 years in Ukraine I had nothing," Agashchuk said. "After three years in America, I have everything."

Today, while many native-borns are celebrating what the holiday has come to mean -- fireworks, barbecues and vacations from work -- Agashchuk and many of her fellow immigrants will be focusing on the actual meaning: the birthday of their adopted homeland, a place that has changed their lives.

"It's a day to celebrate a new life," Agashchuk said.

In her former life, Agashchuk was a university professor of mining engineering in Ukraine. But as high-profile as that may sound, she was making barely enough money to survive. And as the disorder of Ukraine's post-Soviet years washed over Agashchuk's university, mysteriously causing the university's payroll to fall through, she found herself without a salary.

After a short time living in Kiev and working in a shop selling porcelain figurines, she decided to follow the example of an old friend from neighboring Moldova who had moved to the United States eight years before to work as an engineer first in Tucson, Ariz., then at TG Missouri in Perryville, Mo. Not long after she joined him in Perryville, they were married.

Agashchuk's education was of little use to her here. Knowing only how to say "good morning" and "good night" in English, she started out working in a Perryville nursing home. Later she became a seamstress at Thorngate Ltd. in Cape Girardeau. Working, she found, was the best school for learning her new language.

Eventually she worked her way up to assistant activity director at Monticello House in Jackson before deciding to change her life again. Last month she opened her own business, a shop called Euro Decor, where she sells porcelain figurines and other items.

"American dream is to have American business," Agashchuk said.

A better system

Fellow immigrant John Cai would agree with that. The owner of the China Palace restaurant in Cape Girardeau brought his wife and son from China to the United States in 1992 in search of freedom from a government system that was oppressive toward its citizens, especially those who wanted to work for themselves.

In China, Cai said private businessmen must navigate a ceaseless line of money-grubbing officials en route to starting their own business. License officials, police and local government officials all are looking for kickbacks at the expense of business owners already struggling to survive, he said.

"In China, you can't be successful," Cai said. "People are hungry. They work to eat and can enjoy nothing in life."

The United States offered Cai and his family a more level footing for building their dreams. In 1996, after years of working as a cook in his cousin's Cape Girardeau Chinese restaurant, Cai took the reins of his own establishment and has enjoyed success ever since. Along the way, he and his family became citizens, a daughter was born, another son adopted and eight of Cai's other family members came over from China to share in the prosperity. They all now work for Cai at the restaurant.

For Cai, the Fourth of July is a time to remember what the 18th century colonists fought to establish here: A nation, he said, that offers freedom for its people and an equal opportunity for justice and liberty.

Immigrant David Berumen thinks many native-born citizens take those American birthrights for granted. Berumen's father came to the United States from Mexico in 1963 as a migrant farm worker. After establishing himself, he brought his wife and 2-year-old David to California to live in this country for good.

Berumen said that many Mexicans still come to America for the same reason his father did 40 years ago: to take advantage of the country's plentiful industry and find better jobs.

"Here there is more opportunity to work," Berumen said. "That means there is also more freedom to chose what type of work you want to do."

Berumen brought his family to Cape Girardeau in 2001 for the better qualityof life and cheaper cost of living. He now works at Kasten Masonry and raises his five children to appreciate the opportunity they'll have because they're U.S. citizens and the struggles and sacrifice their grandparents went through to get them here.

Berumen said he thinks the Fourth of July is a day for him and his fellow Mexican immigrants to look back on what they have accomplished here through hard work and a re-establishment of their culture in another nation.

He said the holiday is also a time to be thankful for the opportunity to enjoy the freedom the United States has to offer. Immigrants, he said, can appreciate this more because their fight for independence and liberty is much more recent than that of the colonists' descendants. He will be spending the Fourth with his family.

Agashchuk will be spending her Fourth of July working, tending the counter at her new store. Her main goal now is to make her American business an American success. But she said she may try to catch some of the fireworks displays going on around the area after hours.

Agashchuk also is set on obtaining her U.S. citizenship in 18 months, when the fifth anniversary of her arrival will make her eligible to apply. It's especially important to her to become a citizen of her adopted homeland.

"I love this country," she said. "It's my home, my future."

trehagen@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137