Liliya Mayevsky: Her parents brought her to the U.S. to live in a country free of persecution
This entry is part [part not set] of 13 in the series The Immigrants Among Us [http://manchester.local/inklink-series/the-immigrants-among-us/] 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 grandmothe
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.”
