Coming to America

When the 11,250 Meskhetian-Turks emigrated to the United States, they were disbursed to communities throughout the country. In 2005-2006, over 100 were resettled in central Vermont, in communities surrounding the state capital of Montpelier, where Russian Life has its publishing offices. 

Gulzada Shaibov was a teenager when her family resettled to Barre, Vermont. In 2008 she graduated from Spaulding High School and soon married Raim Kachaliyev, whose family (including his parents and brothers) had also resettled here. By all appearances just two families have stayed in Central Vermont.

“Almost all the families have moved away, to other states” Gulzada said. “Some have moved because of jobs, some because it is just too expensive to buy a house in Vermont, so they moved to places like Michigan, where it is cheaper.”

Jobs are also hard to come by in Vermont’s economy, but then they are hard to come by for native-born Americans as well. Still, Gulzada and her family have been able to find some part-time work. She trained in cosmetology but works a couple of days a week in a Price Chopper grocery store. Other family members work at a Montpelier hotel. “My father-in-law can’t find a job,” Gulzada said, shushing her crying baby. “He’s not that old or anything, but without English, it’s kind of hard.”

Does the family get nostalgic for Russia or Uzbekistan during the cold Vermont winters? “A bit,” Gulzada admits, saying her mother traveled this winter to visit Gulzada’s sister and uncles, who still live in Krasnodar Krai. 

“But it’s only good to visit for a few weeks,” Gulzada continued, “not to go back to live there. It’s much harder to live there than it was a few years ago.”