Voice of the Mid-Columbia | Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Wash. |
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closeFriday, Jun. 26, 2009
Religious refugees return from Russia
By Joe Chapman, Herald staff writer
KENNEWICK -- A big family was complete again Thursday when Alexander, Galina, Inna, Yevgeniya, Kristina and Alexander Jr. returned from nearly two years in exile and rejoined their Korotkov clan in Kennewick.
About 60 members of the family gathered at the Tri-Cities Airport to welcome them back after they got off their flight from Denver shortly after 1 p.m. Some of the relatives greeted them with signs proclaiming, "Welcome home to America," others held aloft red, white and blue balloons, and still others presented them with flowers.
Alex's uncle, Fiodor Korotkov, a minister at Ark of Salvation Church in Kennewick, broke out a mandolin and strummed it a little in the waiting area just outside the security checkpoint.
Everyone had a hug for the weary travelers.
Inna Korotkov, 16, seemed to sum up the family's sentiment when she said, "It feels good to be back in the Tri-Cities. I feel like an American patriot."
Alex, 39, Galina, 37, and their children spent most of the past 21 months in Russia, but they recently were granted asylum in America because of the religious persecution they faced there as Pentecostals.
They had lived in the United States for about 10 years but left in September 2007 to comply with an immigration order after it had been discovered their original petition for asylum had never been processed.
They left behind a large extended family including Alex's seven brothers, four of his five sisters, his parents, Galina's mother and sister, and many brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law and nieces and nephews.
Except for Alex and Galina, all of the others who had come over from Russia in the 1990s had been granted asylum back then, and many have received their American citizenship.
The last night before the exiled members left 21 months ago, the entire family gathered inside the Kennewick home of Alex's parents, Yuriy and Liza Korotkov. The relatives sang songs, prayed and hugged each other before saying their tearful goodbyes and a caravan left to cross the mountains to Seattle.
"You know, when I left, I thought we would never come back to here," Alexander said Thursday. "I don't know about my wife, but I thought myself we would never come back. It was very difficult getting permission to stay here."
Once in Russia, Galina reapplied for asylum in the United States as religious refugees, even as the family struggled to stay afloat there. With old passports issued by the former Soviet Union, they struggled to get official documents to buy property, get sound jobs and enroll their children in school.
They moved five times within one year. Alexander spent some time working as a truck driver in Germany while Galina stayed with the children in Russia. Another time, she worked in Poland while he stayed with the children. They spent five months in Sweden, where they found the most solace during their time away.
It was hard being there, Inna recalled.
"The whole culture and the way everything is just different. And the language, we didn't really know it. So we just felt like white crows," she said, initially mispronouncing crows to rhyme with cows.
"Sorry, my English went very bad in two years," she said.
Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, denied the family's initial request for refugee status in May 2008. So they submitted a request for reconsideration.
Immigration attorney Amy Bliss Tenney and her staff at World Relief headquarters in Baltimore helped the family file the request, and in March, they received word that it had been approved. It took several more months for their return to be processed, and Scott Michael, director of the World Relief office in Richland, cautioned that nothing was assured until the family actually set foot back in the country.
But on Thursday, all the tears and worries of the past were replaced with smiles. From the airport in Pasco, the Korotkovs converged once again at Yuriy and Liza's home.
A canopy set up in the backyard provided shade as Alexander and Galina sat at tables and chatted with loved ones they hadn't seen in so long. Nearby, young people passed a football and jumped on a trampoline while women prepared food inside.
Soon, the family shared a meal of smoked salmon, soups, salads and other items, including a traditional plate called manty, a Kyrgyzstani pastry.
Four of Alexander's brothers and one of his nephews huddled around him, asking him about their experiences abroad. In the countries he had seen, how were the economies? What were the overall environments like? Which one would be the easiest place to live?
Galina told her sister, mother and mother-in-law about losing weight from all the stress.
But no one seemed to dwell on hard feelings that Alex and Galina had to leave in the first place.
"Nobody's mad at the government," said Viktor Korotkov, one of Alex's younger brothers. "Actually, we're happy about the government bringing them back.
"America works with people. If people do right things, they work with them."
Alex, Galina and their children initially will stay with her sister, Yelena Zhukova, and her husband Andrey, who have extra room at their home. Alex will see about getting the same truck driving job he had before they left.
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