Migration and Adaptation- Challenges for Young Moldavians in Brooklyn

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Introduction

Moldova is a small, landlocked country located in the Eastern Europe with an estimated population of 3.5 Million people. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, it has faced a series of economic, political, and social struggles that prevented it from attaining higher levels of development and economic growth. The economic instability and the poor governance have forced approximately 17% of economically active population to migrate to other countries for a better life, either temporarily or permanently (MPC, 2013). According to the Moldovan Bureau of Statistics, in 2010, the number of people who moved to United States permanently amounted for 523 people of which one fourth are young people under the age of 25 (2010).
United States has initiated a program called US Summer Work and Travel for youth that allows post-secondary school students to work and travel in United States for the summer term. The students usually work at hotels, resorts and amusement parks where they earn money and in the meantime, learn about the American culture, improve their English skills, and finally get to explore cities in the United States. The majority of Moldovan students who travel at least once to the United States view the life in this country as a very tempting perspective determining some of them to stay in the United States after their visas expire as undocumented illegal immigrants.
In a traditional society like Moldova, the predominance of various cultural elements poses many challenges to migrants in adapting to life abroad. The cultural elements will be explored in this paper to reveal the challenges migrants face when settling in United States. The focus of analysis will center on challenges and adaptive strategies as de...

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