Work

As with many immigrant-learners we have studied, before coming to the U.S., Larissa had a work position of some note. Larissa worked as an engineer and supervisor in the steel production industry in Siberia for 16 years. This information was disclosed in the classroom because Larissa was a very quiet student and the teacher selected her to tell her work history to the class so that her peers would have a chance to know her past accomplishments. In the following 12-minute video excerpt, we get a detailed picture of her work and see how the students around her become intrigued by her story (Click to View) (Requires Internet Explorer).

Since arriving in the U.S., she hasn't worked outside the home although in her first interview she identified her work status as "unemployed and looking for work" a fact which she also had mentioned to a classmate a couple months before (Click to View) (Requires Internet Explorer). In the subsequent interviews, Larissa reported that she was unemployed and not looking for work.

Changing Priorities

In her last interview from early 2006, Larissa revealed how priorities and one's views on work change when one is put into a situation where there are few choices, saying that if she had to, she could work and do anything.

While upon arrival, she thought she would work outside the home, she doesn't. She does, however, seem content with her role as a homemaker, although it took her a while to adjust to it. The shift in her worker identity seems to be at odds with the expectations of her peers back home telling us that she had to explain her "stay-at-home" status to friends in Russia.