Mila Kunis’ family emigrated to the u.s in the 80’s with only a few hundred dollars to their name. Don’t you need more assets than that? How could Kunis work without being a citizen? And especially, how could they just walk in, being soviet citizens?

12 comments

1. You know googling stuff like this is better than asking on a sub. Very easily googled. They had a visa, google says a religious refugee visa, since they had a visa they could work legally.

2. Many families have done that

3. A friend came to the US with $50. Immigrant groups helped him get started and a place to stay. He started hustling and has done very well now. Big home in Texas.

   A work colleague came from Siberia. Similar story. She’s now pulling in several hundred thousand a year (ten years later).

   My girlfriend is yet another. Came over 20 years ago for work on an H1-B. Worked. Naturalized. And has made a very nice life for herself.

   America is just built around bringing in immigrants. It’s super hard to do. You only hear success because the failures go back home. But it is possible.

4. Apparently not if Mila Kunis’ family was able to do it

5. Political asylum

6. In the 80s I volunteered as an English tutor for refugees from the Soviet Union. The system really hasn’t changed much. Refugees get a loan to get them set up from the government, which they must quickly pay back. Various non-profit agencies assist in that by helping the breadwinners secure employment as soon as possible. It’s assumed that, combined with some formal classes, the workers will soon learn English on the job and move up. In general, these are highly motivated people, so it tends to work.

7. IMO, the truth nobody wants to hear is that you can work your way up.

   I know people always want to throw edge cases in there and that’s fine, because they do exist… but I know of tons of families that immigrated to the US with $0 and started working construction and now own very nice homes. It’s not “easy” by any means but its also not impossible. I think lots of people see such work as “beneath” them though so they never even attempt it.

   You sorta just find a way.

8. > Don’t you need more assets than that?

   No, especially not on a refugee visa.

   > How could Kunis work without being a citizen?

   There are many millions of people with visas that allow them to work who are not citizens yet.

   > And especially, how could they just walk in, being soviet citizens?

   Her family moved in 1991. The Lautenberg Amendment of 1989 made a number of groups of people eligible for automatic refugee status in the US without requirement to prove direct persecution. One of those groups were Jews from the USSR/former USSR. They didn’t need a whole lot more than “Jew” stamped in their Soviet identity documents to be eligible for moving to the US. (Evangelical Christians, Ukrainian Catholics + Ukrainian Orthodox from the USSR were also afforded the same eligibility, as well as some groups from other countries).

9. Asylum

10. She lied about her age, but they let her star in the show anyway because they liked her.

11. They were refugees from the soviet union which means they were granted a Visa. It also means that they had access to governmental aid and numerous charities that help refugees get established in the US.

12. It was much easier to enter the US and get visas back then. The immigration policy used to be a “revolving door” that made it very easy to come to the US for work. You can look up videos and articles on that to better understand, I also highly recommend reading the essay “Tell me how it ends” by Valeria Luiselli.