My name is Orzumurod Nasimov and this is my story of my life in New York. I left my native country Uzbekistan and arrived in NY in January 18th,2009. I was quite young at that time, therefore I wasn’t able to perceive how different New York was compared to Uzbekistan, Samarkand other than the glaringly obvious fact that I was living in an apartment rather than a house. Also the fact that it was extremely hard to communicate with other people when I couldn’t speak a word of English. As I got older, I started to notice how the families in Samarkand,Uzbekistan was so different compared to the families in New York. Most of the families in my native country live in extended families which includes but not limited to grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and etc. The houses we used to live in was huge and plenty of space for an extended family. In our culture it is the youngest son’s duty to keep living on with the parents while the daughter’s duty is to be married off to another family. As the youngest son, they are to provide for the family and take care of the parents until the end of the day. But it is completely different in New York, because most of the people I am friends with either live alone or live with a girlfriend/fiance/wife. While in my country it is forbidden for a man to live together with a woman until the marriage and it has not changed even to this day. 

– Orzumurod Nasimov

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant