Liana Avetisian and most of her family fled Ukraine in 2023 and have built a new life in the U.S., resettling in DeWitt, Iowa, which calls itself the Crossroads to Opportunity.
The town has been just that for more than 75 Ukrainians, welcomed by people like Angela Boelens, who has helped many of the refugees with housing and jobs, at first on her own and then through an organization she helped found called Iowa Nice.
“I get a phone call every week from employers saying, ‘Do you have anybody from Ukraine who needs a job?’ Because we have a workforce shortage in Iowa and our population is declining,” Boelens told CBS News.
Back in Kiev, Avetisian sold real estate. In the U.S., she took a job at a window replacement company, a field where she had no previous experience.
“To find people that want to work and take pride in their work to our standards is not easy,” said Sam Heer, who hired Avetisian. “I want more Ukrainians.”
Heer employed Avetisian, her husband and her cousin before their two-year work permits expired. As the war in Ukraine continues, most European countries are renewing work permits of Ukrainian refugees. The Trump administration has not, pausing all immigration applications filed by migrants from Latin America and Ukraine earlier this year.
Heer told CBS News he voted for President Trump in the 2024 election. When asked what he would tell the president or his administration about the Ukrainian refugees, Heer said, “These people are hard to come by. They’ve been through upheaval just to get here and then, all of a sudden, what they thought they were building toward is shaken. When people do the right things and follow the rules, they should be rewarded.”
But for Avetisian and her teenage daughter, the opportunity in Dewitt could be slipping away.
“They were promised to stay until it’s safe to return. It’s not safe to return. It’s not even close,” Boelens said. “And when we make a promise to people, I feel we keep it.”
Boelens says many more work permits are about to expire, leaving Ukrainian refugees in limbo. They may not be forced to leave. But without a job, they can’t afford to stay.
“It’s not safe to go back to Kiev,” Avetisian said when asked if she would return home. “Every day, every night, it’s bombing,” she said, noting that her mother, who is still in Ukraine, sends her videos of the attacks.
After enduring the pain of leaving everything behind, refugees like Avetisian just hope to stay rooted in the American heartland they now call home.
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