What about Russians or Latvians in GA? (Atlanta, Alpharetta: crime, neighborhoods)

[kyxapka]

I notice that a lot of people are asking about Hispanic or Asian population in GA.

Some “little worried that the "good ol' boy types" might give them problems”
Since my family don’t fall in any of these categories (Hispanic, Asian or "good ol' boys”) I had to post that question.
What about Russians or Latvians in GA?
While we are not looking for Russian or Latvian communities, we are still curious if they exist in GA. And if they do, then where they are located and how are they treated.

We embraced culture that we became part of and don’t need sings in Russian or Latvian. However we still go to Russian store here in NJ… from time to time… just to buy Black Russian Bread that is imported from Latvia.

I visited Atlanta on multiple business trips and did not have any problems. By the end of the trip I would even pick southern accent, which in combination with Russian accent made me sound like French Canadian speaking in English (my collogues deal with all kind different people around the world, so I assume they would know how French Canadian sounds when he/she speaks in English).

[atlantagreg30127]

I can honestly say that in the 22 years I've lived in the Atlanta area, I have never met anyone living here who was from Russia (or any of the older parts of Russia, etc). Odd when you think about it now, but yep - never have. I'm not aware of any Russian neighborhoods or areas anywhere in the metro area as well, though I could be wrong.

[kyxapka]

Now it becomes interesting – looks like moving to GA can be real adventure for my family.

I had an employee who relocated from outside Pittsburgh. I was the first Russian that he ever met. Well, he also met his first Colombian, Asian and so on.

While he did not really care about Colombians and Asians, he was really curious if Russians want to occupy USA and then blow up the planet Earth, because according to him the only knowledge that his family has, comes from ABC, CNN, Rush Limbaugh or whatever else news agency they watch or listen to (remember, Russians are selling those briefcase type nuclear bombs according to them, I don’t know where, but my guess would be EBay in the Consumer Electronics section).
The guy was really nice, and I was his roll model for some time. At his wedding I was local attraction – he was introducing me to his friends and family like:”…he is real Russian, from Russia!”

Anyway, while I see what Hispanics, Asians, Whites or Blacks are concern about (well, they all have their communities), I don’t really know what I should be concern about at this point since the first reply was:” never met Russian in my life in this area”.
Hmmm… any advice on what I should be concern about if I am thinking on moving in somewhere between Alpharetta, Duluth, Sugar Hill or Buford?

[GPfromMIA]

I guess you'll probably be concerned about the same things that I as a Cuban American am concerned about. I speak English perfectly, been here since 1975. I don't want to live in an all hispanic neighbor, I love and embrace diversity. However, I worry that others do not. I went to school in the USA since kindergarten, have a job, own a home, pay taxes and am a US citizen. But some people just see that I speak spanish & love black beans and rice. So I worry about not being accepted or feeling different. Being from Miami, I've never really felt that. I have lots of faith that people in Georgia will be welcoming. But I still worry. So good luck kyxapka!

[atlantagreg30127]

I don't think there's any reason for "concern" on your part.

One thing you have to remember is that Atlanta is not like any large mega city or even some cities around its own size regarding immigrants and those who have relocated from other countries. We do not have a "Chinatown" or a "Little Italy", or any neighborhoods that are specific to any one nationality, such as you would find in New York, Chicago, or San Francisco. Atlanta is just one huge sprawled out area that goes in all directions, with mixtures of people all over the place.

There are some areas which may have some larger concentrations of certain folks (such as Chamblee having more Asians than some other areas, etc), but you will not find 100% Hispanic, Asian, Russian, Italian, etc neighborhoods here. It's a "car city", where folks are just spread out and drive everywhere, and there's a lack of pedestrian friendly neighborhoods.

The fact that I personally have never met a Russian in the time I've lived here certainly doesn't mean there aren't any here... just that we do not have any specific neighborhoods where you'll tend to run into concentrations of that nationality in one small area.

[jxu66]

My wife met a Russian girl in her class in Lawrenceville last year. Also, there is a story on AJC where a report help his Russian friend on computer in Duluth. Anyway, go to Gwinnett (in particular Duluth area). We are United Nations of Atlanta. I met almost every nationalities you can find.

Just seach on the web for Russian store Duluth. I see a New Odessa store in Peachtree industrial and a Kiev Deli between Pleasant Hill and Club drive.
Also, some European letters (which I cannot translate) store in Norcross.

[kyxapka]

Folks, Thank you for your replies.

The fact that there are some Russian stores and the fact that Russians are not on everyone’s radar tells me that there are some Russians in the area, but they are not really bringing any troubles in any of the neighborhoods.
Well… it’s a positive sign.

atlantagreg30127,
I did not mean to be sarcastic when I quoted you.

GPfromMIA,
You are correct, not everyone accepts diversity.
That is something that is on my mind, and it will be until I become comfortable in the area that I live in.

Actually I like diversity (I guess I have no other choice, since I am part of it), what I don’t like is when some individuals of that ”diversity” cross the line and start to oppress host culture because it’s just convenient not to learn language, history etc.
Suddenly they start to organize communities in order for their language, culture to survive.
Well, this is the laziest excuse that people usually come up with.
We left plenty of people behind in the countries that we came from and while they maybe don’t have skills to build strong economy as in the US, they have enough skills to keep the language and the culture alive. Individual cultures survived up to know, so, I guess this is a pretty strong indication that they will survive in the future.

[kyxapka]

What I mean is that I don’t like when Russians don’t accept culture that they live in.
And it’s not just Russians – Indian, Korean, Hispanic etc.
But I will pick on my own type; otherwise people become insulted and defensive.

I know XXXXs, that don’t know anything about American culture, language or traditions.
They don’t know who Seinfeld is, they don’t know that there were two Roosevelts, they don’t know that the speed limit was lowered to 55 because of Oil Crisis in the 70s and so on.
Frankly there was the time when they tried to learn language, but after they realized that it takes time and effort, they stopped doing it. Now they do shopping in the XXXX store and watch (only) XXXX TV.
One can replace XXXX with the nationality of one’s choice.

So, I do like diversity - I learned a lot about South America, Indians, Koreans etc.
I know Polish girl who married black guy.
I know Lithuanian girl who married guy from Taiwan,
I know Latvian guy who married Korean girl.
I know Latvian girl that married Mexican guy
I know a guy, and his mom is Latvian and his dad is Iranian – very strange combination.
Latvian strictly Lutherans and Iranians are strictly Muslims.
I can continue the list, but those all my friends

However all this people are tolerant of each others culture and accept American culture.
So, they don’t demand everyone to speak their language.

That’s why I mentioned in my previous post that while I like diversity I know that not all accept it. And it can be on ether side. It’s not only when Whites/Blacks/Koreans don’t accept Hispanics, it’s also when Hispanics don’t accept Indians/Russians/Whites or any other combination.

[frosty2]

Hi guys,
I'm so glad to have found this website. I'm planning to move to Atlanta sometime in November of this year. I'm scared and not sure if I'm making the right decision after reading some of the postings on this website. The area I'm looking at is Dacula in Gwinnett county. Can someone get back to me w/inputs on this area (schools, crime rate, etc.)? I want to make sure I'm making the right decision.

[GPfromMIA]

WOW! It seems all of us from S. FLA are moving to Georgia!
Frosty.....where in FLA? I'm moving to Canton, GA (Cherokee County) from Miami. Good luck!