As the morning sun peeks over the Blue Ridge Mountains just outside Asheville, North Carolina, a crew of young and middle-aged men skillfully load tools and materials onto a shiny white truck. Chatting quietly in Russian, these men are more thankful than most for a peaceful start to the day – because almost all of them are recent refugees from the war in Ukraine.
“I had my own metal fabrication business in the Donbas region. Everything was great until Russia invaded,” recalls Andrii Korsun, who arrived in the United States in fall 2022 with his wife and three children.
“I was a shipbuilder,” adds Anton Nahornyi, who immigrated in early 2023 with his wife and young daughter. “I was based in Odessa but traveled all over Europe building ocean liners and rescue ships.”
Korsun, Nahornyi, and a handful of their colleagues are among the 450-plus Ukrainian immigrants to the Asheville area who have been assisted by Lutheran Services Carolinas (LSC) since 2022. LSC is a nonprofit organization that serves over 10,000 North and South Carolina residents, including children, families, seniors, and refugees.
LSC’s New Americans Program works with the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and nonprofit partner Global Refuge to help refugees, asylees, and other legal immigrants build productive lives in the United States. All New Americans are carefully screened by international agencies and enter the country with the full blessing of the federal government. Once they arrive in the Carolinas, LSC helps them find homes and jobs, apply for benefits if they qualify, adapt to American culture, and become U.S. citizens.
Partnering for successful careers
Today, Korsun and Nahornyi work for Quartz Transport, a subsidiary of Quartz Properties Management – a national real estate developer that builds attainably priced modular homes. Quartz’s completed communities in Western North Carolina include Padgett Place in Black Mountain and Cascade Ridge in Fairview. Belle Meadow in Asheville is currently in progress, and work on Allison Acres in Waynesville will begin in 2025, with other communities in the works.
As of this writing, Quartz is one of six local employers collaborating with LSC through a new public-private partnership made possible by an $861,000, three-year renewable grant from ORR.
“The Employer Engagement program is open to any employer within a 100-mile radius of our office that hires an ORR-eligible worker,” says Hanna Demarcus, resettlement director for the Asheville New Americans Program. “Employers sign an agreement with LSC, and then their eligible workers enroll in the program. We provide English Language Learning and work skills training to help them integrate into the workforce.”
A win for workers and employers
Local employers often cite the lack of English language proficiency as the largest barrier to advancement for immigrant workers. Around Asheville, LSC has helped legal immigrants from Afghanistan and Ukraine find jobs with construction, manufacturing, hospitality, and retail employers. The Employer Engagement program helps them advance from entry-level positions such as crew member, assembly line worker, dishwasher, and housekeeper to more highly skilled jobs such as supervisor, quality control, front desk receptionist, and CDL driver.
The program is a boon to employers too.
“The construction industry nationwide is understaffed,” says David Roover, Quartz Properties’ chief growth officer. “Our New American employees have been a real boost to our ability to grow our business.”
“It’s been very refreshing building a relationship with LSC and Alla [Kolomiyets, an LSC case manager who works with Quartz’s New Americans],” says Quartz Transport General Manager Jarrett Sullivan. “We’ve hired several Ukrainians full-time. Max Chernous was our first; he is bilingual and advanced quickly. Now he manages our entire team, not just the Ukrainians.”
“Our New American employees are dedicated, hardworking, quick-learning, and reliable,” adds Sullivan. “They really want to succeed and provide for their families. And that benefits us as well.”
With LSC’s help, Quartz has further invested in its New American employees by translating its written and video training curriculum into Russian.
Finding a foothold
Korsun and Nahornyi feel good about their progress and their work with Quartz. They are grateful to the people and organizations who helped them find a foothold.
“I’m working with Americans and I’m becoming an American,” says Korsun. “My family is doing well. My older daughter works at Walmart, my younger daughter graduates high school this year, and my son is still studying. We are very active in our church, and I hope to have my own LLC one day.”
“My daughter just finished second grade, and she already knows English well,” Nahornyi beams. “We had a baby boy last year, and my wife is studying to be a dental assistant. LSC helped my wife’s uncle and aunt become U.S. citizens about 15 years ago, and now they are helping us.”
“Coming to the United States was a big change, but we are really glad we did,” adds Nahornyi. “God gave me one life. I could have spent it on war – and be buried somewhere in Russia right now. I chose to live for my family.”
Photo caption: Andrii Korsun and Anton Nahornyi fled Ukraine with their families after the Russian invasion. They resettled in the Asheville, N.C. area with help from Lutheran Services Carolinas. Today, they have good construction jobs with Quartz Properties Management.