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The global financial crisis influenced American Azerbaijanis

10 November 2009 12:38 (UTC +04:00)

Washington. Isabel Levine â€“ APA. The Global financial crisis which started last fall has influenced a number of world leading countries, including United States. Numerous Azerbaijanis who are residing in US, say they felt the crises on their own pockets, APA correspondent reports from Washington. Speaking to APA, Arif Mammadov says he was with a tourism company until the end of 2008. His salary was quite enough for his family, and he could even send some money to his siblings back in Azerbaijan. The main thing is that the US economy seemed perspective for any professional specialist, and â€œso, future looked like a miracleâ€. â€œCrisis broke out and the people had to decrease their expenses, they could no more travel of preferred travel within the country so that they donâ€™t lose money. And as a result the tourism sector suffered â€“ I lost a jobâ€, says Arif.
Another American Azerbaijani Vusal Mamadguliyev who used to deal with trade at Pentagon City Mall near Washington DC says: â€œThe influence of the crisis on trade is huge. I am a simple sales person but the company I work for lost a lot of money. It used to be much better before, I could even support my family in Azerbaijan, but now, I canâ€™tâ€.
Another sphere under financial crisis influence Bank and Finance. Before the financial crisis Ismail Afandiyev used to work for Bank of America. He says he came to the US many years ago on an exchange program.
Ismayil says that after the crisis broke out, many employees of this bank lost their jobs. â€œThe bank itself was almost close to fiasco. Even if the US government interfered and rescued the bank, many positions were cut. Now Afandiyev is on government unemployment benefits, as he still couldnâ€™t find a job in the finance sector â€“ too many banks are in deep crisisâ€.
On the whole, Azerbaijanis complain that their income has decreased to 50 percent, and in many cases they canâ€™t find a professional job â€“many ends up working for restaurants and department stores.
Gultakin Hagverdiyeva, a former luxury apartments leasing office agent ended up working as a cook in a local bistro: â€œI canâ€™t find money even to buy ticket to Azerbaijanâ€, she complains. She is really sad she lost her job at the leasing office.
According to local analysts, the last yearâ€™s situation becomes a reason to leave for many migrants, including Azerbaijanis. "Those who have US citizenship or a green card, stay, others leaveâ€, says Ismail Afandiyev. â€œBefore that many students who came on exchange programs stayed in the US because they could find a job. But now most of them are unsuccessful in their search and go back homeâ€.
The US officials say the worst part of the financial crisis has come to an end and a big growth started. Unfortunately it didnâ€™t influence the employment market -the unemployment level in the US is 10.2%.