Rebuilding home, one story at a time

For Zulfiya Tursunova, migration is not simply movement from one place to another. It is a story carried across generations — through countries, cultures, languages and memories — about what people lose, preserve and how they build a new home.

Zulfiya, associate professor and chair of Peace and Conflict Studies at Guilford College, explored those stories last spring at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s North Carolina Pathways Conference to Strengthen, Serve, and Integrate International Communities.

Her presentation, “Turkestani Immigrant Stories: Informing Services and Community Support in the USA,” grew from research examining Central Asian diaspora journeys to the United States. She drew on interviews and focus groups, primarily with members of the Uzbek community around Charlotte.

The research is personal for Zulfiya.

She grew up in Uzbekistan in the 1970s and came to the United States in the late 1990s for a master’s degree. Her career took her back to Central Asia, through Europe and Canada and eventually to Guilford, where the College’s Quaker values and peace testimonies resonated with her.

“The journey of immigrants and refugees is something that always is personal for me,” Zulfiya says. “And at the same time, so professional because it's intertwined with my teaching and research as well.”

Her presentation traced Central Asian migration through turbulent periods, including the Russian Revolution and Soviet collectivization. Families lost land and livelihoods, and religious practices were restricted. Some fled to Afghanistan. When Soviet forces later entered, some families fled again, eventually resettling in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India and the United States.

For some families, migration was not a single journey but a succession of journeys. That history matters when trying to understand the communities they established here, Zulfiya says.

Her research asks what happens after immigrants arrive — and whether institutions understand their circumstances. She found there is work to do.

Mental health emerged as a concern, particularly for women. Participants emphasized culturally sensitive care, community connections and opportunities to reduce isolation. Hiking and walking groups could build community while supporting mental health.

Legal and immigration services were another priority. Participants described confusion about documentation and immigration status and difficulty finding reliable information. They wanted information sessions in Uzbek.

Other needs included understanding retirement and Social Security, navigating Medicaid and WIC, finding affordable child care and determining how professional credentials earned in Uzbekistan might translate into American careers.

For many women, the lack of guidance about credential evaluation can mean starting their professional lives over. Participants wanted clearer pathways to careers in teaching, nursing, laboratory science and other fields.

One participant summarized the challenge of navigating an unfamiliar system: “If I knew about Social Security, I would have changed my job many years ago!”

The presentation also explored the desire to preserve culture. Participants sought Uzbek-language instruction for children, cultural programming, literature, dance and storytimes. They want children to remain connected to a language and culture that might grow more distant with each generation.

They also envision a permanent community space for gatherings, cultural programming, child care and connection. Long-term hopes include an Uzbek cultural center, community daycare and even an Uzbek restaurant.

For Zulfiya, these are not simply requests for services. They are evidence of a community rebuilding itself.

Her broader scholarship examines how genocide, displacement and migration affect communities and identity — and how people recreate home after losing the one they knew.

“I see myself as a genocide study scholar,” she says, describing her interest in how violence and displacement affect “their identity, their journey, and how overall when they resettle, they recreate their homes from scratch.”

That idea — recreating home — runs through her research. Immigrants and refugees do not leave their histories behind at a border. They carry their languages, traditions, memories and hopes for their children.

For service providers, her message was practical: Learn the community’s history. Understand its culture. Make services accessible in the language people speak. Most importantly, listen before deciding what people need.

For Zulfiya, listening is more than a research method. It recognizes that behind every migration statistic is a family, and behind every family is a story.