Why so many Russians in Washington [state]?

[Johnny L.A.]

There is a fairly large population of Russian immigrants in NW Washington.

http://faculty.washington.edu/ellism/wa-immigration.pdf

SOURCES OF IMMIGRATION 
TOP TEN SOURCE COUNTRIES FOR SELECT STATES, 1999: 
 
US           %    CA           %    NY         %    WA            %
Mexico     28.54  Mexico     43.28  Dom Rep  12.69  Mexico      23.49 
Philippines 4.49  Philippines 7.95  Mexico    4.89  Philippines 10.52 
Cuba        3.59  El Salvador 4.56  Jamaica   4.73  Russia       9.29  
China       3.21  Vietnam     4.38  Russia    4.49  Canada       8.50 
Vietnam     3.17  China       4.21  China     4.37  Laos         4.78 
India       2.95  Korea       2.76  Italy     3.99  Vietnam      4.08 
El Salvador 2.89  Guatemala   2.69  Guyana    3.69  Ukraine      3.72  
Dom Rep     2.59  India       2.19  Ecuador   3.58  England      3.47 
Korea       2.29  Iran        1.80  Colombia  3.53  Korea        2.64 


WHICH GROUPS DISPROPORTIONATELY  
CONCENTRATE IN SELECT STATES?
 
CONCENTRATION RATIO = %STATEINPOPULATIONUS / %STATEINGROUPIMMIGRANT 
 
FOR GROUPS WITH ONE OR MORE PERCENT OF THE US IMMIGRANT 
POPULATION, 1999  
 
CA         RATIO  FL        RATIO  NY       RATIO  WA         RATIO 
Guatemala   4.32  Cuba      13.78  Dom Rep   9.47  Russia      4.11  
Philippines 4.31  Haiti      8.66  Jamaica   6.31  Canada      2.87 
El Salvador 3.83  Jamaica    5.20  Russia    5.22  Taiwan      1.78 
Mexico      3.69  Colombia   5.04  Italy     5.05  Philippines 1.72 
Taiwan      3.56  England    1.88  Poland    4.17  England     1.43

NOTE: OF THE TOP TEN GROUPS IN WASHINGTON, MEXICANS, KOREANS, AND 
VIETNAMESE ARE UNDERREPRESENTED.  LAOTIANS AND UKRAINIANS ARE 
OVERREPRESENTED IN WA BUT THEIR SHARE OF US IMMIGRANT POPULATION 
IS LESS THAN ONE PERCENT.

I can understand them immigrating to L.A. or New York, but I wonder what attracts them to here?

[jasg]

I don't have a cite at the moment, but I believe that back in the 60's or 70's, there was a Russian group of Evangelical Christians that settled in the NW. That led to more, particularly Pentecostals. Also, I have met a number of Russian software engineers in the area, drawn by MS and the other companies around here. Most were Jewish immigrants from Russia and the republics.

Also, as we all know, there are close ties between Alaska and Seattle and I hear that you can see Russia from there...

[Tom Tildrum]

Living near Washington DC, I interpreted your title to mean the Northwest section of DC.

I was prepared to surmise that that's where their embassy is.

[Colibri]

Originally Posted by Tom Tildrum

Living near Washington DC, I interpreted your title to mean the Northwest section of DC.

I was prepared to surmise that that's where their embassy is.

I edited the title to clarify this.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

[fiddlesticks]

Wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft and related halo companies is a reason for this. Back in the 90s I had a summer job working for a software contracting office in Chicago and one of my jobs was to input their paper resume files into a database and was surprised by the number of Russian immigrants that I came across. And quite a number of them were fantastically overqualified for software drone jobs (physics/chemistry Ph.D.'s, etc.) that the company was looking to fill.

I also had a post-college job interview that required me to fly to Seattle. While I was waiting for my bag I noticed the carousel next to me was unloading bags for an Aeroflot Moscow-Vladivostok-Seattle flight. So I guess Seattle is surprisingly easy to get to from Russia, at least.

[Laggard]

Cause they can see home from there.

[Implicit]

It's no surprise to me since there are established Russian communities throughout Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. There are small towns in Washington where 25% of the population speaks Russian, for instance. There have been Russian settlers on the northwest coast for 200 years, initially fur traders and later Mennonites and other religious groups fleeing persecution.

[Lamar Mundane]

After they rear their heads over Alaska, they land on their feet in Washington.

[robert_columbia]

Originally Posted by Implicit

It's no surprise to me since there are established Russian communities throughout Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. There are small towns in Washington where 25% of the population speaks Russian, for instance. There have been Russian settlers on the northwest coast for 200 years, initially fur traders and later Mennonites and other religious groups fleeing persecution.

Wasn't there Russian Orthodox missionary activity on the West Coast at one point? I know that there were Russians in Alaska (as it was Russian territory at one time), and that they had a missionary campaign that supposedly went down the coast.

[Polycarp]

Originally Posted by Laggard

Cause they can see home from there.

Well, the state university in Pullman, in eastern Washington, is only eight miles from Moscow.

[GreasyJack]

Originally Posted by Implicit

It's no surprise to me since there are established Russian communities throughout Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. There are small towns in Washington where 25% of the population speaks Russian, for instance. There have been Russian settlers on the northwest coast for 200 years, initially fur traders and later Mennonites and other religious groups fleeing persecution.

The Russians never set up settlements much bigger than trading posts in North Americas. The total population of Russian America from Alaska to California was never more than 1000 and almost all went home after the Alaska purchase. The Russian Mennonite immigrants (and large numbers of other Russian immigrants) didn't come until the early 20th century and settled the land as Americans.

[ftg]

One group that settled in Oregon in the 1960s were Old Believers. A sect that split from Russian Orthodox centuries ago. They made their way to the US via a variety of routes thru Turkey, Brazil and even China. Kennedy was big on encouraging them to immigrate.

One of the largest communities was in Woodburn, OR. (The above article even has pics from the Oregon communities.)

Once an ethnic group gets established in an area, others tend to move nearby even if they don't belong to the same sect. This might have lead to the founding/expansion of communities throughout the PNW.

[jasg]

Here is an older article that mentions the Old Believers and how they have hosted later groups of Baptists and Pentecostals from Russia.