Starting just over two decades ago, tens of thousands of citizens started
leaving Mongolia amid a wrenching economic transition from a planned-economy to
a free market. Now, with the Mongolian economy poised to boom, many émigrés are
wrestling with a dilemma – whether or not to abandon the new country for the
old?

According to 2010 figures from the National Statistical Office in
Ulaanbaatar, over 100,000 Mongolians live abroad. That number’s significance is
magnified when considering the country’s overall population is estimated to be
3.17 million.

The most recent US Census figures place the number of Mongolians in the
United States at around 15,000, a 300 percent increase from a decade ago. Los
Angeles has perhaps the largest Mongolian community in the country, roughly
5,000.

Mongolians abroad can’t help but keep a close eye on what’s going on at
home. The economic news of late has been eye-popping: some mining experts
estimate that the country possesses as much as $1 trillion-worth
of untapped precious metals and minerals. Gerelt Tserenjigmid came to Los
Angeles one year ago to work on a doctorate at Cal Tech. He says that
compatriots that he knows in the United States are both excited and conflicted
by developments back home. It used to be that many Mongolians perceived a
student visa as a one-way ticket to the United States or elsewhere. But such
assumptions are changing. “Now that Mongolia has the second fastest growing
economy, people are deciding whether they should go back home or not,” he said.

While the possibilities may be greater in America, many find the immigrant
path to prosperity to be a difficult one. Gerelt said his preference was to
secure a job in the Southern California after he completes his studies. At the
same time, he has noticed that many Mongolians who arrived in the United States
with advanced university degrees have had difficulties finding jobs. And when
they did find employment, it was often in the service sector, leaving them
unable to take advantage of their professional qualifications.

A 2005 study on the “Status and Consequences of Mongolian Citizens Working
Abroad” that surveyed over 100 migrants from Los Angeles, Denver and San
Francisco found that although many had extensive educational backgrounds and
professional qualifications, most were in “low-status occupations” due to a
lack of legal documentation and other factors.

The economic pull of returning home is even working on Mongolians who are
already relatively settled in the United States. One of those feeling the tug
is Zula Damdin, an accountant who emigrated 12 years ago, and who is president
of the Los Angeles Mongolian Association. “I think there are more opportunities
in Mongolia than the United States,” said Damdin, who visited Mongolia earlier
this summer to show non-Mongolian friends around. “A lot of people have gone
back; you can have a better career in Mongolia.”

Rosie Erdenebileg who came to Los Angeles as a teenager six years ago and is
now an undergraduate majoring in biology at the University of California,
Riverside, expressed excitement over the chance to spend some time this summer
back in Mongolia visiting relatives. Prior to her departure, she indicated that
she would also use the trip as a fact-finding mission, weighing whether it
would be worthwhile to move back to her homeland after graduating from college.
“I”m excited to see how it has changed,” she said.

Although sizable by Mongolian standards, the émigré community in Los Angeles
isn’t large enough to support an infrastructure, such as specialized food
stores and restaurants, that can help bridge the gap between old world and new.
Efforts to secure official recognition by the Los Angeles City Council of a
“Little Mongolia” neighborhood in the city have not succeeded so far.

Those determined to build new lives in Los Angeles are attempting to bolster
the sense of a Mongolian community anyway they can. In addition to the
Mongolian Association, established in 2006 to help promote Mongolian culture
and heritage, there”s a Mongolian school, a Christian church founded by a
former Korean missionary to Mongolia and a Buddhist temple.

Norovsambuu Dorjsuren, the director of the American-Mongolian Buddhist
Association, estimates that 80 percent of the city”s Mongolian population is
Buddhist, adding that the temple has experienced steady growth in the number of
worshipers in recent years.

This year, community leaders organized a Naadam festival, which is the
biggest event on the Mongolian calendar. The celebration featured wrestling
competitions, traditional music and Mongolian food, including Khuushuur, fried
meat dumplings. Byambajav Ulambayar, a Mongolian sumo wrestler who now makes
his home in Los Angeles, was a headliner at the festival.

No matter what community leaders are doing to make immigrants in Los Angeles
feel closer to their homeland, though, Mongolia is looking more and more
appealing. “People go to school, finish their degrees and just go back home,”
says Maya Dovdon, a volunteer at the Mongolian School in Los Angeles. “They
don”t stay here for long.”

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