The Immigrant Dilemma

By Volodymyr Kish

As most of you undoubtedly know, Ukrainians in Canada this year will be celebrating the 120^th Anniversary of the arrival of the first Ukrainian immigrants to this country.  When one considers what those immigrants and their descendants have accomplished, there is indeed much that is worth celebrating. There is virtually no sector of the Canadian reality that has not been significantly enhanced by the efforts of Ukrainian Canadians.  For them, immigration has been an unquestioned success story that has more than vindicated the individual decisions of all those “men in sheepskin coats” who came to this distant land of hope and promise

Immigration, however, is a two-sided phenomenon.  Canada’s gain was also Ukraine’s loss.  The talent, energy, creativity and passion that contributed so much to Canada’s growth and development, could have been, under different circumstances, directed towards building a strong and successful Ukraine.  It might be argued that there was no real choice for those who came under the three initial waves of immigration. 

During the first wave, between 1891 and 1914, Ukraine did not even exist as a country.  Faced with a feudal economic system, ethnic persecution and little hope that the future would be any better, those early immigrants decided to stake their fate on a different country, one that at least promised a real opportunity for them and their children,  The next two waves that occurred between the two World Wars and in the immediate aftermath of the second, were essentially refugee driven - large numbers of people forced to leave their homeland by war and a dictatorial Communist system that promised only death and suffering.

The most recent wave though, known within the Ukrainian community as the Fourth Wave, is a creature of different nature altogether.  This consists of Ukrainians who have arrived in the past two decades in the time since Ukraine has become an independent country.  It consists largely of better educated and middle class Ukrainians who have in effect invoked a vote of non-confidence in their country.  They have assessed the political, social and economic possibilities of the newly independent Ukraine and found it wanting.  They obviously have no confidence in the country’s immediate future, and would prefer to pursue their dreams and aspirations in Canada.  Of course, they have every right to do so, and the rest of us who are the end products of earlier waves have no right to judge otherwise.

The real loser in all this of course, is the Ukrainian State.  For over 120 years, Ukrainians have been leaving Ukraine and coming to Canada.  Their accomplishments here testify to the lost potential and opportunity that Ukraine has suffered through fate, circumstance and bad politics.

Particularly over the last two decades, Ukraine, though free and independent, has failed to persuade many of its best and brightest to stay and help build a better future.  There has been no better opportunity in centuries for Ukraine to finally succeed as a nation state in its own right, and regrettably, Ukrainians as a whole appear to be wasting the opportunity, frittering away a golden possibility with a morass of fratricidal dissension, ignominious corruption, juvenile infighting and incredible short-sightedness.

Soon, a delegation of Ukrainian parliamentarians will be arriving in Canada to help celebrate the 120^th anniversary of Ukrainian immigration mentioned earlier.  They will be retracing the path of the original pioneers, starting from the docks in Halifax and ending on the Canadian Prairies.  They will learn of the trials and tribulations suffered by our forefathers here in this land, as well as the eventual success and triumph of the spirit that characterizes the history of Ukrainians in Canada.

In the process, I hope they pause and reflect upon what could have been, had that effort and spirit been applied back in the original homeland.  I hope that they come to realize that their efforts or lack thereof continues to prod even more Ukrainians to leave their homeland today and come to places like Canada.  I hope that they take a good hard look at the democracy, freedom, free enterprise and respect for human rights that we have here in Canada, and that they take it as the role model for what they should be doing back at home.  If they applied themselves to doing at home what Ukrainians have done here in Canada, perhaps, fewer Ukrainians would be tempted to become immigrants.