Our Home and Adopted Land

By Volodymyr Kish

 
The Ukrainian diaspora scattered around the world is said to number somewhere between twelve and fifteen million people.  Accurate statistics are hard to come by, since not all of this diaspora enjoys official status within the countries they are living in, while even in those where they are officially citizens, many choose for reasons of self-preservation to assimilate into the dominant culture and not identify themselves as Ukrainians.  It is an unfortunate reality that few countries have demonstrated the acceptance and provided the opportunities for immigrant Ukrainians that Canada has.

For me, Canada Day on July 1 was an appropriate time to reflect on the experience of those hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who immigrated to Canada over the past 120 years and contrast that to what less fortunate Ukrainians have had to face in other adopted lands.

As we all know, the Ukrainian experience in Canada has not been without its trials and tribulations.  For at least the first half of those 120 years, Canada was at best a reluctant host with little understanding of the historical and cultural background of these men, women and children “in sheepskin coats.”  The blatant exploitation of those first immigrants in the Prairies and the unconscionable imposition of internment camps during World War I testify to the harsh conditions that those immigrants faced.  Nonetheless, as Ukrainians adapted and prospered in their newly adopted land, Canadian perceptions and appreciation of the Ukrainians in their midst changed for the positive.  Multiculturalism is now deeply imbedded in the Canadian ethos, and this has created an environment for Ukrainian Canadians to preserve their cultural identity while becoming an important contributor to the economic, political and cultural development of their adopted country.

We only have to look at the experiences of Ukrainians in other lands to appreciate how fortunate we are to be living in Canada.  A prime counter example is Russia.  It is estimated that there are some four to five million Ukrainians living in Russia.  A significant proportion of these are the remnants of the countless millions who were exiled or incarcerated in the gulags of Siberia during Soviet times.  Millions more went to Russia to seek employment in the vast natural resource industries that Russia is blessed with.  Whatever the case, they continue to suffer from deeply imbedded Russian prejudice and chauvinism against Ukrainians.  They are viewed as “little brothers” or inferiors, and treated with disdain.  Ukrainian organizations in Russia are actively persecuted by government authorities.  Ukrainian language and culture is actively discouraged in all its forms. The few Ukrainian schools, libraries and cultural organizations that manage to survive face both official and unofficial state-sanctioned harassment.  The message is plain – assimilate into the Russian “Mir” or suffer.

Ukrainians in Poland have fared little better. Following World War II, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians living in Poland were forcibly repatriated back to the Soviet Union.  Operation Wisla (Vistula) scattered another 140,000 Ukrainians to northern and western Poland where they were subjected to strong assimilationist policies.  In the aftermath of Poland breaking free of the Iron Curtain, a large number of the remaining Ukrainians in Poland immigrated to Canada and the U.S., leaving only somewhere between thirty to fifty thousand Ukrainians still living in Poland.  Although recent Polish governments have become more liberal and sympathetic in their treatment of the Ukrainian minority, much of the Polish population still harbours antagonism and resentment against Ukrainians due to the deep-rooted historical conflicts between the two nations.

Brazil and Argentina have also seen large numbers of Ukrainian immigrants over the past century, and their fate has been considerably more difficult than the Canadian experience. It is estimated that there are some 500,000 Ukrainians living in Brazil and a somewhat smaller number in Argentina.  Whereas in Canada, Ukrainians have prospered economically and have attained parity with other Canadians, in South America, Ukrainians have mostly remained stuck in the lower economic classes.  In Brazil, they are concentrated largely in the State of Parana in Southern Brazil, where they are mostly engaged in agriculture in fairly rural conditions.  Culturally and organizationally, they are much less developed than their North American counterparts, and have made minimal impact on the political and economic life of Brazil.  Ukrainians in Argentina have fared little better, reflecting the economic and political turmoil that Argentina has been in for most of the past century.  In addition, because Ukrainians in Argentina have been more geographically dispersed than in Brazil, the forces of assimilation have all but eliminated the Ukrainian language from common use within the community.

A more contemporary immigration phenomenon is that, over the past several decades, there have been large numbers of young Ukrainians leaving their country and seeking employment throughout the countries of the European Union.  They usually occupy the lower levels of the manual labour force, and try to keep largely invisible due to the fact that much of this employment is not be necessarily official or legal.  They are economic migrants that enjoy few legal rights and are often victims of large scale exploitation.

When one considers the fate of the Ukrainian diaspora throughout the world, we must indeed view ourselves fortunate that providence placed us in a country like Canada.  We have the good fortune to be living in one of the richest, fairest, most educated, cultured and tolerant countries in the world.  Above all, we can be 100% loyal and true Canadians, while still being able to maintain our thousand year-old legacy of Ukrainian culture and traditions.  Happy Birthday Canada!