By Walter Kish 

Several issues ago, we printed an article by Andrij Makuch in which he outlined the results of a sociological study done on the latest wave of Ukrainian immigrants that have come to Canada in the past decade.  The study was conducted jointly by Prof. Wsevolod Isajiw of the University of Toronto, Prof. Victor Satzewich of McMaster University, and Ewhen Duvalko, the Executive Director of the Canadian Ukrainian Immigrant Aid Society (CUIAS).  It focused on two main aspects, namely how well these immigrants have adjusted to life in Canada, as well as how well they have integrated into the existing Ukrainian community already established here.
The results were interesting though hardly surprising.  In terms of economic adjustment, these latest immigrants have done pretty well. Canada’s tough immigration policies ensure that only the young and well educated gain admission to our shores. Of the close to twenty thousand individuals from Ukraine that have gained Canada’s legal welcome here, the vast majority are in the prime of their lives, averaging in the mid-thirties in age, and well educated, with almost three quarters of them possessing a University or technical institute education. Some 89% of these new immigrants hold down full time jobs, though not surprisingly, many have had to accept positions for which they are technically over qualified. As an example, some 22% of them were engineers back in Ukraine, but less than 1% have been able to find comparable jobs within their professions here. The Canadian professional establishment makes it extremely difficult to gain accreditation here, and it is a crying shame that so much skill and expertise is so underutilized. I personally know one lady who was one of the most recognized and distinguished pediatricians in Kyiv. She is currently working as an assistant in a chiropractor’s office doing massage and acupuncture.
Despite having to take a relative step backwards from a job prestige point of view, the majority are pleased with the jobs that they have, and have wasted no time in acquiring the trappings of our consumer society. Close to a quarter of them have already managed to buy a house. The work ethic of our immigrant parents and grandparents is obviously just as well represented in this latest wave.
Where there is a sharp contrast from earlier waves of Ukrainian immigration is in these immigrants’ lack of particpation in Ukrainian organizational life here in Canada. Earlier waves upon coming over, either joined existing established organizations or created new ones of their own. Those earlier waves possessed a high degree of political motivation and activism that seems to be missing in these latest arrivals. Only some 9% of them are active within Ukrainian community, cultural or political organizations. Some have claimed that the motivations of this latest wave are purely economic, that they have abandoned a country with a sick and uncertain economy, and are either apolitical or indifferent to their Ukrainian identity.
The reality though, is far more complicated than this all too easy assessment. This same study showed that 50% of these new immigrants send their kids to Ukrainian school, 24% of them have their children enrolled with dance groups, and some 82% regularly read Ukrainian Canadian newspapers.  Obviously, the majority of them still have a genuine interest in their roots, their culture and the fate of the country that they left.  However, what is also obvious is that they do not perceive the existing Ukrainian organizations here in Canada as being either welcoming or relevant to their needs.
This problem is the foremost issue facing the established Ukrainian community in Canada today, yet there is very little being done to address it.  Aside from the activities of the CUIAS, there is little effort by existing organizations to recruit and involve this obviously intelligent and capable group of people. There seems to be an uneasy divide, a lack of understanding and communication that separates the new immigrants from those that came a half-century ago, as well as their descendants. This seems ironic when one considers the fact that most of the existing Ukrainian organizations are facing rapidly declining numbers as their membership ages and dies off.
It is imperative to their survival that these organizations undertake an aggressive effort to attract this “new blood” into their ranks. Yet all one sees is an incomprehensible inertia, reluctance and perhaps mistrust from the leadership of the existing Ukrainian establishment.  It is time to take our heads out of the sand and deal with this issue before its too late.