Andrij Makuch

A prominent Ukrainian-Canadian sociologist recently revealed some preliminary findings from a ground-breaking study of the latest wave of Ukrainian immigrants to Canada. Speaking at the University of Toronto on 28 January 2002 at a seminar co-sponsored by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and the UofT’s Jacyk Program for the Study of Ukraine, Professor Wsevolod Isajiw addressed the question of ‘Fourth Wave Immigrants from Ukraine, 1991–2001: Results of a New Study.’

The information presented at this event was gathered in the course of a wide-ranging study on ‘The Fourth Wave of Ukrainian Immigration to Canada.’ The research was undertaken by Prof. Isajiw (Robert F. Harney Professor Emeritus of Ethnic, Immigration, and Pluralism Studies, University of Toronto) Professor Victor Satzewich (Sociology, McMaster University, Hamilton), and Ewhen Duvalko (Executive Director, Canadian Ukrainian Immigrant Aid Society, Toronto) with the assistance of Iroida Wynnyckyj and Katya Duvalko. The Heritage Foundation of the First Security Federal Savings Bank of Chicago (Julian Kulas, President) provided funding for the project.

The object of study–the so-called ‘fourth-wave’–are those Ukrainians who came to North America from 1991 to 2001 (and continue to arrive even today). Isajiw estimated their number to be approximately 18-20,000 in Canada and at least 100,000 in the United States. He added that ‘technically’ he would call this a ‘fifth wave’ of Ukrainian immigration, as it was preceded by Ukrainian immigrants from Poland in the 1980s, but was amenable to considering it as a the second phase of a ‘fourth wave.’

The information gathered for the project came from 304 interviews conducted in the Toronto area between November 2000 and January 2001. The interviews consisted of 161 questions, and were conducted by 10 research assistants, who themselves were mainly recent arrivals. The data from the study is still being analyzed, so that the seminar should, emphasized Prof Isajiw, be regarded as the results of a work in progress.

The study–and the seminar–addressed two major questions. The first: how well are the new Ukrainian Canadians are adapting to the Canadian economic system? This is examined within the context of Canada’s immigration policy which, from the mid-1970s to late 2001 (a major overhaul of Canadian immigration policy was announced recently), sought to match immigrants directly with existing labor needs. The second: how well, if at all, do the new immigrants integrate into Toronto’s Ukrainian community? This is considered through the prism of the theory posed by Louis Hartz (a sociologist best known for his study The Founding of New Societies) that for a long time new immigrants live by issues which were significant to them in their home country before their departure.

Getting into the subject matter proper, Isajiw provided a basic profile of the immigrants. Ninety per cent were born in Ukraine, and 90 per cent came as independent immigrants (the remaining 10 per cent arrived sponsored). Just over one-quarter (26 per cent) have taken Canadian citizenship. They are divided almost equally between males and females. Most (78.6 per cent) are married, while 11 per cent are single and 9 per cent divorced or separated. Their average age upon arrival was 35.4, while their average age at the time of being interviewed was 39, indicating that they had been in Canada, on average, for just over 3.5 years. An interesting statistic–considering the Toronto housing market–was that 22 per cent were homeowners. Seventeen per cent had no children, while 31.9 per cent had one and 45 per cent had two. Eighty-nine per cent were working full-time, although only 43 per cent used specific skills acquired in Ukraine in their work. The principal area from which they emigrated was ‘Greater’ Ukraine (ie, Central and Eastern Ukraine, 50 per cent), with Western Ukraine (Galicia and Bukovyna) following at 41 per cent, and Southern Ukraine (and ‘other’ regions) coming in at 9 per cent. Significantly, 26 per cent of all those who emigrated from Ukraine to Canada came from Kyiv and 24 per cent from Lviv.

Later in the seminar, Isajiw noted the high educational achievement of the immigrants: 12.8 per cent had degrees from an uchylyshche or a tekhnikum, 37 per cent from an Instytut, and 36.1 per cent from a university. As well, he noted their religious affiliation (at the time of emigration) as being split between Ukrainian Orthodox (37 per cent), Russian Orthodox (16 per cent), Catholics (27 per cent), and non-believers (11 per cent).

Isajiw noted that while Ukrainian immigrants were fairly well integrated into the Canadian economy, they generally tended to be overqualified for the work they were doing. As such, Canada has done very well by Ukrainian immigration.

A host of statistics preceded this conclusion. Regarding employment before and after emigration, Isajiw noted that the field of computing became significantly more significant for immigrants (with the ratio of their employment in this field rising from of 15.2 per cent while in Ukraine to 20.1 after arriving in Canada). Business and entrepreneurship also saw a rise, from 3.4 per cent to 6.4 per cent. Engineering (an astonishing decline from 22.4 percent to 0.7 per cent) and ‘professional’ work (12.1 per cent to 3.7 per cent) as well as work in the humanities (13.8 per cent to 2.0 per cent) and ‘management’ (7.6 per cent to 2.7 per cent) took sharp dives. Non-skilled manual labor, meanwhile, experienced a temporary spike from 0.0 per cent (in Ukraine) to 19.1 per cent as a ‘first job’ (in Canada) to a (then) current level of 4.0 per cent.

The speaker also examined the issues of ‘Difficulty Finding Work’ (where lack of Canadian contacts and Canadian experience, as well as a lack of English fluency were cited as major problems) and ‘Attitudes and Opinions’ (in which it emerged–in unrelated questions–that almost half of the respondents felt that they were overqualified for their current job, yet over half were generally satisfied with their jobs).

Isajiw then turned to the integration of the new immigrants into the Ukrainian community, the other major question addressed by the study. The conclusion was unequivocal: new arrivals have not linked up with the hromada in any significant way. Their active participation in existing Ukrainian organizations stood at 9 per cent and in Ukrainian organizations for new arrivals at 4 per cent. Their attendance of activities sponsored by Ukrainian organizations was 8.0 per cent ‘very often,’ 23.7 per cent ‘time to time,’ 20.1 per cent ‘rarely,’ and 48.2 per cent ‘never.’ Even informally the new immigrants have maintained a certain social distance from local Ukrainian Canadians: less than 27 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that it was ‘easy to make friends with Ukrainian Canadians’ (compared to just over 41 per cent for making friends with non-Ukrainian Canadians).

Nevertheless, the new arrivals by and large are interested in Ukrainian matters. A full 92.3 per cent indicated that they felt it was important to pass on a sense of Ukrainian culture to their children, 50 per cent sent their children to a Ukrainian school, and 24 per cent sent their children to dance lessons. Almost 82 per cent read Ukrainian-Canadian newspapers often or from time-to-time, while 66.8 maintained a strong interest in Ukrainian politics.

In conclusion, Isajiw reiterated his major findings and revisited some of his statistics on language (which are not mentioned in this reportage) and cultural identification. He also noted that the Russian-Ukrainian language mix among the recent arrivals, to some degree an object of derision among local Ukrainian Canadians, is still very common and unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

A number of significant matters were raised during the subsequent question-and-answer session. The first question asked how representative a sample was the group studied, given the fact that the name list for possible interviewees was generated from a Canadian Ukrainian Immigrant Aid Society list. Isajiw replied that the fact that the list includes over half of the fourth-wave immigrants renders it fairly neutral in scope and that the names were picked at random from it.

Another query focused on what the results for a comparable survey in the United States might. The speaker remarked that there were numerous differentiating factors between Canada and the U.S., so that it was not realistic to speculate on this matter. At the same time, he added that the backers of this undertaking were interested in the possibility of extending this examination to the situation in the United States. One commentator subsequently suggested that the larger numbers of new Ukrainian immigrants to the United States and the relatively weaker condition of community organizations in the U.S. rendered them more likely to being ‘taken over’ by recent arrivals. Conversely, the very strength of Toronto’s Ukrainian community may well mitigate the successful integration of recent immigrants from Ukraine, insofar as they are unable to assume dominant positions (ie, ‘take them over’ or enter the scene on their own terms).

Finally, socio-linguistic and regional questions were raised. Questions were asked about the recent immigrants’ relations with the large Russophone population in the Toronto region as well as the impact of the close Galician/Ukrainophone identification upon the survey results. Regarding the former, Prof Isajiw noted that the matter was simply never explored; as for the latter, he added that the data is still very “fresh” and has not yet been examined.
 
 

Andrij Makuch

Research Co-ordinator

Ukrainian Canadian Programme

Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies

Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Toronto Office

1 Spadina Crescent, Room 109, University of Toronto

Toronto, ON, M5S 2J5, Canada

telephone: (416) 978-4404; message: (416) 978-6934; fax: (416) 978-2672

http://www.ualberta.ca/CIUS/ukrcan/ucp-home.htm