Within the years that followed, tens of thousands of Ukrainians arrived in Canada. Most Ukrainian immigrants of this period were identified on government records as arriving from their respective provinces in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as Poles, Russians, or Austrians. The vast majority of these immigrants settled in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta where they obtained land to farm.
Approximately , Ukrainian immigrants arrived between and During the First World War, Ukrainians from Galicia were classified as enemy aliens by the Government of Canada and over 5, Ukrainian Canadians were interned in camps. Ukrainian language schools were closed and the Ukrainian language press restricted. Regardless of this, over 10, Ukrainian Canadians fought in the War, with many anglicizing their names to avoid discrimination.
These refugees were welcomed by the already established Ukrainian communities. The Ukrainian Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant churches had parishes in most Ukrainian centres and these establishments were important places for social gathering. The oldest and largest Ukrainian settlement on the Prairies, the one in east central Alberta, straddled the frontier between the "park belt" and the forest region.
By , it covered an area of about square miles. Ukrainian settlers arrived between and , organized Ukrainian emigration from Galicia and Bukovyna to Canada began in and did not assume mass proportions prior to Hear the story, now!
Toward the end of the 19th century the relatively high birth rate created a population explosion. The small farms owned by the peasants could not be subdivided any further, while the ownership of a piece of land was the sole means of existence.
Agricultural activity on the small farms was primitive, inefficient and labour-intensive. In addition, productivity was low and the land could not support a large population beyond the subsistance level. Furthermore, large tracts of the best agricultural land were owned by absentee landlords or belonged to the church. The cities and towns of Western Ukraine were essentially administrative and commercial centres lacking any established industry or manufacturing base which could employ large numbers of workers.
What manufacturing did exist took the form of groups of craftsmen producing small items required to meet the immediate needs of the local population. Employment was seasonal, wages were low and unemployment was high.
Large numbers of landless peasants were forced to work as laborers on the landed estates for little more than board and room. The languages spoken in the cities and towns were German, Polish and Yiddish. The Ukrainian peasant, who formed the bulk of the rural population, felt like a foreigner in his own country. Another sore point among young Ukrainian males was compulsory service in the Austrian army.
Illiterate and unable to understand the German language, young recruits were often abused by brutal foreign-speaking officers. Emigration was often the only means of escape for desperate young army deserters. Toward the end of the 19th century, following Confederation, Canada experienced an intense period of economic expansion and growth. Large numbers of unskilled workers were needed in labour-intensive industries such as railroad building, mining, lumbering and especially agriculture.
The completion of the trans-continental railway in opened the Canadian West for settlement and provided transportation for shipping wheat and other agricultural products to eastern markets and port cities. The world-wide demand for Canadian wheat created a wheat boom in Western Canada.
The Canadian government embarked on an intensive program of immigration aimed at quickly settling the western prairies with productive farmers. The settlement of large numbers of American immigrants in Western Canada raised the fear of American annexation among the British. At this time, however, large numbers of prospective immigrants from industrialized Western Europe were not attracted to, or were unsuited for, the harsh conditions of life on the Canadian Prairies.
In , Dr. Joseph Oleskiw, a geography professor from Lviv, visited Canada and wrote two books. Pro vilni zemli and O emigratsii, which had a great impact in directing Ukrainian immigrants to Canada. Sir Clifford Sifton, the Minister of the Interior from to , turned to Eastern Europe for prospective immigrants. Whole families and the greater part of many villages joined this emigration. It is estimated that between and up to Many thousands of others left for the United States, Brazil and Argentina.
The misconception of the Canadian immigration authorities was the belief that the Ukrainians were from the steppelands of Central Ukraine which are similar to the prairies of Western Canada. However, the rolling wooded countryside of Western Ukraine is similar to Southern Ontario in relief and climate. The first Ukrainian settlers in Western Canada suffered greatly from the hot summers and cold, harsh winters, and the loneliness of life on the prairies.
Furthermore, they were unprepared for the large scale, mechanized grain farming that had become profitable in western Canada. Many received their homesteads on marginal or heavily wooded land on the northern edge of the prairies. The belt of Ukrainian settlement stretched from south-eastern Manitoba through Winnipeg, Yorkton, Saskatoon and Vegreville to Edmonton. Ukrainian settlements followed the second trans-continental railway - the CN line.
Establishing small-scale mixed farming on their newly acquired homesteads, many recently arrived Ukrainian immigrants lived at the subsistance level. They faced the back-breaking task of clearing acres of bushland and gathering tons of rocks before a portion of their homestead could be brought under cultivation. In the winter time, men worked in the lumber camps and coal mines to supplement their income or earn surplus cash needed to purchase cattle and agricultural machinery.
In the summer time, once the spring seeding was over, the men and boys signed up for the railway gangs hired to build the branch-line railways which extended to all parts of Western Canada.
The hours of labour were long hours a day and the wages were low cents an hour. Nevertheless, there was no going back: thousands of acres of bushland were cleared and prosperous farm communities were established. The faith and confidence of the Canadian government in the capability and endurance of the Ukrainian settlers were vindicated. The Ukrainians took their rightful place among the early pioneers that helped settle and develop a large part of Western Canada.
The problems of the Ukrainians did not end upon arrival in this country. Their immediate reaction was culture shock. Coming from a rural village in one of the most underdeveloped areas of Europe, they exhibited traits and modes of behaviour that appeared to the Anglo-Saxon Canadians as primitive and unsophisticated.
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