Ukrainian Canadian Congress resolves to press immigration issues (11/08/98)

Ukrainian Canadian Congress resolves to press immigration issues

by Yuriy Diakunchak

WINNIPEG - At the end of its 19th triennial convention in Winnipeg, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress resolved to encourage initiatives that will increase opportunities for Ukrainians to emigrate to Canada. In the three years since the last congress, the low number of immigrants from Ukraine being allowed into Canada has left community members in Canada concerned.

"We are very dissatisfied with staff at the Kyiv Embassy," said Bill Diachuk, president of Ukrainian Canadian Social Services, Edmonton Branch and the moderator of the workshop on immigration.

A number of October 10 workshop participants also commented on the apparent disdain with which Embassy employees treat Ukrainian applicants for Canadian visas.

The UCC resolved to demand a review of administrative procedures at the Canadian Visa Office at the Embassy in Kyiv to ensure equitable and timely visas, and address the allegations of bribes being taken by Ukrainian citizens working for the Embassy.

John Gregorovich, chair of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, handed out a chart with figures provided by the federal Department of Citizenship and Immigration (as prepared by the Canadian Ukrainian Immigrant Aid Society, CUIAS) showing that Ukraine is in 20th place as a point of origin for immigrants being accepted for settlement in Canada. The top ranked Hong Kong provided almost 10 times as many immigrants as the 2,459 that came from Ukraine in 1997.

In characteristically blunt fashion, Mr. Gregorovich asked panel members whether Canada's policy is racist or if it reflects the relative political influence of the two communities.

Brian Huzel, an acting supervisor of settlement services at the federal ministry's offices Winnipeg, was one of the panelists asked to participate in the UCC's immigration workshop. Mr. Huzel answered Mr. Gregorovich's pointed query by saying that Ukrainians currently do not fit Canada's immigration criteria. (Mr. Huzel averred that his family came to Canada from Ukraine 100 years ago.)

"It's not a matter of racism. It's a problem of people from Ukraine not fitting under the criteria," Mr. Huzel said. The official explained that Canada accepts four types of immigrants: refugees, family reunification, independents, business and entrepreneurial class. "Who in Ukraine has money, except for the mafia? And they don't want to come," said Mr. Huzel.

The panelist added that Ukrainians can't qualify as refugees because Canada does not feel people are endangered in Ukraine and family reunification only applies to immediate family, so Canadian citizens are barred from sponsoring distant relatives.

Eugen Duvalko, chair of the UCC's Immigration Committee and executive director of the Toronto-based CUIAS, challenged Mr. Huzel's view that Ukrainian's can't qualify under current Canadian rules.

"We see hundreds, even thousands of qualified immigrants," Mr. Duvalko said. He suggested the problem is the gateways to Canada. "Hong Kong is staffed better than Kyiv," he pointed out. The CUIAS official suggested that while no official quotas may exist, policy-makers effectively create quotas by the way they distribute resources among embassies.

Another panel member, Gordon Stewart, a senior immigration officer at the federal ministry in Winnipeg, defended the government's position, at the same time making it clear that the panel members are not responsible for implementing policy. "There are requirements people must meet to come to Canada. This decision is made by the officer in the embassy."

Also among the resolutions adopted on immigration by the UCC congress was a decision to compile a comprehensive data base of government publications, immigration criteria and community expertise relating to immigration and provide a clearing house of information to the community across Canada.

On this working group's recommendation, the UCC resolved to review the Federal-Provincial Territorial Immigration Agreements currently signed with the federal government by British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as well as Quebec's separate agreement, with a view to assess their progress towards objectives and to encourage other provinces to sign similar agreements. These agreements provide an area of provincial jurisdiction on questions of immigration, which are matters of federal government authority under the Canadian Constitution.

Gerald Clement, assistant deputy minister, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Division of Manitoba's Ministry of Culture, Heritage and Citizenship, was the final panel member. Mr. Clement detailed the agreement Manitoba has signed with the federal government to help in attracting new immigrants. Target groups are "immigrants who fit into economic and industrial sectors that have labor shortages," said Mr. Clement.

The new plan, the Agreement to Realign Settlement Services, will allow individual provinces more flexibility in selecting immigrants that fill local labor requirements. Mr. Clement suggested this plan could be used as a new way to sponsor immigrants into Canada. As part of the pilot project, a Mennonite community in Winkler, Manitoba, has sponsored 50 Mennonites, formerly from Kazakstan but currently residing in Germany, to move to their community.

Only British Columbia and Saskatchewan have similar agreements with the federal government in the works. At the last triennial congress the UCC resolved to work with the Manitoba government to bring in Ukrainian immigrants to Manitoba under the plan. The intention was to sponsor people who could come to stay with elderly members of the Ukrainian community who no longer had relatives to care for them.

"There is no reason why they should suffer - many of these older Ukrainians have accumulated a reasonable amount of wealth. Why not have it stay in Canada, instead of sending it out to Ukraine like they often do?" Myroslaw Tracz, a Winnipeg social services activist had asked at the time.

In the discussion groups that followed the panel, one thing that became clear is that the Ukrainian community needs to do more to make its services available to those immigrants who are already here.

"Our biggest problem is accessing all of the new immigrants," said Daria Diakowsky, a delegate of the Ukrainian National Federation. She added that the community is not always able to fulfill the pressing economic needs of new immigrants.

"Our organizations fulfill our social, cultural, religious needs, but we [individually] fulfill our economic needs in Canadian society," countered Mr. Duvalko. However, he agreed that in communities with a large influx of immigrants some pressure on local Ukrainian aid organizations is building up.

Mr. Diachuk concurred, saying that "the first thing people want is jobs." He claimed that so far his agency had "almost 100 percent success in finding employment" for new immigrants from Ukraine.

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