Future Canadians from Kharkiv

Last year the number of persons leaving Ukraine exceeded the number entering by 44,300. This, as the demographers say, negative migration balance is basically accounted for by the outflow of Ukrainian to the so-called far abroad, whither 48,400 Ukrainians emigrated — 11,500 to America and 13,200 to Europe. The most important reasons for such emigration, according to Interfax Ukraine, citing the State Statistics Committee, were family circumstances (67.9%), changing one’s place of employment (4.2%), and studies (1.1 %). As the statistics make clear, such emigration, whether of an individual or whole families, is an indicator of the quality of our country’s social sphere. You can talk as much as you like about positive tendencies in the economy, two other indicators, the number of emigrants leaving vs. that of foreign investors coming will brook no illusions. In addition, it is worth recalling that for the ill- educated, lazy, infirm, and those without initiative have little chance to emigrate. Consequently, not only those with brains and brawn go abroad but also taxpayers.

Canada is a country of immigrants, and we have gotten used to that idea. We see our neighbors struggling to adapt to a new culture, learning a new language, starting a new career, be it at the lowest rung. We hear stories of our parents or grandparents who moved here. We hear complaints about how our immigration laws are too relaxed, sometimes from people who once were newcomers themselves.

But less frequently do we meet those immigrants before they have left their country of origin. That experience shows immigration itself in another light. How often do we consider the bravery it takes to give up everything you have in one country, to move to another, and to build a completely new life? One person’s hopes, doubts, idealism, and fears focused on a sole objective that at once seems too remote worth considering, and too tantalizing to resist.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine that objective is often Canada.

According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, between 200,000 and 250,000 immigrants came to Canada yearly in the 1990s. Statistics Canada says that 87,900 of the immigrants who arrived between 1991 and 1996 were from Eastern Europe, but those are the latest statistics available, and just how many have come from Ukraine since 1996, and how many specifically from Kharkiv, is harder to estimate.

But emigration seems to be the talk of the town here.

Those who are in the process are young, well-educated professionals usually with preteen children. And they dream of escaping the increasingly difficult economic situation in Ukraine for the greener pastures of Canada.

When you ask them for their exact motivations, they will list a series of complaints like rising crime, corrupt officials, stray dogs on the street, power outages in winter, and lack of hot water in summer, increased pollution, worsened education, pay cuts, increased unemployment and loss of job security, which taken together add up to the desire simply to leave this country behind.

Kostiantyn Stupak, who is leaving for Canada this month, put it bluntly, “There is no future in this country at all. Try to change something for the better, and you’ll see.”

Mykhailo Koval, another man whose family has been accepted for emigration, differed slightly. “Our country has a future, but not a near future. Perhaps several generations from now, in no less than fifty years. But nothing will change here for the better during my lifetime, and I don’t have time to wait around.”

And as for whether the grass is really greener in Canada, Koval said, “In Canada I see I will have many problems, but I can see also that I can solve them. Here I don’t have any opportunities or choices. I can’t build a career here.”

More particularly, potential emigrants speak about securing a future for their children. One man, when asked whether it is not a kind of disloyalty to abandon Ukraine, said that the most important factor for him was his son’s welfare.

Koval and Stupak agreed. They spoke about the corruption here in the educational system, where it is commonplace for a student to pay his professor, in return for which s/he receives good marks, whether or not deserved.

“I never imagined doing that when I was a student. For my daughter there is a huge difference between the opportunities she will have in Canada and here in Ukraine,” said Koval. “Here my daughter will become a doctor with an empty head, but in Canada she can choose to do whatever she wants when she grows up.”

But why Canada? Tania Dobrovolska, who left Kharkiv six months ago and is now living in Mississauga just outside Toronto, said, “Because Canada is the only Western country that will accept a non-Jewish person. Israel, Germany, the States all give preference to Jews. In principal it is possible to get a working visa to Argentina, but that is a bit frightening — a completely different culture, and Spanish. We never studied Spanish, although we knew a bit of English. And here was the opportunity to legally emigrate to a good, developed country.”

Koval said that what attracted him was the fact that the Canadian government accepts applications from independent individuals. That is, they evaluate the person based on a point system taking their age, education, work experience, personal ability, and knowledge of English or French into consideration. Plus if he is an engineer, and at the moment the Canadian government is giving extra points for technical education, like engineering or computer programmers.

Stupak, a mechanical engineer specialized in road construction, said his main consideration was that Canada had a huge territory, which requires roads, and so he had good job prospects there.

But for those considering taking the plunge and applying for emigration, the choice is difficult. Although not wealthy, potential emigrants are from the small Ukrainian middle- class. They are comfortable, have stable, well-respected and well-paid positions which they like, and are able to provide amply for their family here in Kharkiv.

To give this up is quite a risk.

A woman whose family has been accepted for emigration, but who is still hesitating and did not want to be named said, “I’m afraid I won’t be able to find a fitting place there for me and my family, and we have that here. I don’t want to have a low social position there.” Today she and her husband live comfortably in Ukraine, and have jobs that they find interesting and challenging. “We’re afraid to give that up,” she said.

Besides that, there is a financial decision to make. Applying for emigration does not come cheap. It costs $975 CDN ($730 US) for each adult and $150 CDN ($110 US) to open a file at the embassy and start the process. Then there is a fee to the embassy for an assessment, which must accompany the application. And finally, there is a landing fee which amounts to over $1000 US.

These prices do not include the proof of funds which must be in a Canadian bank account before the applicant is issued a visa. Normally, a family of three must have $15,000 CDN, but in some cases the immigration officer may waive a portion of this, depending on how long it is expected that the immigrant will need to get a job. Koval, for example, was allowed to transfer only $10,000 CDN for his family, while Stupak, who has a family of four, had to prove that $18,000 CDN was waiting in a Canadian account, rather than the usual $20,000 CDN. This money is to be used by the family during their first months in the country, while they are job searching.

And there is the decision about whether or not to hire a lawyer. Several Canadian immigration lawyers are represented in Kharkiv. In hindsight, both Koval and Stupak advised against taking a lawyer from the outset.

“Instead of helping me, my lawyer made additional problems,” said Stupak. “He didn’t send the additional information necessary to prove that my institute had changed its name, and in this way I lost four months.”

Koval also said that although he didn’t regret having a lawyer because the information he gained from him was invaluable, he did find his lawyer had made several mistakes when filling out his forms, and he was not sure if it was worth the $3.500 US he paid for his services.

And they do not plan to pay an extra $2000 US to ensure someone from the lawyer’s office meets them at the airport, and helps them find housing.

Dobrovolska went through the process without engaging a lawyer. “The first, and main, reason is that I didn’t have the money,” she said. “And second, I didn’t and still don’t trust those firms. It is obvious they just want your money, especially since they have absolutely no influence on whether you are accepted by the embassy or not.”

Sometimes there are frustrations. The emigration process is slow, and the applicants work every day on their English, not knowing if they will be accepted or not. To hear so much about Canada is a preparation on one hand, and a tease on the other. In one class, while a student was showing the pictures she had taken on a recent visit to her brother in Canada, a woman said, “Let’s check our homework. I can’t stand to see more pictures of a place I may never move to.”

In another case, a dispute between lawyers caused one family to wait unnecessarily for their visa, when it had been approved long ago and was waiting for them at the embassy. Added to everything was the stress of selling their belongings and leaving before the entrance window had closed.

“The most difficult part of the process is the waiting,” said Stupak. “Before the interview we were between two stools, as we say here. I didn’t know if the embassy would accept my family or not. After the interview again came the waiting, but this waiting was easier because you know that nearly 90% of the decision is made.”

Dobrovolska agreed. “To wait two years and not know if you can dream and hope is the absolute worst! And all the time I thought, let them say no, only immediately! Of course, now I can’t even imagine what I would have done if they had said no, that’s terrible. I don’t even want think about it!”

Then there is the trying experience of finding one’s first job and settling in to life in Canada. But from each who has left we are assured that it was worth it, that life is better there.

“I feel great, am happy that I am here, and think about it several times a day,” said Dobrovolska. “Of course I miss my family and friends, but I won’t return, not for that! Even when there are difficult moments, I always think, how great that I am not there. In short, every time I ask myself the question, ‘Would it be better there?’ the answer is the same.”

And as for advice, Dobrovolska warns potential emigrants to remember the Russian saying, that the worst enemy of the new immigrant is the old immigrant. She says she’s heard of some immigrants who cannot yet, or who refuse, to speak English, complain about how Canadians are not friendly, not well-brought up, etc. She said “Learn the language, my friends, and you will have friends.”

Perhaps the most endearing quality of these people is their idealism.

“Canada gave me the opportunity to start a new life, and I have to say thank you in a special way,” said Koval.

How will that be?

“I will pay my taxes honestly, he said. “I will not sit on welfare. If I can’t work as an electrical engineer, I will work as a technician. And I will vote. I didn’t vote in our recent referendum, because I don’t believe in our government. Maybe Canadians don’t always vote, but then they don’t understand that there are lots of worse places in the world, and that they have to do something to save that. In Canada I will vote.”