Ukrainian Diaspora in Canada and Its Contribution to the Establishment of Independent Ukrainian State

The history kept for us names of the first Ukrainian, arrived to Canada in 1891. These are residents of the village of Nebylov in the Western Ukraine Ivan Filippov and Vasily Elenyak. The Ukrainian immigration to Canada gains mass scope only after 1896, in many respects thanks to efforts of the galitsky agronomist Osip Oleskov who sent a big flow of the Ukrainian immigrants from villages of the Western Ukraine instead of Brazil to Canada. During the first wave of the Ukrainian immigration to Canada which is considered the largest and occurred between 1891 and 1914, in the country lodged more than 170 thousand Ukrainian. The second wave of Ukrainian immigration to Canada occurred in the interwar period, especially between 1924 and 1930. The third wave of Ukrainian immigration to Canada was due to political reasons and lasted from 1947 to 1954. Many of these immigrants were political refugees, which made this wave overtly politicized. In the early 1990s began the fourth wave of Ukrainian immigration to Canada, which continues today. This wave was related mainly to economic reasons.