Why Did My Ancestor Leave Ukraine?

During the interwar period, Canada emerged as one of the main overseas destinations for emigrants from Galicia, Volhynia, and Polissia. Among the nations of the Americas, it offered some of the most attractive immigration opportunities.

With a vast territory of 9.96 million square kilometers—second only to Russia—Canada was still a land of potential. Two-thirds of its population lived in the industrial heartlands of Ontario and Quebec, home to major cities like Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, and Quebec City. Meanwhile, the wide-open spaces of Western Canada—Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan—remained largely unsettled, though highly suitable for farming.

To attract settlers and develop these lands, Canada adopted an active immigration policy. This initiative, launched by Minister of the Interior Clifford Sifton in the government of Wilfrid Laurier (1896–1905), soon bore fruit. Between 1901 and 1914, Canada welcomed over 3.1 million immigrants from Europe. A notable portion of them were from Western Ukraine. By 1914, some 170,000 Ukrainians and 53,000 Poles were living in Canada, although some sources estimate the Ukrainian population at 120,000.

World War I caused a sharp decline in emigration to Canada. Although a postwar rebound was expected, the economic downturn that followed—from 1918 to 1921—hampered recovery.

In 1921, Canada’s national income had fallen by 14% compared to the previous year; exports dropped by 13%, and farm output plummeted by 30%. These hardships were compounded by growing hostility from Canada’s Anglo-Saxon elite toward Ukrainians, who were often viewed as enemy aliens—lumped together with immigrants from countries at war with Britain (during the years 1914–1920, about 5,000 Ukrainians were interned in concentration camps)

In connection with the widespread suspicion toward Eastern European immigrants, a law was passed in 1919 that barred Ukrainians from obtaining Canadian citizenship for ten years after the end of the war. In practice, this meant they were denied the right to own land under the homesteading program, one of the main incentives for coming to Canada in the first place.

These developments led to growing disillusionment and triggered a wave of return migration among Ukrainians and, to some extent, Poles. According to diplomatic reports, between December 1919 and January 1920, the Polish consulate in Montreal issued 1,300 passports to emigrants wishing to return to Eastern Galicia. Of these, 70% were Ukrainians and 30% were Poles. In 1920, as the economic crisis in Canada deepened, the number of registered re-emigrants rose to 7,000.

However, as it became clear that promises of land distribution in Poland were illusory, and Canadian immigration restrictions could prevent returnees from re-entering the country, many began to reconsider. In the end, approximately 4,000 people left Canada during this postwar re-emigration wave.

By early 1921, Canada’s economy slowly began to recover. This naturally led to renewed interest in emigration from Western Ukraine. As historian Michael Marunchak wrote, “Many still remembered the prewar ten-dollar homesteads. Canada already had a sizable Ukrainian population that saw it as their country. Ukrainians in the Dominion had supported their homeland both financially and politically during its struggle for independence. For many in Ukraine, Canada had become a symbol of a free and democratic land.”

By 1921, a noticeable uptick in emigration was seen, especially among Ukrainians and Poles in the Lviv, Ternopil, and Stanislaviv voivodeships. In response, the Warsaw Emigration Office authorized its branch in Lviv to issue visas for those seeking to emigrate to Canada.

Records from that year show that the counties of Sokal (it’s where the customer’s ancestors come from), Terebovlia, and Chortkiv became particularly active centers of emigration. According to statistics, 7,571 people emigrated from Poland to Canada in 1921, nearly 70% of them from the western Ukrainian region.

At the time, however, Canadian authorities remained wary of Slavic immigration, including that from Poland. Upholding this stance, in May 1922, the Canadian government signed an agreement with Britain to bring over 3,000 British families. Under the terms of the deal, Britain covered the full cost of relocation—£300 per family—while the Canadian government provided land for settlement.

Yet this experiment proved largely unsuccessful. “English industrial workers, accustomed to life and labor in urban centers,” the records noted, “could not adjust to farming life on the Canadian prairies. They abandoned their farms and moved to the cities or slipped across the border into the United States.”

Despite the plan’s failure, it did have consequences. The influx of British families—even if temporary—reduced demand for agricultural laborers in Canada’s prairie provinces. This effect was compounded by a sharp drop in agricultural prices—by 7% compared to 1913—which led many farmers to reduce their crop acreage.

This economic shift directly affected emigration from Western Ukraine. Compared to the previous year, the number of emigrants to Canada dropped by nearly half, with only 2,060 people making the journey. It is quite possible that some of them viewed Canada not as a final destination, but as a stepping stone to the United States. As previously mentioned, the U.S. Dillingham Act of 1921 did not restrict the entry of civil servants, tourists, or foreign nationals who had lived in Canada for at least one year.

In early 1923, Canada’s economy began to rebound more decisively, marking the start of a period of rapid industrial growth. Historians refer to these years as a time of prosperity—the “prosperity” era. Positive changes also touched the lives of the Ukrainian community in Canada that year. The Canadian government repealed parts of the naturalization law that had targeted immigrants from so-called “enemy states.” Beyond this, political circles began to voice support for fully reopening immigration channels.

One notable voice was Robert Forke, leader of Canada’s Progressive Party, who declared, “I am for large-scale immigration. I want as many immigrants as possible to come to Canada—but not those who will just fill our cities. This country needs settlers who will gladly develop our agriculture, fishing, and forestry.”

In 1923, emigration from Western Ukraine surged. The Bibrka, Borshchiv, Zalishchyky, Terebovlia, and Stanislaviv districts were most affected. In parts of the Ternopil region, emigration took on a frantic pace. The local official in Peremyshliany reported that peasants were selling property and mortgaging their fields and homes under harsh loan conditions. At the same time, people from Volyn also began joining the wave, prompting immigration authorities to temporarily shut down shipping agency offices in Rivne and Kovel due to widespread abuse.

According to researcher M. Shavlesky, about 3,355 people left Western Ukraine for Canada that year—roughly half Ukrainians, 30% Jews, and 20% Poles. This widening geographic scope marked a turning point: many scholars consider 1923 the year when emigration fully revived. The old policy dividing immigrants into “privileged” and “non-privileged” groups started to be seen as ineffective, largely thanks to pressure from Canada’s major railways, CNRI and CPR.

The Canadian National Railway controlled over half the country’s rail network and had acquired most Alberta lines by 1920. The Canadian Pacific Railway was among the world’s largest private rail companies. Both owned hotels, warehouses, factories, telegraph systems—and vast lands stretching alongside their tracks. More immigrants meant bigger profits for them, earning $746.33 CAD per settler, and for the government, which gained $13,569.63 CAD in capital per farmer.

Given these benefits, supporting agricultural immigration became a smart investment in Canada’s economic future.

To realize these immigration goals, in 1924 Canada’s Department of Immigration and Colonization sent envoys to Europe to assess immigration opportunities in various countries. Special attention was paid to Poland, regarded as a “reservoir of agricultural workers.” The Canadian reasoning was straightforward: since Poland was largely an agricultural country with a surplus farming population, its government would likely support emigration. Moreover, nearly 7 million Ukrainians lived in Poland—whom Winnipeg lawyer Albert Dubuc aptly called “the great Ireland”—for whom Canada was a traditional land of resettlement.

Taking these factors into account, the Canadian government dispatched a Ukrainian-born lawyer, Osyp Dyk, to Lviv in 1924. There, he negotiated with the initiative committee of the Society for the Care of Ukrainian Immigrants. During these talks, it became clear that the Canadian government was deeply interested in reviving Ukrainian immigration to Canada.

In response, in April 1925, at the invitation of Bishop Nykyta Budka of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Canada, the prominent Galician politician and secretary of the Society for the Care of Ukrainian Immigrants, Volodymyr Bachynsky, along with priest Yosyp Zhan, arrived in Ottawa. They met with Canadian officials, including William Egan, the deputy director of the Department of Immigration and Colonization.

These meetings culminated in the signing, in July 1925, of a letter-agreement on the “Emigration of Ukrainians from Poland.” According to this document, Canada committed to accepting 10,000 Ukrainian settlers between 1925 and 1929. Notably, the agreement came about partly through the efforts of the Polish consul in Ottawa, Valerian Bukovetsky-Olszewski, who persuaded William Egan that “Poles and Ukrainians are mostly peasants with the skills and strength needed for pioneer work, making both groups ideal for developing Canadian agriculture.”

Despite the promise, these plans risked remaining merely on paper, as the Canadian government showed no readiness to provide financial support for the initiative. The solution, as mentioned earlier, came in the form of the “railway agreement” signed on October 15, 1925. After that, Canada’s Department of Immigration and Colonization effectively became an executor of the wishes of the railway companies, CNR and CPR.

It was no coincidence that in November 1925 William Egan traveled to Poland, where he negotiated with Stefan Hawronski, director of the Emigration Office, about the immigration of farming families to Canada.

Starting in 1926, emigration along this route proceeded based on notarized invitations from Canada and under the framework of the “railway agreement.” Those who emigrated under the railway agreement did not require invitations but had to be qualified by official representatives of the Canadian National Railway (CNR) and Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) or authorized officials of shipping companies. The emigration qualification process in Western Ukraine was supervised by the Immigration Offices in Lviv and Brest.

The procedure for obtaining departure documents was complex. Prospective emigrants had to personally apply to the appropriate State Labor Mediation Office, where they submitted an application, presented photo ID and military service documents (women were required to provide certificates of good moral character and birth records). After registration with the Labor Mediation Office, applicants were directed to the relevant shipping company’s office to undergo a medical examination and pay a 50-zloty deposit for the ship ticket. Only after this step could they be assessed by a Canadian official, who issued a temporary certificate—a prerequisite for obtaining a Canadian visa. When all documents met the established requirements, local authorities provided the emigrant with a free international passport.

It is worth noting that travel expenses from Poland to Canada were significant. Besides the ship ticket (costing 132.5 Canadian dollars for an adult and 78.75 dollars for children aged 5 to 10), emigrants had to have 25 dollars to show upon arrival in Canada and another 25 dollars for railroad travel from the port to Winnipeg. Consequently, shipping companies had a strong interest in increasing emigration volumes, as the railway agreement somewhat saved them from bankruptcy.

Among these companies, Canadian Pacific Railways operated its own ships, while Canadian National Railways lacked a fleet and instead contracted with ocean liners such as Cunard Line, White Star Line, Red Star Line, Skandinavien-Amerika Linien, Holland-Amerika Line, and French Line. CNR set annual immigrant quotas for each shipping company to transport to Canada.

To implement these agreements, the shipping companies established a network of offices in Poland, with many located in Western Ukraine. For example, Cunard Line maintained branches in Brest, Kovel, Krakow, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, Stanislaviv, and Warsaw. These offices employed dozens of agents and subagents, some of whom abused their positions.

For instance, in the Ternopil Voivodeship, agent Mauer impersonated a Canadian farmer and recruited 200 people under false pretenses.

In 1926, in the Rohatyn region, agent Mykhal Nahorniak collected deposits for ship tickets, facilitated departure formalities for a fee, and subjected emigrants to medical examinations. Additionally, he arranged notarized invitations for women through his contacts in Canada.

In the same year, police in Gdansk detained a group of agents who were forging passports for conscription-age emigrants from the Chortkiv and Zalishchyky districts. Documents note that before the emigration campaign to Canada, representatives of the shipping companies, through various agents, launched an unprecedented recruitment drive, which triggered a surge of emigration fever, resulting in a literal mass enrollment of candidates eager to emigrate to Canada.

The exploitation of emigrants during the qualification procedure also contributed to the situation, sometimes taking on the clear characteristics of slave trading. This is eloquently documented in a report by the director of the State Labor Mediation Office in Ternopil. The report states, in particular:

“The shipping offices select candidates they prefer and systematically reject other emigrant applications on medical grounds. Sometimes, emigrants are advised to seek treatment in Ternopil from various specialists, which entails significant expenses not only for medical services but also for accommodation in the city. Furthermore, some doctors employed by the CPR company provided false information regarding the health status of emigrants and then demanded money from them. There were cases when a doctor from one shipping company disqualified an emigrant, while a doctor from another company deemed the same person healthy. Such abuses were widespread in the Polissya, Lviv, and Stanislaviv voivodeships.”

It should be noted that the Polish authorities reacted only superficially to these abuses.

Overall, due to the activities of the agents in 1926, 11,146 people emigrated to Canada from the Lviv, Ternopil, Stanislaviv, Volhynia, and Polissya voivodeships, accounting for 70.5% of all Polish emigrants in the considered direction. Among all Western Ukrainian emigrants, 41% (4,561 persons) were Ukrainians. Additionally, 87.7% of the emigrants were skilled agricultural workers.

The immigrant settlers were provided with land plots averaging 0.4 hectares under favorable conditions — with payments spread over 35 years. Payments only began after four years of residence on the farm. However, during this period, settlers had to pay land taxes amounting to 25–40 dollars annually. “A colonist was obliged to build a residential house and a barn, clear and cultivate 5 acres annually, and sow at least 25 acres of land. They had to fence the farm, dig a well, and keep at least one productive cow.” The cost of land offered to settlers in the provinces of Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan ranged from 5 to 12 dollars per acre. Some immigrants with significant financial means could purchase fully equipped farms with houses and cultivated land, with prices ranging from 15 to 20 dollars per acre. However, only a small portion of settlers could afford to own such farms.

By 1927, emigration to Canada from Western Ukraine began to take on a mass character. In this regard, the newspaper Hromadskyi Holos wrote: “At the beginning of this year, shameless recruitment of Ukrainian peasants to Canada began. Many of our young people sold their last piece of homeland to pay the ship line for the passage.” However, the situation in the Dominion, due to weather conditions and a reduced demand by farmers for agricultural workers, proved unfavorable for immigration. As a result, some settlers immediately became unemployed, while others agreed to perform any work for minimal wages.

A telling example is that of four Polish immigrants from Western Ukraine who hired themselves out to a wealthy farmer near Winnipeg. “Work began at 4 a.m. and ended at 10 p.m. After ten days, the workers declared a strike protesting such working conditions. However, unaware of the law, they did not notify the employer 24 hours in advance so he could find other workers. The farmer called the police, who arrested the strikers and sent them to jail,” the immigrants recalled.

The unfavorable immigration situation prompted the Canadian government to suspend the “railway agreement” on June 1, 1927. This had extremely negative consequences for the emigrants, as most had prepaid for their travel to their destination. Therefore, the Immigration Office branch in Lviv issued 3,500 orders to shipping companies to refund emigrants for their ship tickets between June 1 and the end of August 1927.

By suspending the agreement with railway companies, the Dominion government allowed the immigration of families who could demonstrate funds of $500, and from August 15 to September 1 — $1,000. Clearly, the majority of prospective emigrants could not afford such amounts. Nevertheless, in 1927, a total of 14,641 people from the five Western Ukrainian voivodeships emigrated to Canada, including 6,603 Poles, 5,338 Ukrainians, and 1,830 Jews.

The latter group emigrated exclusively to agricultural colonies operated by the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA). Founded by Parisian philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch in 1891, the JCA managed capital amounting to £2 million sterling. The JCA resettled families with at least 4–5 physically healthy individuals. Each family initially received 12 to 20 hectares of land, a house, livestock and farm equipment (horses, cows, and a wagon). If a settler demonstrated an aptitude for agricultural work, they were granted a larger homestead of 50 to 75 hectares after two years. The settler was required to pay 6% of the total value of the inventory and 5% annually for the land.

In 1928, following the Canadian government’s extension of the “railway agreement” for another three years at the end of 1927, emigration from Western Ukraine reached its highest peak of the entire interwar period. That year, 18,978 people emigrated — 11.4% of the total number of emigrants (166,783 persons) in the direction under consideration. In Ternopil Voivodeship alone, emigration reached an unprecedented scale — 6,968 people.

Overall, Canada remained the most popular and consistent destination for emigrants from this region, matching or exceeding other migration routes in scale.

At the beginning of 1929, the global economic crisis began to significantly affect emigration to Canada. As the prominent researcher Oleh Soroko-Tsyupa noted:

“For the Canadian economy, which was predominantly export-oriented, the collapse of the global price structure had catastrophic consequences. From the height of 1929, all economic indicators plunged like a snow avalanche.”

However, the initial signs of economic depression did not reduce emigration interest in Western Ukraine. According to a report from the starosta of Rivne County to the Volyn Voivodeship administration: “The reason lies in the economic crisis and general financial stagnation in Poland. The population, for the most part, is eager to emigrate to Canada.”

In total, the number of emigrants in 1929 slightly decreased compared to the previous year but still remained significant — 15,117 people. Some of them immediately faced hardship and hunger. This is vividly illustrated by a letter from a Galician peasant to the editorial office of the newspaper Ukrainian Emigrant:

“I somehow survived the winter, hoping to find work in the spring. Those hopes were in vain. I spent hours standing outside the public kitchen, watching others do the same — ragged and starving. They served food only once a day. It’s no surprise that there were cases of death from hunger.”

At the beginning of 1930, the economic crisis in Canada reached its peak. The railway transport system was catastrophically reduced, carrying as few passengers as it had back in 1900. The volume of exports fell by half compared to 1928. The number of unemployed continued to grow rapidly, reaching 236,000 in 1930. This situation led to a dramatic decline in emigration in 1931, when only 952 people from Western Ukrainian lands resettled in Canada.