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MARIE DUPLAK THE CURRENT UKRAINIAN IMMIGRATION AND US “Ukrainians or Americans — Who are we?” was the question raised at the panel of the same name during the Ukrainian Woman in Two Worlds Conference, held October 1986 in Princeton, NJ. The discussion centered on the contributions of each subsequent Ukrainian immigration to the United States, their problems and interactions with existing Ukrainian communities. Marie Duplak spoke about the current immigration. She was born in Sianik, the capital of Lemkivshchyna where she received her education. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1970 and has become active in community organizations, such as the Organization for the Defense of Lemkivshchyna in America, the World Federation of Lemkos, the Research Foundation of Lemkivshchyna and the Millennium committee. She is also the editor of the magazine Lemkivshchyna. (Following is a condensed version of Marie Duplak’s panel presentation which has been freely translated.) The current so-called “third” Ukrainian immigration to the United States and Canada is composed of people who came from Poland in the late 50’s thru today. On the whole, this is a work-oriented immigration, with people seeking a better way of life. Yet there is a large segment of this group which asked for political asylum in the West and should be treated as political immigrants. In 1946-47 Ukrainians in southeastern Poland (Lem kivshchyna, Jaroslavshchyna and Nadsjanja) were sub ject to the “Visla Action” which destroyed large parts of Ukrainian communities (150,000 deaths); in 1946 a for cible displacement of 100,000 persons to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic; and the rest, about 200,000 were exiled to western Polish lands, so called “Ziemie Odzyskane”, (a post-World War II partitioning of Europe gave Poland these lands). Life was very difficult in these situations — one had to start from scratch in a strange environment, surrounded by foreigners, in a foreign land. Many of those exiled began to search for their roots — for families in the United States or Canada, so that thet could leave communist Poland for a better life. (Mrs. Duplak said that since 1970 there has been a great influx of immigrants from Poland, mainly Ukrainians who came here for “vacations” but never returned.) In 1982 an idea was born to establish group contact with the new immigrants. A lot of credit must be given to the Organization for the Defense of Lemkivshchyna, whose members better than anyone else, understand and sympathize with the lot of these people. In March of that year the first of such meetings was held, where new immigrants from Poland and Ukraine met with represen tatives of Ukrainian organizations and establishments, and with members of the Ukrainian community in New York. A second such meeting was held for students. (According to the speaker, the meeting for young peo ple was very successful, it was permeated with enthusi asm and friendliness. Each group showed great interest in the life style of the other — politically and socially.) The new wave of immigrants of the 70’s and 80’s composed primarily of young people, most of them are university graduated, all of them have a high school education. They readily joined Ukrainian businesses and firms which had been searching for young profes sional people to work for wages which are lower than those comparable to the American market. Thus, these young professionals enhanced the ranks of Ukrainian intelligentsia in the United States and Canada. Others have tried their luck by opening their own establishmentsirestaurants; today there are five Ukrain ian restaurants in New York City whose owners are newly-arrived immigrants from Poland. In all, their contribution toward the cultural life of the Ukrainian community is noteworthy. They have brought the love of Ukrainian music and song from Poland and continue to develop it here — examples: the ensemble “ Leleja” in Canada, orchestra “Zuravli” from Connecticut, or “Borkut” from Irvington, New Jersey. The speaker explained that these new immigrants frequently shy away from social and political contacts within the Ukrainian community. She mentioned several reasons, but the most important one is that these people have a skeptical and wary attitude toward organized social interaction, since in Poland organizational life was mandatory and government controlled. She stressed the fact that once these individuals become convinced that Ukrainian organizations in the U.S. and Canada are democratic in nature, they readily join in various endea vors. Mrs. Duplak said that a large percentage of youth making up the ranks of SUMA, for example, are child ren of new immigrants. But, she continued, the newly immigrated most frequently join the “Organization for the Defense of Lemkivshchyna” because its work is closest to their heart. The Ukrainian communities in the U.S. and Canada should welcome these new professionals, who look for freedom and the opportunity to express themselves and not only for material gain. The first contact the new immigrants have with the Ukrainian community members here, is at social events, where unfortunately many times they encounter an unfriendly atmosphere. This is due to the attitude of Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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