page_title: Ukrainian diaspora
section_title: 1880–1920
hierarchical_section_title: Ukrainian diaspora / History / 1880–1920
caption_attribution_description: English: Ukrainian diaspora: Ukrainians in Austro-Hungarian Monarchy 1890 (Prnjavor, Bosnia). (Ukr. Українська діаспора в австро-угорської імперії.)
context_page_description: The Ukrainian diaspora is the global community of ethnic Ukrainians, especially those who maintain some kind of connection, even if ephemeral, to the land of their ancestors and maintain their feeling of Ukrainian national identity within their own local community.
context_section_description: In the last quarter of the 19th century due to the agrarian resettlement, a massive emigration of Ukrainians from Austro-Hungary to the Americas and from the Russian Empire to the Urals and Asia (Siberia and Kazakhstan) occurred.
  A secondary movement was the emigration under the auspices of the Austro-Hungarian government of 10,000 Ukrainians from Galicia to Bosnia.
  Furthermore, due to Russian agitation, 15,000 Ukrainians left Galicia and Bukovina and settled in Russia. Most of these settlers later returned.
  Finally in the Russian Empire, some Ukrainians from the Chełm and Podlaskie regions, as well as most of the Jews, emigrated to the Americas.
  Some of those who left their homeland returned. For example, from the 393,000 Ukrainians who emigrated to the United States of America, 70,000 returned.
  Most of the emigrants to the United States of America worked in the construction and mining industries. Many worked in the US on a temporary basis, to earn remittances.
  In the 1890s, Ukrainian agricultural settlers emigrated to first to Brazil, and Argentina. However, the writings of Galician professor and nationalist Dr. Joseph Oleskiw were influential in redirecting that flow to Canada. He visited an already-established Ukrainian block settlement, which had been founded by Iwan Pylypiw, and met with Canadian immigration officials. His two pamphlets on the subject praised the United States as a place for wage labour, but stated that Canada was the best place for agricultural settlers to obtain free land. By contrast he was fiercely critical of the treatment Ukrainian settlers had received in South America. After his writings, the slow trickle of Ukrainians to Canada greatly increased.
  Before the start of the First World War, almost 500,000 Ukrainians emigrated to the Americas. This can be broken down by country as follows:
  to the United States of America: almost 350,000
  to Canada: almost 100,000
  to Brazil and Argentina: almost 50,000
  In 1914, the Ukrainian diaspora in the Americas numbered about 700,000-750,000 people, located as follows:
  500,000-550,000 in the United States of America
  almost 100,000 in Canada
  approximately 50,000 in Brazil
  15,000-20,000 in Argentina
  Most of the emigrants to the Americas belonged to the Greek Catholic Church. This led to the creation of Greek Catholic bishops in Canada and the United States of America. The need for solidarity lead to the creation of Ukrainian religious, political, and social organisations. These new Ukrainian organisations maintained links with the homeland, from which books, media, priests, cultural figures, and new ideas arrived. Furthermore, local influence, as well as influence from their homeland, led to the process of a national re-awakening. At times, the diaspora was ahead of their times in this re-awakening.
  Emigrants from the Transcarpathian and Lemko regions created their own organisations and had their own separate Greek Catholic church hierarchy (Ruthenian Catholic Church). These emigrants are often considered to be Rusyns or Ruthenians and are considered by some to be distinct from other Ukrainians. However, in Argentina and Brazil, immigrants from Transcarpathia and Lemkivshchyna did identify themselves as Ukrainians.
  The majority of the Ukrainian diaspora in the Americas focused on freeing the nation and obtaining independence. Thus, during the First World War and the fight for freedom in Ukraine (1919–1920), the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States of America and Canada actively sought to get the governments to support their cause. An interesting note is the role the Ruthenians played to convince the United States' government about the inclusion of the Transcarpathian region into the Czechoslovak Republic in 1919,. The Ukrainian diaspora sent delegates to the Paris Peace Conference.
  On the other hand, the Ukrainian diaspora in the Russian Empire, and especially in Asia, was primarily agrarian. After 1860, the diaspora was primarily located in the Volga and Ural Regions, while in the last quarter of that century, due to a lack of space for settlement, the dia
caption: Ukrainians in Austro-Hungarian Monarchy 1890, modern Prnjavor, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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