Last week marked the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since that grim day, more than 185,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Canada. And, according to some estimates, some 90 per cent have put down roots here and want to stay.
In the upcoming April issue of Maclean’s, we're publishing a memoir by one such woman. Olha Men was working for the German Red Cross and raising her daughter happily in an industrial city in eastern Ukraine—until 2022, when the bombs started to drop. She was able to obtain an emergency work permit to move to Canada. Once she arrived in Ottawa, a generous family hosted Olha and her daughter for eight months so they could get settled. Her daughter found a school she likes and Olha landed a job at a social service agency. She now helps newcomers locate housing and apply for social insurance numbers and health cards. She has come full circle.
But will she be able to stay in Ottawa? She wants to. Olha doesn’t qualify for a pathway to permanent residency, which is currently only available to Ukrainians who have Canadian family members (or family members with PR status). Instead she’ll try her luck and join the hundreds of thousands of other temporary residents who are applying for a spot. “The last piece of the puzzle,” she writes anxiously in her personal essay, “is figuring out how we can stay in Canada permanently.”
—Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief
