The Canadian-American Review of Hungarian Studies - Vol. 4 ... - EPA

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the vast majority of Canadians. The postwar decades also witnessed thegradual decline of nativistic antagonisms against immigrant ethnicgroups. At long last, "New Canadians" could enjoy a greater share ofthe wealth, and a greater degree of security that their new homeland hadto offer.The Magyars inCanadaThe first small groups of Hungarians arrived in Canada in the secondhalf of the 1880's, but it was not until the turn of the century that theybegan to migrate to this country in significant numbers. According tothe very unreliable statistics of the 1911 census, there were 11,648 ofthem in Canada that year. 5 The First World War stopped their influx,but the gates were opened again during the 1920's. Between 1924 and1930, a veritable flood of Magyars came to Canada, especially to theprairie provinces, driven by a mixture of political and economic considerations.Following the Great War, the peacemakers dismemberedhistoric Hungary. The economic situation of truncated Hungary wasvery weak. She had some industries but very little in the way of mineraland energy resources; and she had much agricultural land but fewmarkets for produce. But worst off were those Magyars whose homeswere transferred to the successor states: Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia,and an enlarged Romania. Hungary could absorb only a few of theseunfortunate Magyars. The United States, the traditional recipient ofHungarian immigrants prior to 1914, virtually closed its gates to EastEuropean migration after the war. Canada remained one of the fewcountries to admit Hungarians.The victims of the postwar dislocations in central Eastern Europebegan arriving in Canada in the mid-1920's. Although many of thesenewcomers were really political refugees, they were not admitted assuch. They came as agricultural labourers, even though some of themhad been craftsmen, landowners and members of the professions.Along with these refugees from the successor states came many poorpeasants and landless farm workers who left impoverished Hungarymainly for economic reasons.During the Great Depression, Canada's gates were once more shut tolarge-scale immigration; but return to normalcy after the Second WorldWar meant that the country could again admit a great number ofimmigrants. In this period Hungarians came in two distinct waves. Atthe end of the 1940's, the so-called "displaced persons" arrived. Theywere political exiles of the war and of its immediate aftermath. Less
than a decade later they were followed by the "refugees," the participantsand victims of the 1956 anti-Communist uprising in Hungary.Their arrival swelled the number of Hungarians in Canada to 126,220by the time of the 1961 census.The Struggle forSurvivalUntil recently, the lot of Canada's Hungarian immigrants had beendifficult. The early settlers had endured many hardships and deprivationsbefore getting their homesteads established. Although after manyyears of hard work in an inhospitable climate many of them hadachieved freedom from material want, they suffered continued spiritual,cultural and social deprivation. Except for the fortunate few whohad settled in fairly compact Hungarian colonies, the majority continuedto live in the isolation of their prairie farmsteads, far removedfrom centres of ethnic cultural and religious life.The condition of the Hungarian worker was probably even lessenviable. A labourer was buffeted from one lumber camp to another, orfrom one mine to the next. In times of unemployment he was oftenentirely without income. Unless he settled in a city, he could hardlymaintain any meaningful contacts with Hungarian religious or socialorganizations.The Depression exacerbated the situation of both immigrant farmersand workers. The former lost most of their income, the latter sooner orlater forfeited their jobs. True, the farmer would not starve, unless hedefaulted on his debts; but the labourer was confronted with the grimtask of feeding himself and his family without any income. To add to thenewcomer's predicament, recent arrivals who went on relief riskeddeportation. Not until the war years and the postwar period did theeconomic situation of Hungarian-Canadians improve markedly. Thereturn of normal climate and prosperity to the prairie farms broughtrelief for the agriculturalist, while the growth of employment in thecities ended the labourer's plight. The rapid growth of Canadian manufacturingalso meant that an increasing number of Hungarian-Canadianscould settle in urban centres. There, because of greater concentration,they often had their social, cultural and religious needs satisfiedas well.DiscriminationThe struggle for the daily loaf of bread was not the only problem
Page 1 and 2: Canadian-American Review of Hungari
Page 9: the best possible settlers who woul
Page 13 and 14: Sociologists have yet to explain sa
Page 15: fifteen minutes, and spent the rest
Page 18 and 19: from the "Canadian poetry" of Icela
Page 20 and 21: garian community of Western Canada,
Page 22 and 23: lowed translations from other, more
Page 24 and 25: which took place in the pages of th
Page 27 and 28: from teaching in 1968, Kirkconnell
Page 29 and 30: Magyar poets and writers to the rea
Page 31 and 32: tive of his helpful attitude and un
Page 33: 33. Kirkconnell, A Slice of Canada,
Page 36 and 37: The groaning of the slaves on Egypt
Page 38 and 39: ecause most such lines are imbedded
Page 40 and 41: ;Two spheres contend with one anoth
Page 42 and 43: matched it to this feeble hurdy-gur
Page 44 and 45: NOTES1. The only full-length study
Page 46 and 47: terest in Hungarian literature, has
Page 48 and 49: limitations of Bowring and others:
Page 50 and 51: Jones' Five Hungarian WritersJ 4 Su
Page 53 and 54: REVIEW ARTICLEHungarian Poetry in E
Page 55 and 56: ooks written in English. A table of
Page 57 and 58: passive, or into noun phrases in En
Page 59 and 60: REVIEW ARTICLEHungarian Religious P
Page 61 and 62:
magas és a mély magánhangzójú
Page 63 and 64:
SPECIAL SECTIONToldiAn Epic Poem (1
Page 65 and 66:
CANTO ONE"He lifted, with one hand,
Page 67 and 68:
"Who should be squire of this whole
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What meant this hubbub in a widow's
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"Lad, here's your share! Don't say
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The heavy stone flies on: where wil
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The homes of moorhen, plover, gull
Page 77 and 78:
Perhaps I'll shed my blood, some no
Page 79 and 80:
CANTO FIVENicholas went wandering a
Page 81 and 82:
Her tongue was like a coulter in th
Page 83 and 84:
Rosemary pots mourned on its window
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Such were her words. No more would
Page 87 and 88:
As if a nest of hornets rose to sti
Page 89 and 90:
Upon an isle, by a Czech's hand the
Page 95 and 96:
REVIEW ARTICLEQuo Vadis Transylvani
Page 97 and 98:
Hungarians in Rumania in terms of t
Page 99 and 100:
down by serious shortcomings in bot
Page 101 and 102:
alanced presentation of the Vienna
Page 104 and 105:
talent enables Wass to depict the s
Page 106 and 107:
Carpathian Federation, and printed
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Now and then, however, this rule de
Page 110 and 111:
temper such an indictment by recogn
Page 112 and 113:
OUR CONTRIBUTORS (continued from pa
Page 115:
TO THOSE WISHING TO SUBMIT MANUSCRI
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