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Province home to Ukraine’s growing, highly literate refugee community eager to work and grateful to be somewhere safe

Publication date: November 17, 2022 • 16 hours ago • 10 minutes read 5 Comments Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zozulia arrived in St. John’s on May 9 and now works for PAL Airlines. Photo by PAL Airlines

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Iryna Zozulia is 28 years old, a Virgo, delightfully talkative and suitable for her job as a customer service representative working at the check-in counter at St. Petersburg International Airport. John for PAL Airlines, a regional airline based in Newfoundland and the capital of Labrador.

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She is full of questions for the travelers, who, being Newfoundlanders in general, are usually not shy about asking a few questions of their own, including, because of her accent, where she is from. So a “guessing game” ensues, as they choose somewhere in Europe — often France and Germany — or Montreal. By clicking the subscribe button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. Postmedia Network Inc. | 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4 | 416-383-2300

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The search continues until she proudly reveals that she is a Ukrainian refugee and is building a new life for herself and her son in a place she knew nothing about except that it was “cold” and very away, before her arrival in St. John is in May.

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“It’s much better here than I could have even imagined,” Zozulia said, a few hours before a weekday afternoon shift at the airport. “PAL even sent me to work in Wabush and I saw the northern lights. It was amazing – the world stopped spinning – and I made a wish at that moment to bring my son here and now he’s been here with me for over a month.”

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It’s been nearly nine months since Russia invaded Ukraine, displacing millions of Ukrainians, more than 100,000 of whom have since come to Canada as refugees. That number is likely to rise, as nearly 700,000 Ukrainians have applied for Canadian visas, which continue to be processed as the war continues. From the beginning, stories of firefights in once-quiet suburbs of Kiev, videos of apartment buildings targeted by missiles, evidence of war crimes and photos of citizens with bags and small children in both hands, running for the Polish border with walled hearts on this side of the Atlantic. A member of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces stands guard at a checkpoint in Kyiv on March 20, 2022. Photo by Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images The Canadians wanted to help, but the discussion in St. John’s went from what could be done to making emergency airlifts. The province is now home to a growing, highly literate, emerging community of Ukrainian refugees, some 1,200 plus, from a wide range of backgrounds — from engineers and IT wizards to doctors and truckers and everything in between — who are willing to work and grateful to it’s somewhere safe.

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“Ukrainians have brought with them tens of millions of dollars worth of education, talent and skills,” said Gerry Byrne, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Minister of Immigration, Population Growth and Skills. “They are already enriching our province.” PAL, for one, now has 18 Ukrainians on the payroll. There are some experienced pilots who go through the process to obtain a license to fly in Canada, as well as accountants, ground crew, financial professionals and flight operators. Jake Trainor, CEO of PAL Airlines. Photo by PAL Aerospace Jake Trainor, the airline’s CEO and former Canadian Army helicopter pilot, is eager to hire more, and not just for their skills, but because of their drive to make the opportunity count. “These people are great ambassadors for the company,” he said. “They become extremely loyal, dedicated employees and this further builds on a culture of family, caring and success, which is what we want to be known for as an organisation. It’s contagious.”

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PAL, an airline with a reputation for flying to rugged, remote communities, and CanAid Logistics Ltd., a provider of ground humanitarian aid services, wanted to get involved when the province opened a Ukrainian Family Support Office in Warsaw in March — the only province which he did – to recruit refugees interested in coming to a place most had never heard of. Trainor and the province talked, a plane came, and on May 9, the original Poland-to-St. John’s, a provincially funded airlift, went down with 166 Ukrainians on board, including a chatty Virgin. Zozulia was working as a translator before leaving for Warsaw when a PAL employee recognized her mentality as a favorite and offered her a job in St. John’s. There have been two back-to-back airlifts, with a fourth planned for early December, and there are no plans, according to Byrne, to stop a $7 million program.

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“What we know to be true is that more begets more,” he said. “And when you create a successful community, within the larger community, that successful community will want to stay and grow.” What started as a humanitarian initiative has become a manpower windfall for the province and its business community, which is struggling to attract and retain skilled workers, even those born and raised there. The first airlift of refugees from Ukraine landed in St. John’s, May 9, 2022. Photo courtesy of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador PAL is not the only organization tapping Ukraine’s talent pool. Fort Amherst Healthcare operates three assisted care facilities across the province, with two in St. John’s. COVID-19 exacerbated a pre-existing health care workforce shortage, but then came the refugees. The company now has five Ukrainians on staff — namely, a nurse, a medical student, a radiologist, an apprentice cook and a dietician — and has just completed another mass hire that will bring the number of Ukrainians to 11 in total.

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“In some cases, Ukrainian Canadians bring medical knowledge to the table and we certainly understand that we benefit from that,” said Loralee Wettlaufer, general manager at one of the St. Louis facilities. John’s of Fort Amherst. Her hope is that the refugees will successfully go through whatever retraining and licensing hoops are required to make the most of their skills in Canada, whether it’s at her company or at a nearby hospital, where the shortage of health workers is equally intense. The technology sector, building and construction, large retail and wholesale stores, shipping companies, hipster barbershops, restaurants, hotels and boutique inns have also benefited from the influx of Ukrainians.

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But there is another side to the refugee story. Being away, when war has broken out, is not easy. Refugees try to look ahead. The reality is that it is impossible not to look back. Colorful houses on a street in St. John’s. Photo by Getty Images/iStockphoto For example, Oleh and Anastasiia Sysa and their boys, Danny and David, moved into a new house on the outskirts of Kyiv in June 2021. Both worked at a commercial airline — Oleh as a captain, Anastasiia in management. They were solidly “middle class,” planned for purchases big and small, dreamed of family trips, and loved watching their children, ages 11 and seven, grow up. “It’s very difficult to talk about the future, because a year ago we had plans,” Anastasia said. “Now I’m sure that every Ukrainian lives, like us, with today, because you know you have this day and you have to take care of those who are next to you, because you don’t know what tomorrow will be.”

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The Ukrainian diaspora in Newfoundland and Labrador is under the knowledge of life as it changed overnight. It is a painful memory, tinged with hastily packed bags, abandoned homes and the loss of security. March was pure chaos for Sissas. Poland was flooded with refugees. Starting over in St. John’s is a happier subject, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t difficult. “All we could think about was where we could be safe, and Canada represented a safe haven,” Oleh said. We are lucky, so far from home, in the middle of the ocean, and still able to do what we love Anastasia Sissa On the great Canadian map of…