About us
Honorary Patron
Editorial Board and Web Team
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Our collective goal for this website is to reflect a Canada that is part of (in fact a leader in) a global community in which cultural diversity is cherished.
“The Hungarian Presence in Canada” website strives to present in a creative and appealing way the diverse experiences and contributions of Hungarian Canadians to Canada’s heritage and culture. To this end it explores and showcases Hungarian cultural identity as an integral part of Canada’s multicultural fabric. The site intends to be forward-looking and will ensure a voice for youth, even while it will help to preserve and enrich existing archival material, and to contribute to existing Canadian cultural content on the Internet.
The original impetus for the creation of this site was the opportunity provided by the 50th anniversary commemorations and celebrations of the arrival to Canada of more than 38,000 refugees in 1956/57. The many events and activities of the anniversary year 2006/7 helped to draw attention to Canada’s role in receiving and integrating the refugees – and to the experiences and achievements of many of the refugees themselves.
This web-site brings together artistically creative contemporary content – humanities, arts and culture, business, sport, science and technology. The content to be featured on this website has been designed to reflect the fundamental value which has been integral to Canada’s development as a nation: the successful integration of refugees and immigrants into Canadian life. We will be seeking out and providing artistic and literary content that speaks to the transitional nature of the refugee experience – of being homeless, dislocated in time and space – as well as the transformative nature of the immigration and integration process.
We will continue to place special emphasis on including second and third-generation Canadians of Hungarian (or mixed, multiple) origins and be a site of special interest to young Canadians of all backgrounds. To further this goal, over time, the site will attempt to reach visitors in Canada’s official languages as well as Hungarian.
We hope to explore – with the help and participation of our visitors – what it means to be a Hungarian-Canadian in today’s Canada and in a global world; and what it means to be a refugee in general. In this sense we would like the site to be of universal interest.