Addressing the Current Crisis in Canadian Multiculturalism

Zusammenfassung In diesem Artikel gebe ich einen Überblick über die Entstehung und Entwicklung des kanadischen Multikulturalismus als gesellschaftliche Zielvorstellung. Besondere Aufmerk-samkeit widme ich den Beziehungen zwischen " nationalen " und " ethnischen " Gruppen-kämpfen. Multikulturalismus wird hier weder als eine altruistische Umdeutung des Nationenverständnisses noch als eine Ideologie der Minderheiteneinhegung betrachtet. Vielmehr ist es ein sozial konstruierter Kompromiss, welcher aufgrund der Besonderheit des kanadischen Kontexts ungleiche Gruppenbeziehungen, ethnische Vielfalt und den Wunsch nach nationaler Einheit sowohl überbrückt als auch reproduziert. Zunächst behandele ich Kolonialisierung, Eroberung und Einwanderung bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg. Dann unter-suche ich die Uminterpretation der kanadischen Identität vom Dualismus zum Plura-lismus. Mein Hauptaugenmerk liegt auf den Ereignissen seit den frühen 1990er Jahren, als Kanadas " postmodernes Experiment " besonders attackiert wurde. Derzeit floriert der kanadische Multikulturalismus als Gesellschaftsbild, seine institutionellen Parameter haben sich aber grundlegend geändert. Résumé Dans cet article, nous proposons une vue d'ensemble de l'émergence et de l'évolution du multiculturalisme canadien comme projet sociétal. Nous accordons une attention particu-lière aux relations de lutte entre groupes « nationaux » et « ethniques ». Ici, le multicultu-ralisme n'est ni une redéfinition altruiste de la nation, ni une idéologie de l'enfermement des minorités. Il s'agit plutôt d'un compromis socialement construit qui, étant donné la particularité du contexte canadien, concilie – et reproduit – les relations de groupes iné-gaux, la diversité ethnique et le désir d'une collectivité nationale unifiée. Tout d'abord, nous abordons la colonisation, la conquête et l'immigration jusqu'à la Première Guerre mondiale. Ensuite, nous examinons la redéfinition de l'identité nationale canadienne du dualisme au pluralisme. Nous nous concentrons sur les événements depuis le début des années 1990 lorsque l' « expérience postmoderne » du Canada se voyait attaquée. De nos jours, le multiculturalisme canadien prospère en tant qu'imaginaire social, toutefois ses paramètres institutionnels se sont transformés de façon importante.

Given the global scope of migration, this paper explores the re-emerging concept of cosmopolitanism for its theoretical possibilities with respect to the process of integrating into an officially multicultural country. Nine possible positionings are tentatively identified and explored, starting from global variability, global interconnectedness, and global intercommunication. The resulting theorization provides support for a cosmopolitan approach for greater understanding of the realities of multiculturalism, thus signaling the need for a renewal of this policy.

2014

This article looks into the history of Canadian multiculturalism by surveying its political and economic background, its roots in political theory, its implementation by policy makers and its impact on Canadian cultural life, as well as the major challenges and criticisms it has been facing since the early 1970s. The government policy of multiculturalism was not an idealistic philosophy but a political necessity which was aimed at establishing a Canadian national identity to be shared by all. Although multiculturalism played an important role in helping minority cultures become visible and recognised by mainstream Canada, the difficulties in creating such a uniform national identity based on the diversity of minority cultures is demonstrated by exactly the works and theoretical debates which arose in the aftermath of the implementation of the multiculturalism policy.

Comparative and international education, 2016

In 1971 Canada was the first nation in the world to establish an official multiculturalism policy with an objective to assist cultural groups to overcome barriers to integrate into Canadian society while maintaining their heritage language and culture. Since then Canada’s practice and policy of multiculturalism have endured and been deemed as successful by many Canadians. As well, Canada’s multiculturalism policy has also enjoyed international recognition as being pioneering and effectual. Recent public opinion suggests that an increasing majority of Canadians identify multiculturalism as one of the most important symbols of Canada’s national identity. On the other hand, this apparent successful record has not gone unchallenged. Debates, critiques, and challenges to Canadian multiculturalism by academics and politicians have always existed to some degree since its policy inception over four decades ago. In the current international context there has been a growing assault on, and subsequent retreat from, multiculturalism in many countries. In Canada debates about multiculturalism continue to emerge and percolate particularly over the past decade or so. In this context, we are grappling with the following questions: • What is the future of multiculturalism and is it sustainable in Canada? • How is multiculturalism related to egalitarianism, interculturalism, racism, national identity, belonging and loyalties? • What role does multiculturalism play for youth in terms of their identities including racialization? • How does multiculturalism play out in educational policy and the classroom in Canada? These central questions are addressed by contributions from some of Canada’s leading scholars and researchers in philosophy, psychology, sociology, history, education, religious studies, youth studies, and Canadian studies. The authors theorize and discuss the debates and critiques surrounding multiculturalism in Canada and include some very important case studies to show how multiculturalism is practiced and contested in contemporary Canadian society.

Review of D. Forbes' Multiculturalism in Canada, *Academic Questions* 34/2 (Summer 2021).pdf, 2021

This paper retraces the debate between the main scholars of the multicultural approach and those of the intercultural approach, recently developed in the United Kingdom. After emphasizing the peculiarities and the criticism of multiculturalism, concerning the recognition of diversities and the inclusion of foreigners, the comparison of such model with the actual challenges faced by the United Kingdom, marked by the dynamicity and differentiation of the ethnic minorities , leads to consider some of the intercultural theses as a better approach for representing and reacting to the ethnic and religious diver-sities. Finally, the applicability of inter culturalism was tested on the case study of Quebec, through a revision of the theories of Gerard Bouchard and Charles Taylor.

At the beginning of the 21st century, many countries until the 1990s implemented multicultural policies that have backtracked. This article examines how multiculturalism as an idea and normative framework of immigrant integration evolved in Canada, the country that initiated it. Juxtaposing two recent time periods, the 1990s and the early 2000s, I conduct an analysis of dominant media and government discourses, which are interpreted against the backdrop of relevant policy changes. The theoretical framework underlines the relevance of socioethnic leveraging, which takes places as one group is constructed as socially, culturally, or morally more (or less) deviant from the dominant norm than the other. The outcome of leveraging can be fairly integrative. It can also reinforce minority marginalization. The analysis documents the importance of Québécois nationalism for the construction of Canadian multicultural identity in the 1990s and its relative absence during the reinvigoration of an Anglo-Saxon Canadian national core in the following decade. The article concludes that, from a comparative perspective, multiculturalism in Canada remains strong. However, its meaning has changed from being " about us " to being " about them. " Hence, although it was originally meant to be a national identity for all Canadians, it now risks becoming a minority affair. The fact that even in Canada multiculturalism has lost much of its original meaning should serve as a wake-up all. It suggests, among others, that the relationship between the national majority and minority groups need rethinking.

Canadian Diversity/Diversité canadienne, 2012

"This paper argues that normative debates about the relative merits of interculturalism in Québec are evidence of a particular type of nationalism in both Québec and Canada, one that continues to centre the experiences of the “two founding” nations of Canada. In order to resituate this debate, I locate interculturalism within the rise of tolerance discourses in Western liberal democracies since the 1980s. The first section of the paper presents a brief overview of some of the major claims for the rise of interculturalism in Québec. The second section of the paper provides a concise analysis of the racial politics of the intercultural discourse in Québec. By doing so, I argue that despite their respective legitimacy, interculturalism and multiculturalism must be read as continued attempts to manage and limit expressions of racialized diversity in the social and political realms."