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Abstract
Multiculturalism is a concept discussed today in the scientific circles as well as among the public. In Canada, this topic generates heated clashes between the experts and community. As the analysis shows, it is a heated dispute where people are divided into two camps, those who advocate for diversity and their opponents emphasizing the need to revive the core Canadian culture. Both sides of the conflict agree that Canada has become one of the most multicultural countries in the world due to its politics of inclusion and loyalty to all cultures. The historical facts imply that multiculturalism in Canada has become a successful experience only due to the unique model implemented by the country’s policies. In the past Canada forced the immigrants to assimilate to the country by learning one or two of its national languages and follow the ethical and legal rules applied in the country. As it was reported, nowadays these practices are not implemented, which, according to some opponents of multiculturalism, result in the cultural frictions. Also, it was indicated that while in some Canadian cities, like Toronto and Vancouver, the immigrant population is nearly 50 percent, the episodes of violence towards the visible immigrants were reported. Thus, the research concluded that while the Canadian population is diverse and multicultural, there is a need to improve the policies of the country in terms of assimilation and implement educational interventions among the natives in terms of tolerance and inclusion of all cultures in Canada.
Key terms: multiculturalism, diversity, Canada, inclusion
Introduction
With the rapid development of technologies and intensification of globalization, the Western nations realized that ethnocentrism and ultimate nationalism do not match the requirements of the modern world. Nowadays, a lot of European, American, Australian, and Canadian officials vouch for the diversity and multiculturalism in their countries. As this issue has become popular nowadays, it is customary to think that multiculturalism is the phenomenon of the contemporary world. However, as the facts show, the migration of the population is an old trend and modern Western cities have been multicultural for a long period of time, yet it is only today the public and experts began to concentrate their attention on this issue. Moreover, multiculturalism today is perceived through different angles, where the proponents of diversification of the cities advocate for the inclusion of all cultures, while their opponents insist that this phenomenon produce certain troubles for the citizens.
Before analyzing multiculturalism within the frames of a particular nation, it is essential to identify what this term really means. According to Jones (2000), multiculturalism is the preservation of distinctive cultures in a particular nation or society that can be considered as unified or ethnocentric. There are a lot of approaches to multicultural education that view it from different angles. Kirova (2008) proposed a taxonomy illustrating various perspectives towards multiculturalism by making suggestions that there are several types of multiculturalism that can be divided into “the conservative, liberal, pluralist, left-essentialist, and critical multiculturalism” (p. 111). Considering such perspectives, it is important to note that different types of multiculturalism can exist within one society, community, or nation and to be embodied in distinctive opinions on the matter.
Consequently, both the advocates and opponents of multiculturalism and diversity have to take into account several factors before pursuing their agenda. First of all, this phenomenon requires a sound and adequate approach to the national policies, legislation, social developments, and cultural identity. Secondly, a host nation has to consider the possibility of cultural frictions and clashes between the representatives of different cultures. Thirdly, the country has also to pay attention to the matters of national security, especially in the light of the modern events.
Finally, the conditions of living in the host nation have to match the expectations of both the natives and the newcomers. It is a tough task to attain these goals and a lot of nations still struggle with the inclusion and cultural identity. However, there is one country that is believed to be a “heaven” for the newcomers due to variety of reasons, from the excellent conditions of living to the willingness to accept all sorts of people. This country is Canada and it is customary to consider it as a harbor for harmonic living of multiple cultures.
Discussion
Canadian Multiculturalism
Canada is one of the most specific and complicated nations in the world today. While it does not have controversial history like the U.S. and it became the epitome of diversity and inclusion, the country still maintains certain ethnocentrism. From one point, Canada helped a great number of diverse groups to flee oppressive governments and tyranny and helped them to assimilate in the country. From the other hand, today the multiculturalism of Canadian cities is criticized by various experts, including the foreign ones. Since the very beginning the Canada has become a home for persons with different cultural backgrounds. Throughout the decades, immigrants from Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, India, Middle East, South America, and Southeast Asia have become an integral part of the Canadian culture. There were issues in the past, when the country was not so welcoming making a lot of newcomers to be granted poor jobs, housing, and fewer advantages than the natives.
There is a misconception about Canada that the country has “grown up” as a diversified society. It is more correct to say that the nation growth and success in the ethnocultural relations was contributed by the indigenous people living in this land, effective policies in immigration, and the ability to accommodate everyone who came to the country. It is possible to claim that multiculturalism in Canada has been embodied in a peaceful co-existence, yet there were certain frictions in the 1990s. Canada was the first country that adopted multiculturalism in the 1970s, which was followed by the serious clashes in the 1990s, as the social outcomes of large wave of immigration has intensified during this period (Garcea, Kirova, & Wong, 2008). During those days, the country felt like “the centre cannot hold” in terms of national identity.
However, in several years the crime rates decreased substantially, immigrants managed to attain good educational results, and labor market showed its willingness to provide the place for everyone. Later on, initial anxiety involving multiculturalism in Canada had gone. It is possible to compare Canadian diversity with that in the U.S., which is quite surprising. While both countries have the similar economic, political, and social developments and both are considered multicultural nations, in the U.S. the fight for national identity gained grotesque forms. The main explanation why Canada is “winning” this comparison is the practical approach the country adapted for its multicultural goals. Effective public policies and institution building helped the country to become one nation, despite the cultural difference. Issues concerning the diverse citizenship and the processes of assimilation, as well as the requirement for necessary education, have become essential components of the multicultural growth.
According to several studies multiculturalism in Canada mostly concerns the rights of immigrants to preserve their cultural identity and not to be afraid about prejudgment in the society in terms of discrimination (McGregor, 2009). Therefore, for the minorities multiculturalism plays a role of the right to recognize their national identity. At the same time, Canadian multiculturalism requires the newcomers to be integrated into the society in order to be accepted as the full time members. This type of multiculturalism presupposes assimilation into the larger group, not the development a separate “society within a society”. According to the researchers, in order these changes to be launched effectively, the country’s officials had to make sure laws, infrastructure, attitude, and other factors of mainstream thinking had to change in order to accommodate the newcomers.
At the same time, the immigrants were obliged to follow national laws and follow the ethical norms traditional to the Canadian society. At some point, Canadian multiculturalism is a compromise between the natives and the immigrants. Wong (2008) conceptualized such multiculturalism as “a social engineering process to shape ethno-cultural relations, relying on the central building blocks of integration, the manipulation of theories of citizenship” (p. 12). According to this framework, the success of the Canadian example is encapsulated in effective educational strategy and democratic governance.
In practice, the model developed by the Canadian works only because the natives and the newcomers made an agreement to maintain the mutually benefiting relationship. He benefits are experienced by both sides, as due to the socio-cultural advantages and economic gains it is possible to sacrifice certain individual and group interests in order to achieve positive result. It is a dialectical process that involves understanding at every level. In the opposite case, the model will not work, as it is shown by the example of the U.S. It is quite obvious that the relationship demands mutual trust and patterns of sufficient social interactions. In order to make these interactions productive, there have to be a partnership of equal citizens despite the cultural background; the responsibilities in this case have to be identified. Moreover, maintenance of inclusion demands both interdependence and the sense of self-efficacy.
Evidently, current structure of governance existing in Canada is more about creating systems of co-working in the governmental and social frameworks that underline existence within a mutually acceptable environment, transparency, and responsibility. As it is crucial to develop trust and stable environment, the fostering of commitment, collaboration, assistance, and mutual understanding have to be executed on national and within-the-group levels. Canada has created a conceptual domain to improve multicultural goals by utilizing the governmental power, community organizations, system of education that produced effective results.
Criticism of Canadian Multiculturalism
However, there are experts that constantly criticize the multiculturalism in Canada by claiming that it has a negative impact on its core culture. It was emphasized that numerous languages spoken in the country presents a problem, as the national identity of Canadians are disputed (O’Connor, 2012). For the opponents of multiculturalism, this phenomenon presents a threat to the cohesion and anchor of the national identity. Particularly, the opposition took a linguistic domain as the main area of criticism claiming that earlier immigrants were forced to learn English or/and French in order to live in Canada, while today it is not in practice any more (O’Connor, 2012).
The scholars present the language retention rates by the immigrants as the main support of their criticism claiming that modern politics of Canada does not rely on the democratic values, but acts as the destroyer of the core national values. However, one of the opponents of the multiculturalism claimed that the main problem is not in the diversity or inability to accept of other culture, but the rise of the intention to preserve not only national identity, but the entire culture and customs when moving to the other country, even if it contradicts the laws and the concepts of the host state (O’Connor, 2012).
Moreover, some of the experts emphasize that today’s aggressive promotion of multiculturalism generates the opposite results, as it imposes segregation, exaggerated political correctness, and punishment of those who does not support the “modern” views (Bascaramurty, 2014). At one point, certain experts claim that today’s multiculturalism in Canada has nothing to do with the model utilized by the officials several decades earlier. However, it is important to dispute this position by looking at the problem through a different prism. First of all, the aggressive desire to preserve native customs, traditions, and values roots in the fear to get lost in to the Western culture. To be frank, it has to be noted that the Western ideology has become particular pervasive for a lot of geographic areas, even the most remote places. Little by little, the core identity, culture, and national traditions are substituted by the generalized Western way of life.
Nowadays, this process is especially easy to observe due to the intensified globalization that eventually blurs the lines between the cultural identities. The reality of the modern days is quite clear. It is almost impossible to maintain ethnocentric culture in the modern circumstances and it is also hard to preserve all elements of national identity without the assimilation in the host country. At some point, it is possible to admit that neither of camps is right regarding the multiculturalism in the Canadian society. Immigration to another country presupposes assimilation even if the country executes the framework of inclusion. At the same time, the host country that claims it welcomes members of all cultures has to make sure that the relative policies are implemented and neither of the cultural groups is prejudged or discriminated against.
Multiculturalism in Toronto and Vancouver
At the same time, it is also important to analyze the multiculturalism within the borders of certain cities in order to get the idea how this phenomenon works in Canada. Vancouver is usually considered as one of the most diverse cities in Canada with less racial segregation than any region in the country. According to the estimations, it has always been a multicultural place with a large proportion of the immigrants from China, Japan, Sikhs, and the sizable amount of the aboriginal people (Statistics Canada, 2011). The statistics provide the information that the vast majority of the immigrants in Vancouver are the representatives from China and Taiwan as well as ex-pats from Hong Kong. There is no significant connection to religion in Vancouver. According to the estimations, around 49% of the population in the city is not religious, while the rest are divided into a variety of religions evenly divided among the confessions (Statistics Canada, 2011).
Toronto is another good example of the inclusion and celebration of diversity in its borders. According to census, 49.97% of the population of Toronto were born abroad and came to the country through immigration (Statistics Canada, 2011). At the same time, according to the latest estimations, immigrants in Toronto have been attacked by the locals due to the intensification of the anti-immigration ideas in the last several years (Roth, 2014). According to the reports, the situation in Toronto is not a new issue, as the difficulties with inclusion have been expressed earlier in other cities as well. Each of these problems relate to the urban multiculturalism in Canada. The big cities like Vancouver and Toronto hold a bigger amount of immigrants than the rural areas and the smaller cities.
There is a reason for this phenomenon. First of all, it is easier for a person to accommodate in the urban area where the quantity of jobs is higher and the ability to find good housing attracts more people. At the same time, the frictions between the cultures in the urban areas are more likely due to the density of the population and the rhythm of life. At the same time, it was reported that in Toronto, due to the difficulties with housing, the immigrants tend to settle down in suburbs rather than living in the city, as it is more expensive (Kopun & Keung, 2007). Therefore, it is possible to estimate that the newcomers with eventually disseminate across the entire country more evenly.
Overall, the trends in the modern Canada show that the country may be indeed the most multicultural in the world due to its model of assimilation and inclusion of the newcomers to the society. The tendencies noticed in Vancouver and Toronto revealed that the situation is not ideal and, moreover, the entire case began to resemble the issues in the U.S. with its mass protests and cases of extreme racism. Canada is not a racist country, as since the 1970s the state managed to provide home for an enormous amount of immigrants with no serious problems reported. It is possible to take Toronto as the evidence of this case, as literally half of its population is formed by the immigrants. Yet, as the modern realities show, the situation is about to change in the nearest several years. With the immigration growing each year, the dissemination of the immigrants will change as well. It is possible that in the nearest future, the immigrants will outgrow the natives.
Conclusion
Several decades ago the research in multiculturalism was considered extremism and even terrorism, as it as believed that this issue glorifies the separatist ideas and provokes unrest in the community (Saravanabhavan, 1997). However, despite the fact that idea of multiculturalism is not a new one, the difficulties in its implementation in the Canadian society related only to the inability to find balance between the cultural majority and minority. Further on, the religious movements tend to deny multiculturalism from the other point of view.
For instance, the proponents of fundamentalist Christian movements, Hasidic Jews, and Muslims view multiculturalism as the threat to their confessions, as the “multicultural framework promoted ‘alternative’ way of life free of prejudice and stereotypes” (Banks, 1993). However, the situation in Canada is more positive than in the U.S. the country did not have that frustrating experience with radical racism and slavery. Therefore, the cultural frictions between different groups emerge in local cases rather than at the level of the nation.
At the same time, the model of multiculturalism in Canada may be under threat, as the contemporary trends in the inability to assimilate and certain resistance to the newcomers as the result may destroy the peaceful co-existence of both the majority and the minorities. At the same time, it is already difficult to call the natives as the majority, as nearly half of the Toronto’s population is immigrants. While Toronto cannot be taken as the example for the entire nation, it is important to note that a great part of the modern citizens in Canada tend to be persons who were born in the other cities. In this case, if the current trends continue and the immigrants will resist assimilating, the outcomes will be worse.
Multiculturalism has gone through difficult times in Canadian history and it still struggles to achieve the acceptance of different proponents. In the 21st century, the ideas of equality are welcomed by many Western nations, however there are those who oppose it. While the main strategy has changed, new ideas challenge the old model of inclusion in Canada. Multiculturalism develops rapidly in the country due to the support from different movements and the immigrants themselves. It is possible to conclude that the inability to embrace the importance of assimilation approach and prejudice against the process stagnates the evolution and integration of the newcomers into the society. Nowadays, the main aim of multiculturalism is not only to foster the diversity, but also to unite individuals of different cultural heritage though by involving them to participate in the larger structure and embrace the values of the Canadian core culture. At the same time, both sides of the conflict have to undergo certain transformations as well for becoming a productive society and increase its ability to provide more homes for those who need it.
There are also differences in the methods of application of multiculturalism into the society. For a long time, multiculturalism has existed as the abstract domain where the experts did not know a lot about. At the same time, today Canada has a wide variety of population clusters that can educate the newcomers about the accountability, responsibility, and ability to become productive members of the society without being excluded from it culturally and socially. It is possible to claim that Canada has become such country with its cities full of the immigrants and the ability to help more persons who in need. The country has become the most diverse and multicultural nation due to its hospitality, intelligence, high ethical standards, culture of inclusion, and practical thinking enabling the country to reap benefits from its multicultural position in the world.
References
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