Making Middle-Class Multiculturalism


Book Description

In the 1950s and 1960s, immigration bureaucrats in the Department of Citizenship and Immigration played an important yet unacknowledged role in transforming Canada’s immigration policy. In response to external economic and political pressures for change, high-level bureaucrats developed new admissions criteria gradually and experimentally while personally processing thousands of individual immigration cases per year. Making Middle-Class Multiculturalism shows how bureaucrats’ perceptions and judgements about the admissibility of individuals – in socioeconomic, racial, and moral terms – influenced the creation of formal admissions criteria for skilled workers and family immigrants that continue to shape immigration to Canada. A qualitative content analysis of archival documents, conducted through the theoretical lens of a cultural sociology of immigration policy, reveals that bureaucrats’ interpretations of immigration files generated selection criteria emphasizing not just economic utility, but also middle-class traits and values such as wealth accumulation, educational attainment, entrepreneurial spirit, resourcefulness, and a strong work ethic. By making "middle-class multiculturalism" a demographic reality and basis of nation-building in Canada, these state actors created a much-admired approach to managing racial diversity that has nevertheless generated significant social inequalities.




Multiculturalism and Immigration in Canada


Book Description

Multiculturalism in Canada offers a solid introduction to the history and development of the ideology of multiculturalism in Canada. This ideology, which has become the primary designator of Canadian society, began in the early 1970s when vocal elements in the population who were neither English nor French strongly responded to the investigations of the Committee on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. Given Canada's early racist tendencies, the establishment of multiculturalism was a remarkable shift in public thinking. Many issues associated with immigration have arisen in the public debates around multiculturalism. Some people are convinced that it is a pernicious ideology that enforces the ghettoisation of those different from the mainstream. Others see dangers in the way some aspects of multiculturalism are merely tokens of an all-inclusive society. Still others contend that the voices of ethnicities aside from those of the two charter groups -- English and French -- are scarcely heard and, that worse, those marginalised voices are appropriated by mainstream writers. On the whole, however, Canadians -- especially younger Canadians -- welcome a liberal outlook that is inclusive of a wide variety of ethnicities. For them, and for many immigrants, Canada is a society that is multiple and layered, one rich in meaning. They tend to see Canada as a microcosm of the larger world, one that presents a useful model of tolerance for the world at large. Increasingly, marginalised new Canadians are excelling in the arts communities, telling all Canadians what various aspects of the culture shock of transplantation feels like. This book includes a representative sample of their works.




Multiculturalism In Canada: Evidence and Anecdote


Book Description

With over 20 percent of the population foreign-born, and with more than 250 ethnic origins, Canada is one of the world's most multicultural societies. Canada's ethnic and religious diversity continues to grow alongside immigration. Yet how well is Canada's model of multiculturalism and citizenship working, and how well are Canadians, whatever their ethnic or religious origin, doing? Will Canada's relative success compared to other countries continue, or are there emerging fault lines in Canadian society? Canadian Multiculturalism: Evidence and Anecdote undertakes an extensive review of the available data from Statistics Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada operational statistics, employment equity and other sources to answer these questions and provide an integrated view covering economic outcomes, social indicators, and political and public service participation. Over 200 charts and tables are used to engage readers and substantiate the changing nature of Canadian diversity.




Canadian Multiculturalism @50


Book Description

Canadian Multiculturalism @50 offers a critically-informed overview of Canada’s official multiculturalism against a half-century of successes and failures, benefits and costs, contradictions and consensus, and criticism and praise. Admittedly, not a perfect governance model, but one demonstrably better than other models.




Immigration, Racial and Ethnic Studies in 150 Years of Canada


Book Description

Immigration, Racial and Ethnic Studies in 150 Years of Canada: Retrospects and Prospects provides a wide-ranging overview of immigration and contested racial and ethnic relations in Canada since confederation with a core theme being one of enduring racial and ethnic conflict.




Multiculturalism Question


Book Description

Canada's policy of multiculturalism has been the object of ongoing debate since it was first introduced in 1971. Decades later, Canadians still seem uncertain about the meaning of multiculturalism. Detractors insist that government has not succeeded in discouraging immigrants and their descendants from preserving their cultures of origin, undercutting a necessary identification with Canada, while supporters argue that immigrant groups' abilities to influence their adjustments to Canada has strengthened their sense of belonging. Beyond what often seems to be a polarized debate is a broad spectrum of opinion around multiculturalism in Canada and what it means to be Canadian. The Multiculturalism Question analyzes the policy, ideology, and message of multiculturalism. Several of Canada's leading thinkers provide valuable insights into a crucial debate that will inevitably continue well into the future.




Multiculturalism in Canada


Book Description

Multiculturalism is often thought to be defined by its commitment to diversity, inclusivity, sensitivity, and tolerance, but these established values sometimes require contrary practices of homogenization, exclusion, insensitivity, and intolerance. Multiculturalism in Canada clarifies what multiculturalism is by relating it to more basic principles of equality, freedom, recognition, authenticity, and openness. Forbes places both official Canadian multiculturalism and Quebec's semi-official interculturalism in their historical and constitutional setting, examines their relations to liberal democratic core values, and outlines a variety of practical measures that would make Canada a more open country and a better illustration of what a commitment to egalitarian cultural pluralism now means. Consisting of a series of connected essays-including careful considerations of the works of Will Kymlicka and Charles Taylor-this book provides the first comprehensive account of multiculturalism in Canada.




Visible Minorities and Multiculturalism


Book Description

Papers originally prepared for presentation and discussion at the Learned Societies Meetings of 1977 and 1978, held at the University of New Brunswick and the University of Guelph, respectively, as part of the sessions of the Canadian Asian Studies Association.




Canadistan


Book Description

The culture and values of Canada have been long gone. It is now a multicultural country, but is it really? We Canadians have forgotten our real culture, from playing hockey, celebrating our former Prime Minister's achievements, and eating poutine with gravy. Canada has been celebrating cultures around the world, because they believe that "cultures are all equal." No, they are not. Islamic cultures promote pedophilia, honour killings, and child marriage, all while claiming that "it's their culture." People are throwing a blind eye to this topic, and not protesting for people's rights in the Middle East. People these days are fake feminists. You can not support Sharia law, and at the same time be a feminist, the two don't go together. We now hold thousands of refugees, with many in support of it. When crimes happen because of refugees, people are more concerned about "Islamophobia," which doesn't even exist. Media says that the Jihadis were "mentally ill.", and that "Islam means peace." How is a ideology so violent not taken seriously in our country? The more we ignore the violence that Muslims ahold, more violent and sex attacks will happen. We say "diversity is our strength", but is diversity really a good thing? England is the powerhouse of mass immigration. England is not the same anymore, with Sharia zones, mosques being built at a rapid rate, and Muslims controlling the whole country. Pierre Trudeau changed Canada forever by making it a multicultural country, allowing many immigrants from different countries to settle in Canada for a new and better life. Immigrating is good for someone seeking economic opportunity, but is Multiculturalism really a great and beautiful thing? Absolutely not. From all the useless protests that happen in the West, such as the annual Women's March and the Slut Walk, why are people forgetting the very thing that oppresses and abuses woman around the world? That's right, Islam. Now, in Canada, the Muslim population is increasing, and fast.With people in the Women's March embracing the hijab, and even reciting the azaan, why aren't feminists fighting for women's rights in the Middle East? Muslims want Sharia law, that is what they are taught to believe from a very young age. Canada is not a Sharia country, it believes in freedom, and Democracy. Islam shouldn't be in the West, they aren't compatible with each other. We Canadians should stand up for ourselves, and not let anyone take our country away from us, before it's too late. Sarah Yasini is a high school student from Ontario, Canada. She is a free speech advocate, and runs her own blog called @Sarahyasini.blog, in which she criticises Islam, feminism, and political correctness. In the future, she aspires to be a lawyer.




Making Middle-Class Multiculturalism


Book Description

Making Middle-Class Multiculturalism re-interprets the historiography of the emergence of Canada's universal immigration policy for skilled workers and family immigrants in the 1950s and 1960s.