Book Description

Many people today believe that ethnocultural politics in Canada are spiralling out of control, with ever more groups in society making ever greater demands. Finding Our Way offers a more balanced view. Will Kymlicka argues that the difficulties involved in accommodating ethnoculturaldiversity are not insurmountable, and that Canadians have an impressive range of experience and resources on which to draw in addressing them. A crucial part of his argument is the distinction between the ethnic groups formed by immigration and the 'nations within' constituted by the Quebecois andAboriginal peoples, whose existence predates that of the Canadian state. With respect to immigrant groups, he maintains that the 'multicultural' model of integration adopted by the federal government in 1971 has worked much better than is commonly thought, and can be adapted to new circumstances.The challenges of accommodating the self-government demands of national minorities are admittedly greater. Yet here too Kymlicka argues that we have all the experience we need: what we lack is the will to apply what we know. At a time when many Canadians appear to have lost confidence in ourability to work out fair and mutually beneficial solutions to ethnocultural conflicts, Finding Our Way makes an invaluable contribution to two critical national debates.