Canadian Multiculturalism In Historical And Comparative Perspective: Is Canada Unique?
Multiculturalism in Canada is the sense of equality between race, religion, and cultural backgrounds. There is coexistence in Canada between several cultures from across the globe shaping into one “cultural mosaic” with the intention of forming a society both peacefully and equitably. This was the idea behind the moving forces geared towards growing Canada into a culturally diverse place. The mass immigration into Canada was thought to have had a positive effect on the country. It was supposed to help shape Canada into a place where “new” Canadians and “old” Canadians could fit into Canada’s lifestyles while maintaining individual past traditions. With the amount of immigrants in Canada today, to what point is the line drawn on allowing immigrants
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to abandon Canadian traditions and focus primarily on the lifestyle they left behind when moving to Canada? In an effort to become a more culturally diversified nation, Canada has felt a sense of loss or has taken negative steps in maintaining the Canadian way of life, by allowing immigrants to practice their own values and traditions while leaving Canadian traditions behind, especially that of religion which poses even more challenges for the peaceful cultural mosaic that was once dreamed about.
In today’s world, Canada is seen as the one of the most culturally diverse nations, as it is accepting to almost any potential immigrant to the country. “Canada has more immigrants per capita than any other country accept Australia; 17 percent of the population is foreign-born” ("Strike Multiculturalism from the National Vocabulary" 2010). As Canada continues to move forward, the percentage of immigrants will continue to increase, having the potential to slowly drift away from the ideal notion of Canada that was once known. With more and more immigrants coming to Canada, Canada is losing its sense of “Canadian” identity and moving towards a mosaic nation with different cultural thoughts and beliefs.
When immigrants initially started making their way to Canada, “immigrants were encouraged and expected to assimilate to the pre-existing society. The hope was that, over time, they would become indistinguishable from native-born Canadians in their speech, dress, recreation and general way of life. Any groups that were seen incapable of this sort of cultural assimilation were prohibited from immigrating to Canada, or from being citizens” (Source 2). As we see today, that is not the case. Today’s immigrants are now encouraged to speak their own languages and practice their own traditions. The initial idea of immigration into Canada would have helped preserve the traditional Canadian lifestyle, but as we see in everyday life, immigration has taken a different turn. Today “when newcomers come to Canada they bring with them homeland vales and traditions, but Canada is not a blank state” (Source 3). This being said, Canada and Canadians have their own homeland values and traditions that should be accepted and practiced by immigrants upon immigration into Canada. When new immigrants bring their homeland values and traditions, it takes away from what Canada was built upon and the idea of what Canada is about.
With every new immigrant into Canada, it seems Canada loses a sense of its own identity. “Consider that every four years Canada accepts a million newcomers. Within two decades, nearly 30 percent of the population will be foreign-born” (source 4). Cultural diversity also drifts into Canadian businesses, taking away from original Canadian policies and procedures. With the different cultural beliefs in today’s Canadian society, the view of the original Canadian businesses or a sense of the original Canadian identity has shifted. There are new regulations to help support immigrants’ national holidays that take away from Canadian holiday traditions. By giving into the different cultural needs in business, we have “began seeking the line between cultural sensitivities and office morale” (Source 4). It becomes a question of drifting away from what Canada, as a nation, once knew and anticipating what is in store for the future. Where is the line drawn on cultural integration into Canadian society and what will be “the tipping point between minority rights and a business’s interest” (Source 4)? The tipping point exists between what Canada was and is, creating a struggle today to define what it means to be Canadian.
Canada as a nation has policies and procedures that help the integration of immigrants and their cultures make a smooth transition into the Canadian lifestyle. When immigrants make their way into Canada, they are free to practice their own values and traditions while leaving the traditions of the Canadian lifestyle behind. Immigrants coming into Canada “should know they have an obligation to learn one of Canada’s official languages” (Editorial, October 08, 2010). “Immigrants were encouraged and expected to assimilate to pre-existing British mainstream culture, with the hope that over time they would become indistinguishable form native-born British Canadians in their speech, dress, recreation and way of life generally” (Banting et al. 2010). Most immigrants coming to Canada do learn one of Canada’s official languages, but there are still a large number of immigrants that do not. Martin Collacott, the former Canadian high commissioner to Sri Lanka and ambassador to Syria, Lebanon, and Cambodia, spoke to this issue about language and some minimum standards that should be implemented:
(Collacott) is currently a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute specializing in immigration and refugee issues and is spokesman and member of the board of directors of the Centre for Immigration Policy Reform. He believes Canada needs far fewer immigrants than it now accepts and that newcomers should speak enough English or French to function in their line of work. He also believes immigrants should accept fundamental Canadian vales, such as gender equality, the rule of law, freedom of speech and separation of church and state” (Mahoney 2010).
Canada does have an open door policy for most immigrants, but there is an argument as to what freedoms are offered to immigrants that leave Canadians at a disadvantage. Questions can arise like, “Should a Chinese-Canadian employee be automatically entitled to a day off for Chinese New Year? Can a Muslim school teacher be absent every Friday afternoon to attend prayers at his mosque? And if non-Christian parents feel ill-at-ease, should a daycare take down its Christmas decorations?” (Source 4). It is the integration of immigrants that start making Canadian traditions and values diminish to a point where accommodating differences becomes detrimental to nation building.
Society can change, but must be mindful of how drastic a change is. “One way that societies can transform themselves is by learning from other societies, cultures, and people by incorporating this learning into social practices….At the same time, a truly transformative process will change the society into which newcomers enter, and the social relations and institutions will change in the society” (Source 6). Today’s immigration into Canada does add to the Canadian way of life, but by adding these new ideas of cultural immigration, it takes away from Canada’s original traditions and values that Canada was once built upon.
Throughout much of recorded human history, religion was and is still believed to be one of the most fundamental foundations to different cultures. Different beliefs and religions help define what it means to belong to a particular culture or nation. In Canada, a Christian dominated society is today surrounded by many different religious beliefs and lifestyles due to immigration. It can even be said, “Canada is becoming increasingly religious because of immigration” (Source 6). Accordingly, this means the face of Canadian religion is changing, “Muslims, for example, are the fastest-growing religious group in Canada” (Source 6). With the increase in different fundamental beliefs in Canada, it can cause problems within society because with different fundamental beliefs, comes different lifestyles, and different thoughts and actions towards one another’s religion can have a detrimental effect on society. “For multiculturalism, the rise of religion in the public sphere poses a new and more daunting challenge” (Source 6). It is seen in other parts of the world that clashing religions can have a negative effect on society by segregating people into particular sectors based on their beliefs: “our European allies call multiculturalism a failed experiment…blamed multiculturalism for separating peoples, weakening national cohesion and encouraging Islamic extremism” (source 4). With the different cultural beliefs in Canada because of immigration and the increase in number of different religions, who is to say that a clash of beliefs could not break out, causing potential harm to Canada and Canadians within this nation? With religious extremists taking their fundamental beliefs to another level with terrorist attacks and other harmful actions towards people around today’s world, it is not a far-fetched thought.
Today Canada has to take specific measures to help accommodate all religions so that any of the aforementioned detrimental actions do not happen. “The question of funding Muslim schools, for example, is now seen by some Canadians as a question of state security, rather than of democratic debate and negotiation. Some Canadians worry that such schools could indeed become a fifth-column, training or recruiting extremists or terrorists who would even collaborate with our enemies, and potentially even attack us” (Source 2). With some Canadians living with this fear, and how the world generally has been changing negatively as seen with terrorist threats and attacks across the globe, it is clear that immigration and the rise of different religions in any given country due to immigration has created an uneasy state of mind, an unstable powder keg of clashing religious ideologies, clearly taking away from the peaceful cultural mosaic.
Overall, immigration does have some positive attributes that contribute to the “new” Canadian way of life, but the positives do not outweigh the negatives. With the increase in immigrants into Canada, this great nation has lost some sense of its own identity while adopting the identities of many different nations. Immigrants bring in their own values and traditions practiced in their homelands, and based on the amount of immigrants rising, could have a detrimental effect on the future of what Canada stands for. Not only do immigrants contribute to the ever changing society in Canada today, but based on the increasing number of different cultures in Canada bring into account the increasing number of different religions. With so many different cultural identities in Canada today, it can be said that due to immigration Canada has become an increasingly tense and unstable cultural mosaic that sits uneasy within the eyes of most Canadian-born Canadians.
Appendix
"Strike Multiculturalism from the National Vocabulary." Globe and Mail, sec. Editorial, October 08, 2010.
("Strike Multiculturalism from the National Vocabulary" 2010)
Source 1: Editorial, “Strike Multiculturalism from the National Vocabulary,” Globe and Mail, October 8, 2010.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-‐to-‐lead/multiculturalism/part-‐6-‐ editorial-‐strike-‐multiculturalism-‐from-‐the-‐national-‐vocabulary/article1748958/
Kymlicka, Will. "Canadian Multiculturalism in Historical and Comparative Perspective: Is Canada Unique?." Forum Constitutional. no. 1 (2003).
(Kymlicka 2003)
Source 2: Kymlicka, Will “Canadian Multiculturalism in Historical and Comparative Perspective: Is Canada Unique?” Forum Constitutional. 13:1 2003
Ibbitson, John, and Joe Frisen. "Conservative Immigrants Boost Tory Fortunes." Globe and Mail, October 04, 2010. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-‐to-‐lead/multiculturalism/part-‐2-‐ conservative-‐immigrants-‐boost-‐tory-‐fortunes/article1738150/ (accessed October 21, 2013).
(Ibbitson et al. 2010)
Source 3: John Ibbitson and Joe Frisen, “Conservative Immigrants Boost Tory Fortunes,” Globe and Mail, October 4, 2010. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-‐to-‐lead/multiculturalism/part-‐2-‐
conservative-‐immigrants-‐boost-‐tory-‐fortunes/article1738150/
Peritz, Ingrid, and Joe Frisen. "When Multiculturalism Doesn’t Work." Globe and Mail, October 01, 2010. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-‐to-‐lead/multiculturalism/part-‐1-‐ when-‐multiculturalism-‐doesnt-‐work/article1737375/ (accessed October 21, 2013).
(Peritz et al. 2010)
Source 4: Ingrid Peritz and Joe Frisen, “When Multiculturalism Doesn’t Work,” Globe and Mail, October 1, 2010. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-‐to-‐lead/multiculturalism/part-‐1-‐ when-‐multiculturalism-‐doesnt-‐work/article1737375/
Mahoney, Jill. "Is Immigration about the Economy or Nation Building?." The Globe and Mail, October 6, 2010.
(Mahoney 2010)
Source 5: Jill Mahoney, “Is Immigration about the Economy or Nation Building?” Globe and Mail, October 6, 2010. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-‐to-‐lead/multiculturalism/part-‐ 4-‐is-‐immigration-‐about-‐the-‐economy-‐or-‐nation-‐building/article1743228/
Frisen, Joe, and Sandra Martin. "How Religious Immigrants are Changing Canada/Canada’s Changing Faith." The Globe and Mail, October 5, 2010. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-‐to-‐lead/multiculturalism/part-‐3-‐ canadas-‐changing-‐faith/article1741422/ (accessed October 21, 2013). (Frisen et al. 2010)
Banting, Keith, and Will Kymlicka. "Canadian Multiculturalism: Global Anxieties and Local Debates." British Journal of Canadian Studies. no. 3 (2010).
to abandon Canadian traditions and focus primarily on the lifestyle they left behind when moving to Canada? In an effort to become a more culturally diversified nation, Canada has felt a sense of loss or has taken negative steps in maintaining the Canadian way of life, by allowing immigrants to practice their own values and traditions while leaving Canadian traditions behind, especially that of religion which poses even more challenges for the peaceful cultural mosaic that was once dreamed about.
In today’s world, Canada is seen as the one of the most culturally diverse nations, as it is accepting to almost any potential immigrant to the country. “Canada has more immigrants per capita than any other country accept Australia; 17 percent of the population is foreign-born” ("Strike Multiculturalism from the National Vocabulary" 2010). As Canada continues to move forward, the percentage of immigrants will continue to increase, having the potential to slowly drift away from the ideal notion of Canada that was once known. With more and more immigrants coming to Canada, Canada is losing its sense of “Canadian” identity and moving towards a mosaic nation with different cultural thoughts and beliefs.
When immigrants initially started making their way to Canada, “immigrants were encouraged and expected to assimilate to the pre-existing society. The hope was that, over time, they would become indistinguishable from native-born Canadians in their speech, dress, recreation and general way of life. Any groups that were seen incapable of this sort of cultural assimilation were prohibited from immigrating to Canada, or from being citizens” (Source 2). As we see today, that is not the case. Today’s immigrants are now encouraged to speak their own languages and practice their own traditions. The initial idea of immigration into Canada would have helped preserve the traditional Canadian lifestyle, but as we see in everyday life, immigration has taken a different turn. Today “when newcomers come to Canada they bring with them homeland vales and traditions, but Canada is not a blank state” (Source 3). This being said, Canada and Canadians have their own homeland values and traditions that should be accepted and practiced by immigrants upon immigration into Canada. When new immigrants bring their homeland values and traditions, it takes away from what Canada was built upon and the idea of what Canada is about.
With every new immigrant into Canada, it seems Canada loses a sense of its own identity. “Consider that every four years Canada accepts a million newcomers. Within two decades, nearly 30 percent of the population will be foreign-born” (source 4). Cultural diversity also drifts into Canadian businesses, taking away from original Canadian policies and procedures. With the different cultural beliefs in today’s Canadian society, the view of the original Canadian businesses or a sense of the original Canadian identity has shifted. There are new regulations to help support immigrants’ national holidays that take away from Canadian holiday traditions. By giving into the different cultural needs in business, we have “began seeking the line between cultural sensitivities and office morale” (Source 4). It becomes a question of drifting away from what Canada, as a nation, once knew and anticipating what is in store for the future. Where is the line drawn on cultural integration into Canadian society and what will be “the tipping point between minority rights and a business’s interest” (Source 4)? The tipping point exists between what Canada was and is, creating a struggle today to define what it means to be Canadian.
Canada as a nation has policies and procedures that help the integration of immigrants and their cultures make a smooth transition into the Canadian lifestyle. When immigrants make their way into Canada, they are free to practice their own values and traditions while leaving the traditions of the Canadian lifestyle behind. Immigrants coming into Canada “should know they have an obligation to learn one of Canada’s official languages” (Editorial, October 08, 2010). “Immigrants were encouraged and expected to assimilate to pre-existing British mainstream culture, with the hope that over time they would become indistinguishable form native-born British Canadians in their speech, dress, recreation and way of life generally” (Banting et al. 2010). Most immigrants coming to Canada do learn one of Canada’s official languages, but there are still a large number of immigrants that do not. Martin Collacott, the former Canadian high commissioner to Sri Lanka and ambassador to Syria, Lebanon, and Cambodia, spoke to this issue about language and some minimum standards that should be implemented:
(Collacott) is currently a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute specializing in immigration and refugee issues and is spokesman and member of the board of directors of the Centre for Immigration Policy Reform. He believes Canada needs far fewer immigrants than it now accepts and that newcomers should speak enough English or French to function in their line of work. He also believes immigrants should accept fundamental Canadian vales, such as gender equality, the rule of law, freedom of speech and separation of church and state” (Mahoney 2010).
Canada does have an open door policy for most immigrants, but there is an argument as to what freedoms are offered to immigrants that leave Canadians at a disadvantage. Questions can arise like, “Should a Chinese-Canadian employee be automatically entitled to a day off for Chinese New Year? Can a Muslim school teacher be absent every Friday afternoon to attend prayers at his mosque? And if non-Christian parents feel ill-at-ease, should a daycare take down its Christmas decorations?” (Source 4). It is the integration of immigrants that start making Canadian traditions and values diminish to a point where accommodating differences becomes detrimental to nation building.
Society can change, but must be mindful of how drastic a change is. “One way that societies can transform themselves is by learning from other societies, cultures, and people by incorporating this learning into social practices….At the same time, a truly transformative process will change the society into which newcomers enter, and the social relations and institutions will change in the society” (Source 6). Today’s immigration into Canada does add to the Canadian way of life, but by adding these new ideas of cultural immigration, it takes away from Canada’s original traditions and values that Canada was once built upon.
Throughout much of recorded human history, religion was and is still believed to be one of the most fundamental foundations to different cultures. Different beliefs and religions help define what it means to belong to a particular culture or nation. In Canada, a Christian dominated society is today surrounded by many different religious beliefs and lifestyles due to immigration. It can even be said, “Canada is becoming increasingly religious because of immigration” (Source 6). Accordingly, this means the face of Canadian religion is changing, “Muslims, for example, are the fastest-growing religious group in Canada” (Source 6). With the increase in different fundamental beliefs in Canada, it can cause problems within society because with different fundamental beliefs, comes different lifestyles, and different thoughts and actions towards one another’s religion can have a detrimental effect on society. “For multiculturalism, the rise of religion in the public sphere poses a new and more daunting challenge” (Source 6). It is seen in other parts of the world that clashing religions can have a negative effect on society by segregating people into particular sectors based on their beliefs: “our European allies call multiculturalism a failed experiment…blamed multiculturalism for separating peoples, weakening national cohesion and encouraging Islamic extremism” (source 4). With the different cultural beliefs in Canada because of immigration and the increase in number of different religions, who is to say that a clash of beliefs could not break out, causing potential harm to Canada and Canadians within this nation? With religious extremists taking their fundamental beliefs to another level with terrorist attacks and other harmful actions towards people around today’s world, it is not a far-fetched thought.
Today Canada has to take specific measures to help accommodate all religions so that any of the aforementioned detrimental actions do not happen. “The question of funding Muslim schools, for example, is now seen by some Canadians as a question of state security, rather than of democratic debate and negotiation. Some Canadians worry that such schools could indeed become a fifth-column, training or recruiting extremists or terrorists who would even collaborate with our enemies, and potentially even attack us” (Source 2). With some Canadians living with this fear, and how the world generally has been changing negatively as seen with terrorist threats and attacks across the globe, it is clear that immigration and the rise of different religions in any given country due to immigration has created an uneasy state of mind, an unstable powder keg of clashing religious ideologies, clearly taking away from the peaceful cultural mosaic.
Overall, immigration does have some positive attributes that contribute to the “new” Canadian way of life, but the positives do not outweigh the negatives. With the increase in immigrants into Canada, this great nation has lost some sense of its own identity while adopting the identities of many different nations. Immigrants bring in their own values and traditions practiced in their homelands, and based on the amount of immigrants rising, could have a detrimental effect on the future of what Canada stands for. Not only do immigrants contribute to the ever changing society in Canada today, but based on the increasing number of different cultures in Canada bring into account the increasing number of different religions. With so many different cultural identities in Canada today, it can be said that due to immigration Canada has become an increasingly tense and unstable cultural mosaic that sits uneasy within the eyes of most Canadian-born Canadians.
Appendix
"Strike Multiculturalism from the National Vocabulary." Globe and Mail, sec. Editorial, October 08, 2010.
("Strike Multiculturalism from the National Vocabulary" 2010)
Source 1: Editorial, “Strike Multiculturalism from the National Vocabulary,” Globe and Mail, October 8, 2010.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-‐to-‐lead/multiculturalism/part-‐6-‐ editorial-‐strike-‐multiculturalism-‐from-‐the-‐national-‐vocabulary/article1748958/
Kymlicka, Will. "Canadian Multiculturalism in Historical and Comparative Perspective: Is Canada Unique?." Forum Constitutional. no. 1 (2003).
(Kymlicka 2003)
Source 2: Kymlicka, Will “Canadian Multiculturalism in Historical and Comparative Perspective: Is Canada Unique?” Forum Constitutional. 13:1 2003
Ibbitson, John, and Joe Frisen. "Conservative Immigrants Boost Tory Fortunes." Globe and Mail, October 04, 2010. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-‐to-‐lead/multiculturalism/part-‐2-‐ conservative-‐immigrants-‐boost-‐tory-‐fortunes/article1738150/ (accessed October 21, 2013).
(Ibbitson et al. 2010)
Source 3: John Ibbitson and Joe Frisen, “Conservative Immigrants Boost Tory Fortunes,” Globe and Mail, October 4, 2010. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-‐to-‐lead/multiculturalism/part-‐2-‐
conservative-‐immigrants-‐boost-‐tory-‐fortunes/article1738150/
Peritz, Ingrid, and Joe Frisen. "When Multiculturalism Doesn’t Work." Globe and Mail, October 01, 2010. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-‐to-‐lead/multiculturalism/part-‐1-‐ when-‐multiculturalism-‐doesnt-‐work/article1737375/ (accessed October 21, 2013).
(Peritz et al. 2010)
Source 4: Ingrid Peritz and Joe Frisen, “When Multiculturalism Doesn’t Work,” Globe and Mail, October 1, 2010. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-‐to-‐lead/multiculturalism/part-‐1-‐ when-‐multiculturalism-‐doesnt-‐work/article1737375/
Mahoney, Jill. "Is Immigration about the Economy or Nation Building?." The Globe and Mail, October 6, 2010.
(Mahoney 2010)
Source 5: Jill Mahoney, “Is Immigration about the Economy or Nation Building?” Globe and Mail, October 6, 2010. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-‐to-‐lead/multiculturalism/part-‐ 4-‐is-‐immigration-‐about-‐the-‐economy-‐or-‐nation-‐building/article1743228/
Frisen, Joe, and Sandra Martin. "How Religious Immigrants are Changing Canada/Canada’s Changing Faith." The Globe and Mail, October 5, 2010. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-‐to-‐lead/multiculturalism/part-‐3-‐ canadas-‐changing-‐faith/article1741422/ (accessed October 21, 2013). (Frisen et al. 2010)
Banting, Keith, and Will Kymlicka. "Canadian Multiculturalism: Global Anxieties and Local Debates." British Journal of Canadian Studies. no. 3 (2010).