Book Review Of Rethinking Multiculturalism After Its Retreat

In Rethinking Multiculturalism after its ‘Retreat’: Lessons from Canada, Elke Winter discusses how countries that adopted multiculturalism policies have backtracked from multiculturalism as a normative framework for the integration of immigrants in the society. Winter argues that the theoretical framework now includes the process of socioethnic leveraging that constructs the “multicultural we” as the other against the dominant “us”. She reveals that socioethnic leveraging can be fairly integrative, but can also reinforce minority marginalization. Winter thus examines who is included in the Canadian “multicultural we” by analyzing dominant discourses (the media and government) and by juxtaposing two periods: the 1990s and the early 2000s. She reveals that the meaning of Canadian

After reviewing the global (mainly focusing on the European context) and Canadian models of multiculturalism, the authors look at the evidence on how the multiculturalism policy operates in Canada. They indeed do find stresses and failures within Canadian multiculturalism. For instance, they point out institutionalized racism and reveal studies that demonstrate that racial minorities do not feel as confident about belonging in Canada. However, based on the evidence, they maintain that the Canadian record on integration is relatively strong. Banting and Kymlicka argue that the Canadian experience should not be viewed through the lens of the European backlash against multiculturalism. They highlight some of the issues that Canadian multiculturalism has failed to address (Ex: Multiculturalism and Aboriginal issues). Overall, the authors conclude that Canadian multiculturalism is neither flawless nor is it sleepwalking to segregation leading to an ethnic