Multiculturalism In Canadian Society

The Canadian government adopted multiculturalism as its official policy during the premiership of Pierre Elliott Trudeau in the 1970s and 1980s. This practice is reflected in the law via the Canadian Multiculturalism Act and section 27 of the Canadian Charter of rights and Freedoms. Additionally, the Broadcasting Act of 1991 asserts that the Canadian system should reflect the diversity of cultures in the country. An interview that was done in 2002 with the Globe and Mail, Karim al-Hussaini the 49th Aga Khan of the Ismaili Muslims describing Canada as the most successful pluralist society on the face of our globe, citing it as model for the world. He gave an explanation that the experience of Canadian governance-its commitment to pluralism and the support it gives the rich multicultural diversity of its people-which is something that has to be shared and would be of benefit to the societies in other parts of the

Those who are in support of it argue that multiculturalism assists in the intergration of minorities and immigrants, removing barriers to their participation in the Canadian life and making them feel more welcome in the Canadian society, leading to a rigid sense of belonging and pride in Canada. On the other hand, critics argue that multiculturalism leads to the promotion of balkanization and ghettoization, giving encouragement to the members of ethnic groups to look inwards, and emphasizing on the differences between groups rather than their shared rights or identities as Canadian citizens. This debate is highly ritualized and its basic terms have barely changed in 35 years. One reason to why this debate continues to recycle is that until recently, there had been little concrete evidence to test these duelling perspectives on the impact of multiculturalism. However, in the past few years important new evidence emerged which can be divided into two broad categories:

I. Evidence that the multiculturalism policy plays a positive role in the process;

This is not to say, of course, that there are no real problems that are faced by immigrants and minorities in Canada; I will return to these below. But there is increased recognition of Canada’s relative advantage among international policy networks and scholars. What is highly disputed is whether multiculturalism is of any importance in this comparative success. Critics of multiculturalism sometimes argue that Canada’s record of integration is influenced by other factors which include the fact that Canada’s immigrants tend to be more highly skilled than immigrants in other countries, and the fact that there is a relatively open labour market. In other words, immigrants bring with them high levels of human capital, and as such, they can more easily employ that human capital in the labour market compared to other countries. On this point of view, the presence of the multiculturalism policy contributes nothing to the successful integration of immigrants and minorities in Canada, and may in fact impede it (e.g., Goodhart 2008). However, there has been new research which has helped to clarify the role that the multiculturalism policy plays in the broader processes of minority and immigrant integration. This research on the effects that are brought by multiculturalism has evolved at two broad levels: