“The Theory and Practice of Immigrant Multiculturalism”

The policy of multiculturalism has evolved throughout history. Michael Walzer claims that back in ancient Greek times, there were individuals that they could not become Greek citizens and they were accommodated under title of multiculturalism. He also asserted that in 1980s Turkish in Germany were not allowed to become a German citizen, and children were receiving Turkish education in a separate school from German people. This was called multiculturalism. Will Kymlicka in his book “Multiculturalism Citizenship” argued that the current Canadian multiculturalism policy was way better than Ottoman Empire version of Millet system which discriminated against minority groups and it was an illiberal system.

Author of this paper was from Queen’s University and published her work in March 2000. In her framework of proving that multiculturalism was a good policy to practice focused on two areas. One, she asserted that how multiculturalism is working within context of public institutions. Last how multiculturalism is a liberal doctrine and multiculturalism was a source of enrichment for liberal doctrines.

Author stated that Canada, US and Australia for past one hundred fifty years have been accommodating immigrants to integrate in the mainstream society. It is true that in the past one hundred fifty years immigrants have been accommodated in the above nations. It would be vital to understand that these newcomers were coming from European nations that they shared same faiths as them. They were Christians, or Jewish.  They may have been coming from different sect of Christianity like Mennonite sect or Doukhobort sect. They were not Muslims, Hindu, Shinto or other Eastern religions or philosophies. Graham Fuller in his book “A World without Islam” explained that how in 1960s European nations opened their doors for foreigners from the Eastern lands to come to their nations to do manual labours. They came with working visas, and they stayed in that country for a long time, and brought their families to the new homelands. They were different political parties. Particularly, left-wing parties would alter immigration policies in order to gain votes from newcomers. Gradually, the system moved toward accommodation of newcomers. Author of this course pack claimed that Anglo-conformity shifted its policy from assimilation to multiculturalism.

Pierre Trudeau was cited in “The Development of Political Thought in Canada: An Anthology” as a liberalist, who wanted to have a multicultural policy for Canada because he believed national boundaries among nations would erode in distance future due to formidable force of globalization which was taking place. Therefore, he implemented multicultural policy within framework of bilingualism, English and French as official languages. Author takes a steadfast approach toward language that it was not a reason to hold back people from integrating in mainstream society and keeping them in a ghetto situation. In case of Quebec, they can learn French language in academic institutes, and there are times that they cannot speak French outside of Quebec province because others cannot speak French to them. Quebec’s rights are protected under constitution to determine number of immigrants who would reside in province of Quebec, and its provincial boundaries would not be altered so that it would remain as a distinct society. There is language act in place that all government institutes need to provide services in two official languages. There are other ethnic groups in Canada that they are new in Canada and may not be able to speak English or French. Still, Canadian government has been deeply considerate by providing a translator for individuals who require medical assistance or treatment, or a person needs to speak to a public servant and cannot communicate with a public servant in English or French, s/he would be accommodated at no cost. Author suggested that in Israel there was military conscript act in place and people would join the army and would be forced to learn Hebrew language. If anyone would join French Legion, s/he would learn French too. There are certain religious groups that they are distancing themselves from bloodbath; such as, Amish, or Bahai faith group. Canada’s constitution protects them under constitutional law to practice their faith. It is the idea of liberalism so people do not experience life as Doukhobort did in Russia that they faced self-imposed exile under difficult conditions.

Author alleged that there was need for fairness to gradually accommodate newcomers to integrate in the mainstream society without feeling threaten to lose their cultural background. Once, it becomes clear to various cultural groups that their cultural heritages would remain intact; they become eager to join mainstream society. Author pointed a crucial point that these diverse groups are using White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP) system, and these ethnic groups may not be familiar with the system. There is need for Affirmative action that recognizes those individuals who are not belong to WASP group and would have same access to employment opportunity as WASP. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom subsection 2 of section 15 granted provisions for disadvantage groups in area of race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability. The above system is not full proof because employers in government sectors, as well as, private sectors can deny a position to minority groups who speak English as a Second language by using slang to weed them out of the hiring process. Most importantly, there is no mechanical system to verify integrity of hiring process.  

The Canadian multiculturalism works in three areas:

A) Newcomers to learn English and French language.

B) Respecting liberal-democratic norm, human rights act, individual and sexual rights.

C) Interaction different diverse groups to avoid ghettoziation.

In final thought, the policy of multiculturalism is more of a Yin-Ying philosophy at the time being. There two different entities that they working together within framework of harmony and are ensuring their unity remains at all time.