Does multiculturalism 'work'? Does multiculturalism policy
create social cohesion, or undermine it? Multiculturalism was
introduced in Canada in the 1970s and widely adopted
internationally, but more recently has been hotly debated, amid new
concerns about social, cultural, and political impacts of
immigration. Advocates praise multiculturalism for its emphasis on
special recognition for cultural minorities as facilitating their
social integration, while opponents charge that multiculturalism
threatens social cohesion by encouraging social isolation.
Multiculturalism is thus rooted in a theory of human behaviour,
and this book examines the empirical validity of some of its basic
propositions, focusing on Canada as the country for which the most
enthusiastic claims for multiculturalism have been made. The
analysis draws on the massive national Ethnic Diversity Survey of
over 41,000 Canadians in 2002, the most extensive survey yet
conducted on this question.
The analysis provides a new and more nuanced understanding of
the complex relation between multiculturalism and social cohesion,
challenging uncritically optimistic or pessimistic views. Ethnic
community ties facilitate some aspects of social integration, while
discouraging others. For racial minorities, relations within and
outside minority communities are greatly complicated by more
frequent experiences of discrimination and inequality, slowing
processes of social integration. Implications for multicultural
policies emphasize that race relations present important challenges
across Quebec and the rest of Canada, including for the new
religious minorities, and that ethnic community development
requires more explicit support for social integration.
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