Multiculturalism policy was first adopted in Canada in 1971, which reaffirms the dignity and value of all its citizens regardless of ethnic origins, race, religious affiliations, or language. Part of this policy, Canada confirms the rights of all the aboriginals along with the recognition of two official languages. Indeed, multiculturalism has great importance since its main purpose is to give equal treatment to all the citizens (Daniel, 2010). It ensures that all individual citizens could still maintain their identities, and have pride with their ancestry. Through this initiative, the Canadian government was able to give their citizens a feeling of self-confidence, making them more open to their diverse cultures. The multiculturalism policy …show more content…
Meanwhile, multiculturalism in the United States has been part of their history, considering the fact that almost all its populations, including its founders are immigrants coming from different cultural backgrounds (Citrin, 2001). Due to globalization, there is no reason why other immigrants and new ethnic groups could have difficulty assimilating themselves into American life. Comparing Multiculturalism in Canada and the United States Canada and the United States are both democratic, federal states. Both of these countries have been populated solely by immigrants and the offspring of immigrants. Also, they share the longest undefended border in the world. In Canada, they have a policy on multiculturalism which reflects racial and cultural diversity in their society. Through this policy, their government was able to acknowledge the freedom of every individual in their society, allowing everyone to preserve, share or even enhance his or her …show more content…
Indeed, in all their schools from elementary to secondary schools, they already adopted curricula that will foster cultural diversity. Through this program, students from different levels had the chance to be exposed to different traditions and customs of various ethnic and racial groups. Even the government sectors in the United States are advocating tolerance for diversity, like how they commemorate Asian American, Hispanic, and Pacific Islander Heritage weeks (Margai, 2010). Even in their postage, they developed stamps highlighting some prominent Americans along with their diverse backgrounds. Despite all these efforts, sometimes the issue concerning multiculturalism causes significant political and societal conflicts. Right now, United States is widely known as the greatest melting pot where people from different countries and with different cultures could be united as one. However, people have divided views with regards to the issue whether the immigrants should adopt America’s culture, or they should be given the freedom to keep their own culture. The majority of the Americans believed that one must learn first how to speak English before permitting to have an American citizenship. In support of the notion of melting pot, many Americans still insist that their Creed should endure, and their nation is destined to be a prime model to
Today in Canada it is not uncommon to see people of various races, ethnic backgrounds or cultural groups living within a mutual society; commonly known as multiculturalism. Multiculturalism refers to the presence of, or support for the presence of several distinct cultural or ethnic groups within a society. As the topic becomes more more popular due to news events and social media debates, multiculturalism gets twisted and misunderstood. In essence, multiculturalism is not about dwelling on about our differences, it is about emphasizing our commonality. Diversity of the human race has the power to unify society and make it stronger. Firstly, innovation
It is true that the more people from different cultures that are in a given area, the more the cultures are diversified. However, with all realities, some claim that immigrants dilute the American culture. Indeed, they cause some changes to the culture. Nevertheless, these changes can bring a wealth of attraction and a source of beauty for the country that everyone should be proud of. It is obvious that every single immigrant in the US has his own culture and way of life. When all these are added together, they form a very rich culture. In addition, they bring various interesting aspects such as food, music, literature, etc. That makes the Americans rich in cultural knowledge. The importance of cultural diversity is that it teaches the people to understand each other’s views, interests, and ideas and helps people view the world in different ways. This would finally lead the society to work towards each other’s interest, mutual goals, and objectives. Tamar Jacoby in his article “Are Today’s Immigrants Assimilating in U.S Society, Yes,” he said that, “Those who are coming now are people who understand cultural fluidity, understand intermarriage and find that a natural, easy thing. This maintains unity and balances in the society” (411). Once this stage is reached, all the problems would be solved. Then it can be said that America has reached a true democracy, echoed by
At its core, multiculturalism is an approach which can be used to foster and sustain ethnic and cultural differences by using social, economic and educational mean to celebrate diversity. (Hasmath 2016). Using The Canadian Multiculturalism Act as the basis of understanding multicultural policy, particularly sections three and five, which outline the policy and actions government must take to enact them, it can be inferred that the goals of Canadian government are to foster and include all cultures, ethnicities and religions in society. Using demographic trends, the government can understand how certain groups settle within Canada and how to accommodate their needs (Citizen and Immigration Canada 2012). There is a fundamental belief in rights of the citizen regardless of origin (Canadian Justice Laws 2016). This diversity is encouraged in the social, economic spheres but there is a disregard for the political agency of ethnic groups. The market strategy approach strips groups of political involvement by relegating their role as extraneous to the majority population, and a glorified decoration for Canadian society to appeal to more immigrants (Robinson 2011,
Every year, over 250,000 people make Canada their new home. Attracted by its education system, economy and universal healthcare system, there are few other places in the world like it. All Canadians are guaranteed equality before the law and equality of opportunity, regardless of where they are from. However, some might argue that Canadian policy has not been put into practice as well as it should be. Is the concept of true equality a far-fetched idea? It seems that Canada has taken great measures to promote the integration of immigrants socially, but can the same be said for their integration economically? Politically? To judge whether or not Canada has been successful at promoting the integration of immigrants in these realms, a deeper understanding of Canadian policy must be considered.
In this thriving time period, Canada admitted countless immigrants and refugees from other nations. This second wave of immigrants contributed to Canada’s exponential population increase, alongside baby boomers. Canada was also introduced to many cultures and religions conveyed overseas by newcomers from Asia and Europe. This symbolized the start of Canada’s worldwide recognition of a multi-cultural country. As the coveted land for foreign citizens, Canada did not completely welcome every person who applied for citizenship. Under that desirable façade, the Canadian government somewhat welcomed and admitted immigrants with a comparatively hospitable attitude, however, once the immigrants arrived in Canada, they were left alone by the government to fend for themselves. Similar to the treatment of the government, immigrants were not completely welcomed by the Canadian mainstream society after settling in Canada.
As promoted by the Official policy, “Canadian multiculturalism is fundamental to our belief that all citizens are equal. Multiculturalism ensures that all citizens can keep their identities” (Canadian Multiculturalism: An Inclusive Citizenship. (2012, December 19)). However, it proves strenuous to identify the various social needs when addressing such a broad demographic.
Mixed race individuals have a long history within the world, particularly within Canada; and are a by-product of the continuous globalization and interaction of different ethnic groups caused by the influx of immigration to most Western countries. Consistently discussed within the media, the mixed race demographic of Canada is steadily expanding, and have admittedly created a more prominent emphasis on the importance of recognizing their demographic. The mixed race population within Canada has an influentially beneficial role within the nation, as is seen through their influence within history, Canada 's demographics, and media.
Multiculturalism is a euphemism for discrimination and inequality. This is just an example of improper usage of a word in the Canadian context discourse. Canadian multiculturalism implies a large range of concepts and definitions, but without hesitation words such as diversity, equality, ethnicity, are just some of the most memorable key words for everyone. In fact, it is well known that Canada embraces tolerance, acceptance and integration for immigrants. However, this might be just an ideological perspective because a pragmatic approach might illustrate a different panorama. Immigrants are nomads that become afraid of being rejected and diminished because of their status. This status is regarded as "other" (Gabriel, 1998, as cited in Yee,
The mention of the abolition of multiculturalism for a “new” post-multiculturalist approach becomes difficult to understand. It claims, “to avoid the ‘excesses’ of multiculturalism” (47), however where does this notable governmental and social switch take place? How is the term coined, and how is it understood in theory versus in practice? How is it different from its predecessor? Even the classification of history struggles to define what is considered to be modern, let alone post-modern, and yet the term suggests a positive approach to alleviating difficult assimilation projects similar to those faced elsewhere (47). This notion may developed on the grounds of “someone else’s problems” ¬– in regards to its Canadian context – as a means to label, or justify, miscellaneous aspects of multiculturalism. However, with the government-wide commitment to policies and programs, in conjunction with social understanding, it naturally becomes subject to a wide array of differing opinions. As both immigration and citizenship policies change, its public reception often shifts as well. Especially since the channels referred to within the ‘multiculturalism...
Often America is referred to as “The large melting pot.” The idea that the United States is a land of opportunity, where anyone can come and blend into a new breed that is uniquely American. However, the cultural diversity in America is clearly evident, from physical characteristics to different religious beliefs and customs. As minorities immigrate to America and attempt to assimilate in society, they are forced to live a pluralistic lifestyle of blending with the current society, while struggling to maintain their heritage and identity “Minority individuals must learn to function in two environments: their own culture and that of the mainstream society” (de Anda, 1984: p101). There are some who successfully leave their
This view of a Cultural Mosaic on Canadian society was Prime Minister Trudeau’s main motivation for creating multiculturalist policies such as the Official Multiculturalism Act established in 1971. It is extremely questionable that as a society we could call ourselves that with such confidence, that Canada was (and is) against assimilation, that as a country we embrace all cultures, races, religions, etc. This is due to the fact that the last residential school (that we know of) did not close until 1996. Residential schooling was created in order to assimilate the Aboriginal peoples in Canada, in these schools the students would be taken out of their reserve and stripped of their culture; we created an ‘other’ on purpose. What I mean by that is we allowed the government to stipulate a social phenomena of ‘Othering’ creating the opportunity to define in this case the Aboriginal people in Canada as different. This further justified the attempts made (such a...
Naturally, the way we deal with diversity is organizing people into groups with different cultures. The focus of this article is to end cross-cultural research’s emphasis on our differences and bring people together by focusing on our similarities. The problem is that we tend to focus on the differences by categorizing people based on their language, ethnicity, or religion in multi- cultural societies.
The United of America is recognized as the melting pot for which different cultures and customs are joined together to build one nation. Despite the fact that the immigrant population is growing rapidly and making the decision to reside in the United States,
Canada is such a unique place with interesting geography. Almost 3,750,000 aboriginal, immigrants and ancestors. Cultures and diversity in harmony living across 10 beautiful provinces and 3 fascinating territories. Enormous lakes , breath-taking mountains, landscapes: northern lights, Niagara Falls. Parliament Hill, CN Tower and the list just goes on and on. With so many different places in this beautiful country it’s no wonder the population is rapidly increasing. It’s even home to many animals like bears, wolves, moose, deer and horses!
In this signature assignment, I will discuss my understanding of multiculturalism in a pluralistic society. Furthermore, a portion of this essay will focus on Constitutional Right’s protecting basic educational freedoms as well as factors that affect public education in America. Lastly, I will conclude the assignment with suggestions for delivering a multicultural education in the future.