Intercultural sensitivity at work: oral histories of the first-generation Serbian immigrants to multicultural Canada

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article aims to problematize the concept of Canadian multiculturalism from its inception in 1971 to its current tendencies and determine whether this policy is still attainable by referring to significant views of Hall, Taylor, Duchastel, Perin, Clifford, Drache, Hoyos and Kymlicka. These theoretical insights are explored in the case of the Serbian diaspora in Canada. The study is based on the oral histories of the members of the first generation of Serbian immigrants to Canada, conducted in July 2008 in Toronto. Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity is used as a theoretical framework. The results show that the first generation of Serbian immigrants shares stronger ties with the mother country than their descendants; however, respect for the values of diversity and hybridity contributes to the process of making inter-generational differences less conspicuous which, regarding the Serbian diasporic community, represents a proof of the topicality of the Canadian multicultural experiment.