Canadian Multiculturalism Research Articles

Potential reproduction and renewal in a weekend mosque school in Canada: Educators' perspectives of learning and development

Abstract Grounded in sociocultural theory, this paper describes and discusses three themes from a qualitative study that examined Muslim educators' perspectives on learning and developing in a Sunni mosque school in Canada. First, the educators described the objectives of Islamic education and human development as converging in a life-long trajectory. Teaching and learning Islamic principles and practices were intended for specific forms of Islamic development. Second, the educators engaged children in social practices, composed of unique pedagogies and cultural tools, to mediate their interpretations of Islam in relation to the surrounding non-Muslim cultural context. Third, the educators used pedagogies flexibly and emphasized relationships with students. Together with students, these Muslim educators constructed teaching and learning as processes of potential reproduction and renewal. This research contributes to the scant literature on learning and developing within sites of Islamic education in multicultural Canada by highlighting the current critiques around pedagogy and suggesting potential paths for future research.

Emotional Stress and the Integration of Muslim Minorities in France and Canada

This study examines theories of Muslim minority integration as these apply to republican France and multicultural Canada, using data on psychological distress as a key measure. Based on the 2001–2002 Canadian Community Health Survey and the 2008 French Enquête sur la Santé et la Protection Sociale, we find Muslim minorities experience higher levels of psychological distress than non-Muslims, not only in France but also in Canada. The Muslim difference is unrelated to religious attachment and rather is partly explained by high rates of unemployment or labor market inactivity.

Propaganda, ventaja competitiva y seguridad nacional: elementos para una contextualización crítica del multiculturalismo canadiense

This article contributes elements for a critique of Canadian multiculturalism that takes into account the concerns of the Latin American Diasporas established in Canada. The author argues that it is necessary to understand how three aspects are incorporated into this policy: propaganda, the aspiration to turn the country’s cultural diversity into a competitive advantage, and the concern for national security. To understand this, the ideology that orients Canada’s immigration and cultural diversity policies must be put in perspective.

Omar Khadr: A Bleak Mark on Canadian Civil Rights

This essay seeks to answer the question “does Omar Khadr’s story represent a failure of multiculturalism or of justice?” While it might be tempting to label the failure to uphold his charter rights as the exception to the rule and that the judiciary has the tools they need to protect the rights of Canadians, this paper argues that is far from the case. Khadr’s treatment is indicative of a prevalent flaw in Canadian multiculturalism, and in the idea of human rights as a whole, which is its reliance on the state to uphold them. Even though the judiciary determined that Khadr’s rights were violated, it was negligence by the state that lead to his prolonged imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay. Ultimately, the state failed to protect Khadr’s rights because he was not seen as a citizen, despite being born and raised in Toronto. This paper draws on Hannah Arendt’s arguments about the inadequacy of citizenship rights, and examines the case of Maher Arar, whose rights have been similarly neglected.

Immigration Policies and Immigrant Women’s Vulnerability to Intimate Partner Violence in Canada

This article explores Canadian immigration policies’ influence on immigrant and newcomer women’s vulnerability to intimate partner violence in Canada. Neoliberal policies’ influence on immigration policies and restructuring of the welfare state, the creation of structural conditions that increase immigrant and newcomer women’s vulnerability to intimate partner violence while restricting their access to services that can help them seek recourse from such abuse, are discussed. The underlying question raised and discussed in this article is whether cultural identity and distinctiveness could be used to rationalize exclusionary policies that are contrary to the ideals of multiculturalism in Canada.

Authoritarian Populism and Canada’s Conservative Decade (2006–2015) in Citizenship and Immigration: The Politics and Practices ofKenneyismandNeo-conservative Multiculturalism

Focused on the politics and policies of citizenship, immigration, and multiculturalism in Canada, this article employs the concepts of Kenneyism (Kenney-ism, named after Jason Kenney, Canada’s prominent former minister of citizenship, immigration, and multiculturalism) and neo-conservative multiculturalism to reconcile the Conservative Party of Canada’s long-term outreach efforts aiming to incorporate many new, ethnicized, and racialized Canadians into a “minimum winning coalition” with the exclusionary policies and creative discourses the party espoused and implemented during its time in office, 2006–2015. As forms of politics that Stuart Hall termed authoritarian populism, the emphasis on the “authoritarian” dimension of conservative populism foregrounds the often anti-democratic nature of the project both symbolically and substantively. This article outlines the roots of Kenneyism and neo-conservative multiculturalism within a discussion of the party’s evolution from its Reform and Alliance Party predecessors. It discusses five key characteristics and trends of the party’s political and governmental approach that demonstrate both their creative outreach and forms of disciplinary politics and social exclusion—particularly but not only with respect to Muslims, refugees, and temporary foreign workers. It concludes with reflections on the party’s record and the future of Kenneyism as a form of politics after the party’s 2015 electoral defeat and 2017 leadership contest.

“The Real Toronto”: Black Youth Experiences and the Narration of the Multicultural City

Looking back at more than 45 years of official multicultural policy in Canada, this article asks us to reflect on how the experiences of Black male youth in Toronto and the ways in which race, class, age, and gender intersect to alienate them from full access to educational and employment opportunities disrupt the construction of Canada as an “ideal” and “exceptional” multicultural democracy, built on unchallenged assumptions of inclusivity and impartiality. While Canadian multiculturalism promises respect for cultural differences, free education, and access to jobs for all citizens regardless of national origin or ethnicity, this promise is not borne out in the lives of poor black youth. The article centres the voices and perspectives of these youth by drawing on the documentary The Real Toronto, filmed during the “Summer of the Gun” in 2005, and on the findings from a three-year transnational study of the effects of violence on Black youth in Canada and Jamaica, collected eight years later in 2013. The article argues that Black urban male youth, by situating their precarious life experiences on the margins of a set of core Canadian values, destabilize our understanding of Canadian society by revealing the ways in which they are routinely criminalized and pathologized, and by demanding greater access to upward mobility.

Beyond Good Intentions: Race Regimes, Racialisation, Immigrant Service Non-governmental Organizations (IS-NGOs) and Race-Class Reproductions in Canada

Based on research conducted in a Parenting and Literacy Program (PLP) offered by an Immigrant Service-Non Governmental Organisation (IS-NGO) located in Alberta, Canada, a racialisation and race regimes framework is deployed to advance the proposition that IS-NGOs and their approach to programs and service provision encourage race-class inequalities and augment the contemporary race regime of multiculturalism in Canada. This is in/advertently achieved by selectively racializing im/migrants and reproducing class inequities through the adherence to neoliberal prescriptions (best practices) while claiming to settle, support and work for social justice for im/migrants. We explore the structures, ideas and power relations of an IS-NGO as a race regime and its’ race-class implications for perpetuating hierarchy’s which continue to define a Canadian colonial settler society. The purpose of this research is to stimulate renewal within IS-NGOs, as an exercise in critical reflexivity and to encourage changes at the organisational and employee/practitioner level, by fostering efforts to undermine, redirect and replace race regimes and class inequality in the interests of a still emergent democratic society and polity in Canada.

Introduction

Introduction

Homing Sorrow: Bharati Mukherjee’s “The Management of Grief” as Metadiasporic Narrative and Inscription of Political Empowerment

This paper reads Bharati Mukherjee’s short story “The Management of Grief” as an uncompromised critique of Canadian Multiculturalism at its early stage in the 1980s. Without neglecting the crucially humanist component of Mukherjee’s investment in writing this story, the article demonstrates how, through subtle strategies of representation, “The Management of Grief” presents Canada as a country where whiteness-as-power is pervasive, and where ethnic minorities are perceived by mainstream society as exogenous, and made to feel as such. Together with this, the story as an archetypical representation of the predicament of diasporas, understood, pace Vijay Mishra and others, in the sense of the diasporic condition perceived as dominated by melancholia. The story evokes the diaspora experience in several other ways, most notably with its emphasis on the in-between status of such communities in an identitarian, affective and political sense. The analysis eventually focuses on how the story underscores and subtly illuminates the process of a political empowerment, an awareness-raising process which, accompanied by a coming-into-political-agency, marks a turning point in the increasingly relevant political role played by diasporas within the multicultural nation state.

Toward More Active Neighborhoods: The Role of Trust when Engaging with Marginalized Communities ( poster )

Background In diverse, multicultural Canadian society, interpersonal trust among citizens and institutions is important in developing livable communities. Within the context of urban planning, increased citizen resistance due to a lack of trust complicates infrastructure design implementation, and should be a point of concern to planning practitioners. However, as highlighted in the work of Robert Putnam and Timothy Earle, building trust with communities, particularly marginalized ones, is challenging due to their diversity itself. Description of Program Under the aegis of Sustainable Calgary, the Active Neighborhoods project aims at creating opportunities for citizen engagement in the urban planning process as well as active transportation options, with the goal of making selected communities more livable. We focus on marginalized communities, including low income earners and new immigrants, because they are typically underserved and less likely to use active transportation infrastructure. Preliminary research indicates a correlation between immigrant status and health issues, socioeconomic status, use of active transportation, and sedentary lifestyles. Therefore, from both public health and equity perspectives, it is important to involve these marginalized communities in the process of planning the development of active transportation infrastructure. Underlying such engagement is the need to build trust effectively. Outcomes This Active Neighborhoods project took place within a north-eastern community in the city of Calgary, where part of our work involved engaging with a group of immigrant women and homeless men. Through this case study of targeted engagement, we highlight the importance of trust-building by meeting individuals on their own turf, partnering with relational mediators, adapting to emergent situations, and flexible time frames. Developed in partnership with our community stakeholders, we created a visual engagement tool through an iterative process. Investing in marginalized communities this way better addresses the challenges noted above. Implications There is a paucity of critical work on engaging with these particular population groups around infrastructure development and urban planning. Therefore, we believe there are important lessons to be shared through reflecting on this experience. Moving forward, urban planning needs to grapple with how best to build trust, within a relational context, in developing infrastructure that benefits a community over time.

At the Age of Twelve: Migrant Children and the Disruption of Multicultural Belonging

This paper troubles seductive discourses of Canadian multiculturalism and the centrality of whiteness to national belonging, highlighting how migrant children understand and navigate assimilation. Evolving out of childhood migration stories shared by 12 interviewees in the documentary Twelve, the article addresses the ways ‘childist’ logics are used to separate childhood from the realities of race and racism. In working towards anti‐racist praxis, we address how storytelling challenges adult–child power hierarchies, exposing how childhood continues to be framed as a time of innocence, disconnected from the violence, danger and pain involved in migrating to Anglophone Canada.

Catching English: Constructing language choice between Tagalog–English bilingual siblings

In multicultural Canada, preserving heritage languages (HLs) is an issue for many immigrant families. Many parents want to maintain their HL with their children, but do not necessarily speak it consistently athome. In addition, older siblings may start speaking the HL less once they start school. This study examined the language choice among Tagalog–English bilingual siblings in an English-majority setting. We expected to see greater use of English when at least one of the siblings was in school and when pretending to interact in public settings (like schools or restaurants) rather than private. The results showed that the children spoke mostly English regardless of whether they (or their sibling) were in school and regardless of context (public vs. private). We discuss possible reasons for these children’s high use of English.

Does Multiculturalism Work? Language, Friendship Homophily, and Well-Being of Immigrants in Canada

Multiculturalism is under attack in its birthplace, Canada. I revisit the connection between the two pillars of Canadian multiculturalism, namely acceptance of English and French as the official languages and respect and sharing among all cultural groups. A unique dataset, the 2002 Canadian Ethnic Diversity Survey, is used to analyze how learning more languages affects ethnic composition of people's social networks, which I propose as an indicator for social integration of new immigrants. I find that learning the official languages or learning more languages in general increases the ethnic diversity of a person's network. The economic and social well-being of immigrants are related to their language skills and ethnic composition of their social networks. The findings are generally in favor of advocates for multiculturalism.

Ethnicity as an Exercise in Sport: European Immigrants, Soccer Fandom, and the Making of Canadian Multiculturalism, 1945–1979

Ethnic sport offers an important and understudied lens into how newcomers – a key population on the social peripheries – negotiate their entry into host societies. Canada was among the top countries to receive European migrants after the Second World War. Soccer participation and fandom were a gateway in their resettlement and an axis for community formation, identity expression, economic advancement, and personal pleasure. This paper explores what four decades of ethnic soccer on the peripheries of post-war Toronto reveals about the local organization of immigrant life and the European newcomer’s mediated entry into English Canada. It demonstrates that Toronto soccer fans were sufficient in number and electoral voice to transform the urban politics of leisure and organization of social diversity, even as their leisure activities were still heavily contained by host institutions. Paradoxically, soccer’s straightjacketed role in Toronto as an ethnic social adhesive and platform for identity expression rendered it largely irrelevant to the general, more settled population, while its capacity to articulate ethnic differences made it a force and symbol of English Canada’s re-imagination as a multicultural society in the 1970s.

National identity and public attitudes toward multiculturalism in Canada: Testing the indirect effect via perceived collective threat.

National identity and public attitudes toward multiculturalism in Canada: Testing the indirect effect via perceived collective threat.

Why Both the Left and the Right Are Wrong: Immigration and Multiculturalism in Canada

Why Both the Left and the Right Are Wrong: Immigration and Multiculturalism in Canada

Intersectionality and Gendered Political Behaviour in a Multicultural Canada

AbstractResearch on gendered political behaviour has been heavily influenced by feminist scholarship in understanding gender inequalities. Yet it has been more difficult to integrate the insights of more recent waves of feminist critics, notably among intersectional scholars. The focus has been on differences between women and men, rather than among differently situated women. This article addresses the difficulties of integrating intersections into large-n style studies of political behaviour using “situated comparisons” (Dhamoon, 2010). It then provides an analysis of gender gaps in turnout and civic engagement across ethnoracial groups in Canada using the Ethnic Diversity Survey (2002).It concludes by arguing that the study of gender and political behaviour must find a place for intersectional feminist approaches.

Gender versus Culture Debates andDébâcles: Feminisms, Interculturalism and the Quebec Charter of Values

AbstractQuebec's Bill 60 (or Charter of Values), legislation prohibiting public officials from wearing religious symbols and garb, provides a complicated case of a minority nation grappling with culture and gender, while also illustrating the more contingent condition of Canadian multiculturalism, equality and feminisms. Quebec has adoptedinterculturalismversusmulticulturalism; moreover, its multilayered women's movement remains a legitimate force, unlike in the rest of Canada. Despite the intricacies of these distinctive developments, this article reveals how Charter of Values justifications asserted the Quebec nation's distinctiveness and alleged egalitarian pre-eminence over others, not only homogenizing and instrumentalizing multiple cultures, but also various feminisms. Yet, when culture, gender equality and feminisms become reified and essentialized through a strategic depiction of certain minority women's rights, Canada's already well-worn claims to diversity and equality are further frayed both subnationally and nationally.

Social and cultural context of the developpment of ukrainian-language studies in Canada in the last quarter of XX and at the beginning of XXI century

In the article is given the historical-pedagogical analysis of the education in Ukrainian-language studies development in Canada in the last quarter of XX and at the beginning of ХХІ century. The socio-political, cultural and educational conditions of this development are characterized. Having considered the preconditions of official bilingualism and multiculturalism in Canada in the context of Ukrainian-language studies, the author conventionally separates three main periods with most typical socio-cultural factors that favored its development. The result of efforts and recommendations of Ukrainian Canadian teachers in 1960-ies became both changes, introduced to the school law and new cultural policy of Manitoba and Alberta provinces that accelerated the spread of multiculturalism in whole Canada. The period from 1971 to 1986 that is named in the research the beginning of official bilingualism and multiculturalism in Canada may be considered as very successful for the development of Ukrainian Canadians' national education, because Ukrainian-language studies developed at all levels in this time (from preschool institutions to research ones). But at the end of 1980-ies the question about an aim of the national education appeared in Canadian diaspora. That is why the other period (1987–1998), from authors' point of view, is characterized by the changes of the methodological paradigm on the base of innovative technologies in the context of intercultural interaction with Ukraine. We consider the special features of the third continuing period as the active participation of Ukrainian Canadians in the development of education in Ukraine, mutual influence of Canadian and Ukrainian methods of teaching disciplines on Ukrainian studies and deepening of International connections and cooperation between both countries in the context of further development of multicultural education throughout the world