Multiculturalism in Canada
Canada is often described as a multicultural nation. But what does that mean? Simply stated, it means that Canadians are not of any one cultural background, race or heritage. Instead, Canadians today reflect a vast diversity of cultural heritages and racial groups. This multicultural diversity is a result of centuries of immigration.
All Canadians, including the Native People, can trace their origins to an immigrant past. This does not mean that the majority of Canadians are immigrants. Far from it. Only about 16% of today's Canadian citizens were born outside Canada. Nor does this mean that anyone who wants to immigrate to Canada may do so. Immigration to Canada is a privilege, not a right. Canada remains selective about who may enter and, equally important, who may not.
Over the years, attitudes toward immigration and the development of immigration policies have evolved, reflecting economic, political and social issues in our country. Recently, the federal government has announced changes that will both decrease the number of immigrants allowed into Canada and make it more difficult for people in Canada, Canadian born and immigrants alike, to bring family to Canada from abroad.
Immigration: The Early Years
Immigration has played and continues to play a key role in shaping the character of Canadian society. Although only a minority of Canadians have first-hand experience of immigration, all Canadians have a parent, grandparent or more distant relative who came to Canada as a stranger to a strange land. Because all Canadians share an immigrant past, there would be no Canada without immigration.
Tens of thousands of years before the coming of the first European settlers, ancestors of Canada's Native People migrated across a frozen icepack linking Asia to North America. Over many centuries they spread across the continent, forming a rich tapestry of cultural and linguistic groupings. Approximately 500 years ago, Europeans arrived in what would eventually become Canada. First came French colonists who carved out homes along the St. Lawrence River and its tributaries. They were followed by settlers from France and Britain who gradually established competing colonial outposts in the Maritime provinces. The 18th century victory of British arms at Quebec, followed by the British defeat in the American Revolution sent Loyalists northward to British North America (Canada) in search of new homes.
During most of the next century and a half, immigration continued. Settlers came mainly from Britain, including English, Scots and Irish. Some were drawn to the opportunities of the new world. Others, including many Scots and Irish famine immigrants, escaped the grinding poverty and starvation which followed crop failures or eviction from their lands. Americans also immigrated. Many were lured north to Canada by Canadian land agents or labour recruiters. Some immigrants came empty-handed and alone. Others came in family groups and with the resources necessary to begin life afresh in a new land. Some succeeded, while others struggled and reaped only misery.
While the majority of early immigrants came to Canada from Britain or the United States, other nationalities also came, including non-whites. Many immigrants from continental Europe were drawn to Canada by its economic promise, or as an escape from religious or political threats. In the years before the American Civil War, the Europeans were joined by thousands of black slaves who escaped by following the Underground Railway northward into Canada. After Canadian Confederation in 1867, thousands of Irish and Chinese labourers were imported as workers to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. On the Pacific coast, other Chinese joined the rush of fortune hunters from all over the world who trekked into British Columbia and later the Yukon interior after the discovery of gold.
After the turn of the century, hundreds of thousands of American farmers moved northward into the Canadian prairies in search of farm lands. At the same time, many from central and eastern Europe, seeking land, were recruited by Canadian immigration agents anxious to fill the west with farmers.
While Canada's western lands filled with settlers, other newcomers laboured in Canada's expanding lumber, mining, railway, manufacturing and construction industries. Some planned to stay and become Canadians; others wished only to save money and then return to their families. Meanwhile, the money these sojourners sent home helped support those who remained behind. But whatever their motives for coming to Canada and whether or not they ended up staying permanently, each newcomer played a role in the building of Canada.
Attitudes Toward Immigrants
Well before World War II, Canada was already home to people from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. But not everyone was equally welcome in Canada. Canada and North America in general were populated mainly by people of western European culture and tradition. As a result, others who came were often considered "foreigners" because their race, colour, religion, or customs were different from those of the majority of Canadians.
To many Canadians of an earlier day, "foreign" meant different and, perhaps, inferior. Why, then, were so many of these immigrants allowed into Canada? The reason is simple. Canada needed more people to farm the Prairies, work in forests, factories and mines, and to build the country. Gradually, however, racial fears came more and more to dominate the public agenda. Many doubted that an influx of strange peoples speaking strange languages could be good for Canada. Could these "foreigners" ever assimilate and fit into Canadian society? Many Canadians answered "No." Some English-Canadians believed immigrants took jobs away from the native-born and created serious social problems. Certain French-Canadians feared immigrants whose growing numbers might tip Quebec's delicate French-English political and social balance in favour of non-French speakers.
As anti-immigrant sentiment spread, the public demanded that the government restrict immigration. The government responded with new regulations. Existing rules prohibiting Asian immigration were further tightened. The admission of eastern Europeans was made more difficult, and Canada's immigration door was closed to most southern Europeans and Jews. With the onset of the Great Depression in the l930s, immigrants seeking jobs were understandably not welcome. Even British immigrants were excluded. Like other countries, Canada locked its doors to the world, a policy which continued through World War II.
Following the war, those who believed that immigrants and their children represented a cultural problem saw assimilation as the answer. Public policy pressured immigrants and, more particularly, their children to put aside ethnic traditions and integrate themselves into the ways of English Canada. Government, schools, churches, the media and social service agencies rallied behind the Canadianization effort. In some ways this effort was successful. The vast majority of immigrants and their children learned English or French. Most eased into the social and economic system of the surrounding community. Their children went to public schools, and, while racism and discrimination did exist, most carved out a place for themselves in the Canadian community. But, all the while, many retained ties to family, ethnic group, religious tradition and the culture of parents and grandparents.
Immigration In the Modern Era
With the end of World War II, the Canadian economy began a period of expansion. Indeed, the economy grew so rapidly that soon there were too few workers in Canada to meet the demand. Fearing that the economy might stall, Canada lifted its restrictions on immigration to bring in tens of thousands of workers and their families from Europe. While preference was still given to people from Britain and western Europe, the need for workers remained so great that the door was gradually opened to other Europeans as well. Immigrants from southern Europe and refugees from then-Soviet occupied Europe arrived. Unlike earlier waves of immigrants, most who came after World War II did not settle on farms or in remote mining and lumbering towns. The majority settled in cities. Nor were they all labourers. Many were well-educated and trained professionals.
In the years that followed, Canada became home to waves of refugees fleeing from behind the Iron Curtain -- from Hungary (l956), Czechoslovakia (l968) and Poland (l982-85). Canadian attitudes toward immigrants became more welcoming. As Canadians supported efforts to end racism and discrimination in Canadian law, the last racial and ethnic barriers to Canadian immigration were finally removed in 1967. The result was a dramatic change in the sources of immigrants. Non-Europeans, especially immigrants from Asia and the Caribbean, arrived in increasing numbers. Today, immigrants and refugees from the developing world and from other non-European sources outnumber European immigrants by about three to one. As a result, visible minorities have become an increasingly important part of the national fabric.
Ethic and Racial Diversity
The diverse population is now one of the distinctive features of Canadian society. Of course, not all parts of Canada have the same population mix. In the 1991 census more than 30% of Canadians reported an origin other than British or French. But that percentage is most heavily concentrated in Ontario and western Canada. When one looks only at the 16% of Canadians who were born outside Canada, the regional variations are even more striking. Rural areas, small towns, Quebec and Atlantic Canada are home to fewer foreign-born people than is the rest of Canada. In rural Quebec, for example, the vast majority of the population was not only born in Canada but so were their parents, grandparents and great grandparents. By contrast, approximately 90% of foreign-born Canadians live in Canada's 15 largest urban centres. But, here again, the distribution of foreign-born is uneven. Some cities, notably in the Maritime provinces and in Quebec (outside Montreal), have relatively fewer foreign born. On the other hand, 30% of all Vancouver residents and 38% of all Toronto residents (more than a million people in Toronto alone) were born outside Canada.
In all this, two facts stand out above all others. First, since the early 1970s, the majority of immigrants have been "people of colour," coming to Canada from what used to be called "non-traditional" sources of immigration--that is, the developing world or other areas of non-European population. Secondly, immigrants and their children cross lines of wealth, neighbourhood, education and profession. For example, a recent study of first year students at the University of Toronto found that more than half identify themselves as non-white by race. Approximately 40% are of Asian heritage. Only about one third came from homes where English is the only language spoken. Accordingly, as the century draws to a close, Toronto and Vancouver may stand out as the most culturally and racially diverse cities in Canada. But they do not stand alone. The cultural mix in other Canadian cities may be of different proportions, but pluralism is a fact of Canadian urban life.
Multicultural Policy
How should Canadians deal with this pluralism of origin? In 1971, the federal government announced its policy of multiculturalism. The policy not only recognized the reality of pluralism in Canada, but seemed to reverse the earlier attempt to assimilate immigrants. It challenged all Canadians to accept cultural pluralism, while encouraging them to participate fully and equally in Canadian society.
Many factors influenced the introduction of the multiculturalism policy. Most of all, it must be seen as a product of its time. The mid-1960s were marked by increasingly troubled English-French relations in Canada. The government appointed a Royal Commission to study and recommend solutions to outstanding problems. The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism held hearings across Canada. The commissioners heard about more than just English and French relations. Ethnic spokespersons everywhere argued that the old policy of assimilation was both unjust and a failure. They told the commissioners that immigrants and their children had endured the Great Depression side-by-side with other Canadians; they had sacrificed sons and daughters to the national war effort, and they now reaped the benefits of Canada's economic revival and their own hard work. They might not be of English or French heritage, but they declared themselves to be not one bit less Canadian, and they would not be excluded from the public debate.
They urged that a new model of citizen participation in the larger society be adopted--one that addressed the pluralism of ethnic groups that were part of the Canadian family. They offered a blueprint for a Canadian identity based on public acceptance of difference and support of cultural pluralism. Unlike the melting pot model of the United States, they preferred the idea of a cultural mosaic--unique parts fitting together into a unified whole. Ethnicity, they argued, did not undermine Canadian identity. It was Canadian identity.
To the surprise of many, the Commission seemed to agree. In Volume IV of its Report, the Commission presented the government with sweeping recommendations which would both acknowledge the value of cultural pluralism to Canadian identity and encourage Canadian institutions to reflect this pluralism in their policies and programs. When the policy was announced, it was one of multiculturalism within a bilingual framework. Multiculturalism affirmed English and French as the two official languages of Canada. But ethnic pluralism was declared to be a positive feature of Canadian society worthy of preservation and development. Many provinces followed the federal lead by introducing multiculturalism policies in their areas of authority. In l988, Bill C-93 was passed as the Canadian Multiculturalism Act. It became the first formal legislative vehicle for Canada's multicultural policy.
Not all Canadians supported multiculturalism. For example, in English-speaking Canada some worried that multiculturalism would divide Canadians rather than unite them. Others feared that multiculturalism would erode the rich British heritage of English-speaking Canada. Many in Quebec protested that multiculturalism was designed to undermine Quebec nationalism. Ottawa, they charged, would use multiculturalism to thwart Quebec's aspirations by equating it with "other" ethnic groups in Canada.
But many, especially in urban English-speaking Canada, supported the policy. They saw it as a timely recognition of a pluralism that was a fact of Canadian life. When the policy was announced in 1971, the Canadian ethnic mosaic was still very much dominated by those of European heritage and was designed to recognize their contribution to Canada. However, as immigration to Canada from the developing world increased, the multiculturalism policy had to deal with the concerns of visible minorities. These new and emerging communities were less worried about recognition of their heritage in Canada. They looked to the multiculturalism policy, not for support of cultural enrichment but rather for aid in the elimination of racial prejudice and discrimination. They wanted to ensure equal access to jobs, housing and education.
The government responded. While it did not turn its back on the kind of culturally-based programming which dominated the early years of the multiculturalism policy, it did address issues important to the newer groups. In 1981, federal multiculturalism officials established a unit devoted to race relations in Canada. This was later expanded to make race relations a primary focus of the multicultural policy. Most provinces and many larger municipalities have followed suit within their areas of jurisdiction, primarily education, policing, social services and the protection of human rights. In Quebec, which still had difficulty with the term multiculturalism, the provincial government has developed its own programs in response to the new ethnic and racial reality. These programs are similar in many ways to those of the other provinces and the federal government. Today, most federal multicultural programs focus on institutional change, race relations and citizen integration and participation. The federal multiculturalism policy costs Canadians about one dollar each per year.
Prospects For the Future
The future of multiculturalism is unclear. History has shown that the rise and fall of economic prosperity and the need for a larger labour force affect our society's openness toward new immigrants to our shores. Some fear that multicultural programs have encouraged immigrants, particularly recent ones, to stand apart from the majority of Canadians. Whether or not this is true, those who oppose multiculturalism advocate reducing the number of immigrants allowed into Canada. These critics would admit only those most able to assimilate quickly into mainstream Canadian society.
The greater the diversity of the racial and cultural mix, the greater the need for tolerance and openness in accepting one another as fellow Canadians. With globalization and the ever-increasing movement of people from one country to another, the challenge of appreciating and accommodating cultural differences has become a universal experience. A multicultural policy that is sensitive to the needs of both long-time residents and the newly arrived will probably meet with the greatest success. Canada's future depends on the commitments of all its citizens to a unified Canadian identity, while still taking pride in the uniqueness of their individual heritage.
Source: Centre for Canadian Studies: Mount Allison University.