The search for national identity through the creation of a multicultural society on the example of Canada

University of Social Sciences and Humanities

 

 

 

 

 

The search for national identity through the creation of a multicultural society on the example of Canada.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                               

 

 

 

 

 

 

Multiculturalism is a relatively recent phenomenon. It arose in the 70s of the 20^th century in Canada and the United States. Multiculturalism serves both as a real social movement and as a certain flow of thoughts and ideology. It became the great solution to the problems related to cultural, ethnic, racial and religious diversity of the states. There are a vast majority of such states in the world and even less than 10% of the countries can be seen as culturally homogeneous.

According to Kottak there are several models of the cultural change. The first model to overcome the cultural and ethnic diversity is assimilation. It focuses on full or close to the dissolution of the minorities in the larger, dominant cultural and ethnic community. A striking example of assimilation is France. Today, it is almost the only country of the major European countries which represents a civil monocultural nation. It was possibly made due to the fact that France has been conducted an elaborate and deliberate policy of cultural universalism, beginning with the French Revolution, sought to neutralize the ethnic and linguistic differences.

The second model of the integrative process assumes the maintenance of each ethno-cultural community its identity. At the same time, this process is based on the strict separation of the political and private spheres. In the political sphere are being gradually implemented such principles as equality of rights and freedoms for all members of the society. The private sphere including cultural, ethnic, religious and other aspects, considers them as an individual choice of each person. It should be noted that in this case, as a rule, a policy aimed at removal of the cultural, ethnic and linguistic differences, although it is not always open. Countries that choose the second integrative process are called the ethnic nations and the term is ethnicism, for example Germany.

The third model, to some extent, can be defined as an attempt to overcome the previous models. This is the third way to solve the cultural and national issues. This model originated in Canada and the United States. Let us remind that Canada is diverse culturally, linguistically, religiously and ethnically. The majority of its population is Anglo-Canadian and French-Canadian. One of the largest provinces, French-speaking Quebec, became a source of separatism. Realizing the danger of such a phenomenon, the Canadian federal government in the mid 60s in order to solve this problem started implementing modern and civilized means instead of brutal force. It was proclaimed the equality of the English and French languages. Canada officially defines itself as a multicultural society that is based on Anglo-French bilingualism. At the level of the constitution, Quebec was assigned the status of the province with the linguistic and cultural characteristics. A special law was passed on multiculturalism. Through these and other measures, seriousness of separatism and cross-cultural tension have significantly weakened.

There is much more difficult situation in the United States. The fact is that America represents one of the most complicated societies due to its ethnic and cultural structure. Its population has been historically evolved that there are at least five main components: the indigenous people - Indians; descendants of slaves, the mass of them were imported from Africa; the fist religious wave of the colonists; political and economic elite of the Anglo-Saxon origin; subsequent waves of the immigrants, not only from Europe, but also from the Latin American and Asian countries.

Trying to create not only unified but also a cohesive society and a state, America was largely focused on the French route; officially chose assimilation, which is called a  
“melting pot”. However, despite the efforts made by the government, it became clear by the middle of the 20^th century that this policy did not bring desired results. The broad movement of the African-Americans for civil rights in 1960, various forms of the feminist movement, the movement of the sexual minorities, and so on - all evidence of the crisis of American identity that accompanies the history of the United States, periodically fading and then sharpening.

The main reason for this situation is that assimilation is actually carried out mainly in relation to the white immigrants from the European countries. As for other groups of American population, there is likely dominated a different model - not assimilation, but rejection: reservations for the Indians, racism against the African Americans, and discrimination against other groups of the people with different color of the skin. All this rose tension and hostility in interethnic relations, a constant danger of the social explosion.

A search for finding a solution for this situation has led to the emergence of multiculturalism. Its main purpose was addressed to the acute problem of the African-American minority and removal of the devastating effects of racism. In this regard, multiculturalism was a policy of certain benefits and compensation, conducted primarily in the field of higher education. At the beginning, this policy had some success. But then, requirements of the African minorities were growing. Moreover other minorities started demanding too. As a result, the situation was getting more complicated and worse. Such phenomenon appeared as a “tyranny of the minority.” Because of this, during the 90s there were intense debates about multiculturalism. Its negative consequences forced to talk about the crisis of American identity.

However, multiculturalism has gone beyond the boundaries of North America, and had an impact on other countries. In particular, Australia, Colombia, Paraguay, South Africa, adopted their constitutions based on multiculturalism. Even France did not escape its influence, which in terms of the cultural and national issues was considered one of the most prosperous countries in the 90s. France faced with the problem of weakening its identity.

In general, multiculturalism and its consequences are difficult to assess unambiguously. It is a denial of cultural universalism, the rejection of integration and especially assimilation. Multiculturalism continues and strengthens cultural relativism, while maintaining the principle of equality for all cultures and supplementing it with the principle of cultural pluralism. Multiculturalism rejects any general, the central core of values, often representing culture of the dominant ethno-national community, and demands full equality for all cultural, linguistic, religious and other minorities, for all groups that have differences. This point of view has a western sociologist A. Etzioni (Mironov, 781).

In all cases, multiculturalism absolutizes the role of culture to the detriment of the social and economic factors. However, the acknowledgment of dignity of one culture is not enough for full social equality. The weakness of multiculturalism is that it gives preference to differences and ignores common. It is generally accepted that pure cultures, especially in our time, do not exist. The desire for it is not just utopian, but also dangerous, as can lead to a collapse of societies and states. At the same time, the preservation of the cultural diversity is necessary.

Canadian multiculturalism

Canada is a young and dynamic country actively promotes the flow of immigrants from around the world and the preservation of their “cultural space” on its territory. There is an interaction between different cultures united by ideas of co-existence and development.

Does its policy contradict the acute problem of the finding Canadian identity, as Canada has been facing this problem since its inception? Problems with its identity, as it is known, derives from relationship between the nations-founders of the country- French and British, and another reason is a powerful influence of the United States, as Canada has close relations with them because of its geopolitical position. The national problem of its identity is extremely urgent, and the main task is a preservation of the differences with the neighboring United States, which have the dominant position not only in the Canadian economy, but also in the cultural sphere of the country.

Today Canada is one of the developed countries, which play a leading role in the development of the world economic relations. Such position of Canada emerged due to both its interaction with other international communities and some features of its specific development. One of such features is the Canadian model of the building a multicultural society. The concept of multiculturalism, which arose in the country in 1970, based on the objective reality that the Canadian society is indeed diverse. Many scientists, public figures and the country’s population consider multiculturalism as one of the key features of Canada. The concept of multiculturalism was declared as a national idea of ​​uniting the various layers of the Canadian society. Moreover, the formation of the multicultural society is a state policy of Canada. This is due to several factors, including the relatively recent history of the country, whose population is formed by immigrants (Granatstein, Web).

In order to become a multicultural society as its now, Canada had to go through very important stages in its history. At the beginning, when the policy of multiculturalism was put into practice in 1971, its founders thought of it only in terms of language and culture. But then multiculturalism policy shifted with a change of the character of immigration into “visible minorities” and the aggravation of such concerns as work, housing, education and fight against racism. Achievement of equality by removing the barriers between races was the main focus of multiculturalism. Programs of race relations were enacted to battle racial discrimination.

Another significant stage was in 1982 when the Canadian constitution overcame some changes, and there appeared Charter of Rights and Freedom with the statement: “This Charter shall be interpreted in such a way that it coincides with the conservation and improvement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians.” Multiculturalism thus, was enshrined in the constitution. At the same time the Charter of Rights and Freedoms proclaimed: “Every individual is equal under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.” (Constitution Act, Web). Thus, discrimination became contrary to the law.

The decisive effect on the formation of the multicultural society was Multiculturalism Act, which the Canadian Parliament enacted in 1988. The law defined multiculturalism as a fundamental characteristic of the Canadian society that was aimed at preserving the cultures and languages, fighting against discrimination, development of cultural awareness and mutual understanding. The purpose of the law was also to increase the participation of the visible minorities in the Canadian leading public institutions. But in practice, this meant the emergence of quotas and priorities of employment, in particular, visible minorities and recent immigrants. These changes occurred simultaneously with the provision of special benefits for women in employment, and after years of preferential recruitment, for the French- speaking Canadians. Among white Canadians of the British origin, all this caused a feeling of discrimination. And the French- speaking Canadians began to fear that immigrants could cause damage to their culture (Golovkina, Web).

Dissatisfied people were worried about not only the benefits that immigrants received from the governments, but also about the prospects of successful integration of immigrants into the Canadian society from around the world. Changes are always difficult, and fears are clear. Especially, it is difficult if changes occur in the context of the current economic recession. However, it is obviously that Canada needs immigrants, even though there is a certain percentage of racists, very few Canadians would like to close the doors to immigrants on the basis of race or religion.

In spite of these uncertainties, today Canada is a multicultural nation, with a growing proportion of the visible minorities, particularly in the major cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. But do Canadians believe in multiculturalism? Outside of Toronto and Vancouver, many English- speaking Canadians are worried that multiculturalism can weaken a shaky sense of the nation. And outside of Montreal, Canadians were worried for their barely saved culture and language. On the other hand, the majority of the new immigrants want to be seen as just Canadians, but not the Somali Canadians or Filipino Canadians.

The main thing is that all Canadians, who were born here and immigrants, believe that the Canadian system works. Their reputation of the tolerant people is of the great importance. The Canadian multiculturalism (i.e. the constant practice of compromise and tolerance) can be considered as the fundamental feature of the Canadian society, the Canadian entity, the foundation of its identity. And they are willing to continue the maintenance of its tolerance.

To sum up, Canada is the first country to adopt as a state policy the official policy of multiculturalism. The Canadian politics not just admits the existence and development of the different cultures and languages, but provides them with the appropriate legislative and budgetary support. Giving the problem of ethnic and cultural identity the national policy priority, and establishing the appropriate national concept - are the most important aspects of the Canadian political culture that distinguishes it, in particular from the United States. It is a fact that the Canadian society is seen as a unity rather than a collection of the individuals. Therefore, Canadians have a belief in the strong government as a means of the protecting the public interest.

Works cited

 

1. Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Constitution Acts, 1867 to 1982. Justice Laws Website, 24 May 2013. Web. 2 June 2013

2. Golovkina , Oksana. Canadian multiculturalism as the basis of national identity of Canada. USA and Canada Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1 June 2004. Web. 2 June 2013

3. Granatstein, Jake. Multiculturalism and its Problems. The Canadian Experience, 29 Nov. 2010. Multimedia Nova Corporation.Web. 2 June 2013

4. Mironov, V. Philosophy. Moscow: Norma, 2000. Print.