Integration in Canada and the US

Fascinating...:

The reality is that Canadians talk about multiculturalism but don't practise it. That does not mean we don't embrace diversity. Both Canada and the United States, because of high levels of immigration, are diverse societies, but diversity and multiculturalism are not synonyms. Diversity encompasses a variety of characteristics that differentiate people, including dress, culinary and musical styles. An example is Toronto's hugely successful Caribana festival. Such events are hardly unique to Canada; several major U.S. cities have Caribbean festivals too.
Diversity is not divisive in secular democracies that respect individual freedom, such as Canada and the United States. On the other hand, culture is not just about superficial differences but also about core values. The people who were attending cock fights in Cloverdale simply don't understand our tender feelings toward animals. This is a difference in values and there is no room for compromise.
The notion that Canada is a mosaic while the United States is a melting pot does not survive scrutiny. In 1994, a study by two University of Toronto sociologists, Jeffrey Reitz and Raymond Breton, found that language retention of third-generation immigrants was less than 1 per cent in both countries. This was significant. One would expect foreign languages to dissolve into the American melting pot. But Canada is supposed to be a mosaic: a set of separate and distinct cultural entities. If it really were a mosaic, ancestral languages would survive through the generations. But they don't, because the offspring of immigrants are quickly absorbed into the dominant language milieux of North America.

Comments

[Craig Willy]

I'll agree with this. I have long believed that the pseudo-controversy about national policies of "integration" vs "multiculturalism" was a vast distraction. The way foreigners come into countries is not so different in France and UK, or Canada and US, despite differences in rhetoric. Mainly "multiculturalism" has become a term of abuse for those who want to exclude foreigners or denigrate non-White communities. It is a way of blaming social problems and exclusion on cultural differences, as though the majority second and third generation immigrants did not speak English and wore burqas. It is absurd.

[kiki]

I agree with you. I think that multiculturalism is a term that too many people use without knowing what it means and simply to make ideological points about immigration, immigrants, integration and its perceived negative effects on a country's identity and values as if they were supposed to remain stagnant.