Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the cultural diversity among people. After being made official in 1971 by Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Canada has experienced the ups and downs towards this policy [Canadian Heritage]. This policy was made official to bring the people of the country together, learn about different cultures and work with one another. Unfortunately, multiculturalism hasn’t brought all the factors that were anticipated. It has created language and cultural barriers among the people. The minorities do not get heard, as much as they have hoped for, which proves that there isn’t much equality throughout the different groups.
Since the cultural diversity has encouraged the people to be different and unique, it has resulted to the lack of mingling with one another. The people of same culture tend to work with each other and ignore others. Over the thirty years or so, multiculturalism has negatively affected Canada in general. In fact it has greatly impacted the rate of tourists, population, created segregated neighborhoods and even affected the communication among the people. This “tossed salad” method has not worked too well and hasn’t attracted many visitors to the country.
Throughout many years, Canada has tried to offer people of the world a taste of different cultures that make up the country. They have created little communities, such as China Town or Little Italy to improve the tourism rates. However from the recent data collection, the tourism rates in the past year has not been doing too well. It was clearly shown that on average, Canada’s tourism rates had dropped 3% during the 2003-2005 polls (Statistics Canada).
Unfortunately, last year alone, Canada experienced a huge decline of 4.1%. It is believed that the main loss of tourism would be from the lack of identity. Since Canada is basically multiple cultures all in one, there isn’t anything that makes it their own. It is difficult to determine the difference with being a Canadian from being any other culture (Calgary Heralds).
The fact that there aren’t many characteristics that makes Canada standout definitely plays a huge role. Another major reason for the low tourism rates would be because Canada is based on a multicultural policy. Those who do not support this policy wont want to visit the country and so it brings down the overall rate. Many people believe that even with lower tourism rates, we can still make a lot of money.
According to last year’s data, Canada deposited around $1.8 billion U. S through tourists (Calgary Herald). Even though Canada received a huge amount of money, the lowering percentage of tourists visiting Canada will soon create a loss of money. The money spent for tourism will not be profited and might create even bigger problems along the way. Less people visiting Canada on a tourism stand will create a lower population because there is a lower number of people attracted to the country.
With Canada’s low population of only 32 248 600 (The sustainability report), it holds over 200 different ethic origins (Canadian Heritage). There has been a huge change from the most frequent ethnic origins (other than the British and French) from 1986 to the most recent census of 1996. During the earlier stages of the multicultural policy at work, the German origin was the most frequent (Day, Richard J.F 203).
However, throughout the decade of immigrants and emigrants, the latest census reports that the most common origin that year was the Scottish, bringing Germany down to 6th (Statistics Canada). Although many different people are entering the country, they are entering by very low numbers. An average of only 200 000 people come to Canada yearly (Canadian Heritage).
Since the baby boomers are slowly dying off, the population will soon decrease creating many more issues. Although some might say that this allows more job opportunities for newcomers and the unemployed, it also creates the pressure of having to support each other with a low population.
Many jobs wont be filled because of the lacking number of people. Throughout the many years, the population has created many segregated neighborhoods that prevent people from working with others of different origin or culture.
Segregated neighborhood basically refers to the separation or isolation from other groups (Princeton). This has been clearly created through the multicultural policy. Overtime, people of different cultural or ethnic backgrounds have started to only stick with one another. Doing this has created borderlines between the different groups.
Therefore, people are not really acting like a multicultural community since everyone has separated from each other. Although many try to deny it, it has been one of the major ways of racism. Some people do not want to live with certain ethnic groups and try hard to avoid the area causing problems when trying to work with each other (Blackwell-synergy). Little communities have been formed, such as China Town or Little Italy.
Although it may seem like a good way to learn each other’s culture, it creates problems such as compromising. The people already have everything they need and so they don’t bother to change their way of life. They continue to follow their own cultures a little too much and they don’t give in to learning a little about what Canada really is. Segregated neighborhoods have started to really divide apart. One major concern with this is that eventually, they might be asking for an area of the land. Also, since many people of Quebec don’t like the idea of multiculturalism, they have basically divided themselves from the rest of the country. This has already created problems with the nation.
If the residents of Quebec finally get their wish of separating, they can create huge demands with other groups to separate from Canada as well. However, segregated neighborhoods aren’t the only things that have been causing major problems for the country. A huge issue for the past few years has been communication.
Communication among the people of Canada has been a great concern. Because everything is provided in this nation, people decide that there is no point of adapting to the Canadian life. From the 1986 census, only 13.8% of the languages spoken were other than English and French (Fleras and Elliot 149). However, in more recent polls the Chinese languages took over 18% of the language spoken by Canada’s population alone (English People). Not only has this outshined the 13.8% of all languages spoken (other than English and French) but also it was done only through one language. In conclusion, the number of people speaking languages other than the main ones has increased dramatically.
While knowing more than one dialogue is a bonus in Canada, the major problem is that immigrants don’t know the main languages- English and French. “9.4 per cent of immigrants who came to Canada in the 1990s can't speak or understand French or English” (CBC).
A huge issue with this is that they don’t want to learn it either. Since everything is already here for them, in their language, they do not find the point of learning anything else. Therefore, this ruins the major characteristic that is most commonly known about Canadians around the world. It makes Canada seem like just a land where everyone can settle without making any changes or compromises.
Overall, multiculturalism has truly changed Canada throughout its 36 years of being an official policy. It has welcomed people to the country, accepting changes along the way. Unfortunately, multiculturalism hasn’t benefited Canada in many ways.
People around the world, and even those living in Canada do not really know what being a Canadian really is. They understand that the nation offers the cultural needs and wants of the different people, but they cannot spot what makes Canada unique. Multiculturalism was supposed to bring people of different cultures together. However, it has further separated everyone and created many issues that exist now and can further complicate things in the future.
It has put Canada in great risk when looking at the rate of tourists and population data. Communication has also backfired because many do not bother to learn the official languages because of the advantages that are already provided. In conclusion, multiculturalism was put out for a good cause but has overall negatively impacted the country.