Multiculturalism a mixed bag

EUGENE KAELLIS

Canada and Australia are the only countries with official multiculturalism policies. Both had a history of racist laws directed against aboriginals and both maintained bigoted immigration policies, Canada having the worst record among western democracies in admitting Jews fleeing the Holocaust. Multiculturalism was meant to remedy these and other issues.

Come the next Multiculturalism Month or festival, we shall see yet again displays of song, dance and ethnic foods. Unfortunately, this is the only concept many people have of multiculturalism, although informed opinion has left such pleasant superficialities behind and is now concerned with the consequences of increasing heterogeneity in our democratic society.

Tradition is a key consideration. It is what maintains historical connections among generations and provides a cultural and historical identity.

In Canada, it is concern for the maintenance of tradition that, in effect, is the grounds for multiculturalism. This contrasts with the American "melting pot," in which heritages were supposed to dissolve in the soup of "the American way" – something that never happened for Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and most other ethnic groups.

But tradition, by its nature, is conservative. It therefore usually contains elements of male supremacy and ethnic superiority. Tradition also freezes time. Ukrainians in Kiev may be performing avant-garde modern dance, but in Canada, dressed in traditional blouses and boots, they stick to the hopa, an icon of cultural identification.

Multiculturalism may be well-intentioned, but its origins are pragmatic: a realistic acceptance of the heterogeneity of our population and an enticement for immigrants from current source areas – Asia, Africa and Latin America – assuring them that they and their culture will be treated respectfully.

With the low birth rate in western countries, particularly in Canada, multiculturalism and immigration ultimately have a practical economic base. Immigrants are consumers, add to the workforce, bring investments, facilitate trade and being, on average, younger than Canada-born Canadians, provide much-needed contributors to the country's health-care and pension systems - both facing difficulties with an aging population. Obviously, some effects are at cross-purposes, but there is a net benefit.

The troubled history of immigrant groups, past and present, has to be acknowledged and understood. With the good, immigrants have also brought with them the potential for social problems as they and their new society interact with one another. Currently, the Vancouver Police Department has an Asian Gangs Division, but, in the 19th century, it was the Irish, fleeing starvation and British oppression, going wherever they were needed as laborers, who were associated in their new environment with crooked politics, gang crime, alcoholism and hateful acts against Blacks, who were perceived as their job competitors. While all of these perceptions could be explained in an unbiased and logical way, they nonetheless existed.

While heterogeneity in Canada is growing, it is developing within a persistent, essentially Christian, matrix. Jews and others must still abide by Sunday closing laws in some provinces, observe holidays not part of their tradition, put up with a crucifix displayed on the walls of Quebec's National Assembly and a Queen who remains "Defender of the Faith." Canada, in many ways a non-denominational society, is still a long way from being a truly secular one.

Official and consistent secularism – meaning no religious-cultural bias in the laws and practices of government – would certainly alleviate many irritants Jews still experience in Canadian society, but they must expect that it might also constrain some of their own practices. For example, circumcision without the consent of the subject or a medical rationale may some day provoke a legal challenge on behalf of an infant.

In a democratic, secular society, people of different ethnicity and religious background can perform their own cultural-religious practices as long as they do not impinge on other groups or violate laws or basic mores. Recent developments, including bombings in Britain and Egypt, have caused widespread resentment and a reassessment of policies. Democratic states now face serious security problems with which they must somehow grapple without discriminating and, in theory, without resorting to racial or ethnic profiling.

Canada has always behaved as if it could turn the immigration valve on or off whenever it suited national purposes. That may not be so easy now. The economies of East and South Asia are improving rapidly and settling in Canada is increasingly more expensive. This country may have to look to Africa and Latin America for more immigrants and since immigrants from these countries tend to be poor and have traditionally attracted significant bigotry, a whole host of additional problems may be forthcoming.

One problem Canada has not yet faced is the overwhelming concentration of immigrants in its three largest cities. This uneven distribution may accentuate an urban-rural fault line that has historically plagued other countries.

The development of Canada as "a nation of minorities" may be good news for Jews by making them just one more minority among many, but some of the other minorities have a past and present of marked antipathy to Jews. Like almost anything else in life, multiculturalism is a mixed blessing.

Eugene Kaellis served as education and communications director for the Burnaby Multicultural Society for 10 years. He lives in New Westminster.

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