By Janet Keeping
While Canada’s massive diversity creates problems when it comes to integration and the protection of our liberal-democratic values, there is little we have to learn from Europe on managing it better.
There is no doubt that Canada faces real challenges in integrating its new citizens. Some examples include the recently-arrived families to Manitoba who reportedly demanded both gender segregation of physical education and exemption from music classes based on their religious beliefs, and kirpans are back in the news after Quebec banned them from the provincial legislature, even though the Supreme Court ruled on their acceptability years ago.
But the alleged failures of “multiculturalism” in Europe are no reason for alarm among Canadians. Whatever is happening in Europe has little to do with us, especially as our histories and prevailing attitudes are entirely different.
What is the significance to us of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent announcement that multiculturalism has failed there? Very little. Germany has long denied citizenship to both long-term residents who moved to Germany to work – many of them Muslims from Turkey – and to their children born in Germany. This is directly contrary to the usual Canadian approach. What message does a country send by refusing citizenship to those who labour for decades within its borders and their native-born descendants? How about “We accept your labour, but “your kind” is not good enough to join our society as a citizen”? The denial of citizenship is no way to encourage the adoption of western values.
In contrast, Canada is a country of immigrants who left their homelands to make better lives for themselves and their children. We want people to become citizens so they feel they belong and can get on with the job of adjusting to our way of life. Many critics of our temporary foreign worker programs – radically expanded in recent years – have suggested we are following the German guest-worker direction. We can only hope that Canadian policy-makers understand nothing good can come from following these German footsteps.
What about France, where President Nicolas Sarkozy has also lamented the failure of multiculturalism? There too, there is nothing to be learned by us. Like Germany, France has refused citizenship to those who do not fit a fuzzy notion of “real Frenchness.” You may recall the case of a woman who fulfilled all the requirements for French citizenship but was denied it anyway because she wears the niqab, a face covering worn by some Muslim women. That garment was sufficient to convince decision-makers that she wasn’t French enough and thus didn’t deserve citizenship.
So far Canadian governments have avoided falling into this trap. Let’s hope this continues because the thinking that lies behind such decisions is shoddy. If a woman is forced to wear the niqab, then if anyone should be denied citizenship it is those who are coercing her. But if she freely chose to wear such garb, what’s the problem? Like many people, I think the view that women should feel obliged to cover their hair or face is deeply misguided. But to deny citizenship on that basis is wrong.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has made a similar claim that multiculturalism hasn’t worked in his country either. But the differences between Britain and Canada are immense.
Britain remains a class-ridden society in a way that is largely foreign to Canada. Social mobility is considerably greater in Canada than in Britain. While immigrants may have a hard time in Canada, their children have a much better chance of making it into the mainstream than they would in Britain. Probably related is Britain’s failure to get over the end of its empire. Once the world’s greatest colonial power, the UK is but a shadow of its former self. Many Brits are in no mood to embrace greater diversity, since they are painfully insecure about their own identity, and some British policy-makers still operate on condescending colonial assumptions.
There is no doubt that Canadian society faces challenges in dealing with the conflict between the embrace of diversity and protecting our precious and hard-won liberal democratic institutions. For example, our commitments to women’s equality and gay rights must be protected from less progressive views brought to Canada by some groups, such as those who think that family “honour” can justify violence against women. But Europe’s trepidations about multiculturalism should not make us question ourselves. While we have hard work ahead of us to properly manage our diversity, there is little Europe can teach us except what not to do.
Janet Keeping is president of the Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership.
Courtesy: Troy Media