Multiculturalism in Canada

1. Multiculturalism in Canada • Julia Sadokhina • Irina Novikava

2. Contents • Definition of multiculturalism • Attitudes towards multiculturalism • Immigration to Canada • Immigrant languages • Chinese • Italian • Conclusion

3. Multiculturalism in Canada refers to the presence and persistence of diverse racial and ethnic minorities who define themselves as different and who wish to remain so. • The diverse population is now one of the distinctive features of Canadian society. In the 2001 census more than 32% of Canadians reported an origin other than British or French. Foreign-born Canadians make up about 18% of the total population. • 90% of foreign-born Canadians live in Canada's 15 largest urban centres. 30% of all Vancouver residents and 38% of all Toronto residents (more than a million people in Toronto alone) were born outside Canada.

4. Multiculturalism in Canada was adopted in 1971 following the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. • The report of the Commission advocated that the Canadian government should recognize Canada as a bilingual and bicultural society and adopt policies to preserve this character. • In 1971, the federal government gave the name multiculturalism to its policy recognizing the customs and contributions of Canada's ethnic groups. • In July 1988 the Conservative government passed a bill to introduce the Canadian Multiculturalism Act, which set forth the government's multiculturalism policy: "to recognize all Canadians as full and equal participants in Canadian society."

5. Attitudes towardsmulticulturalism • Canadians are generally supportive of a multicultural society. • Critics say the policy is divisive, because it emphasizes what is different, rather than the values that are Canadian. • Canadian culture and symbols, it is felt, are being discarded in the effort to accommodate other cultures. • The introduction of the term and what has been called the multicultural movement have been important in calling attention to an important type of diversity within society and in engendering politicalrecognition of it.

6. Immigration to Canada • The Skilled Worker Visa is by far the most popular way for newcomers to come to Canada permanently. • Canada uses a points-based system which allows any applicant who achieves a pass mark to file an application. (Currently, a score of 67 points out of a possible 100 is required) • Points are awarded based on the following criteria: • Education - points are awarded on a sliding scale with maximum points for a Master’s degree or Ph.D., and minimum points for successful completion of High School.

7. Language - ability to speak English and/or French. • Work Experience - applicants earn points based on their level of work experience, with at least 4 years of full-time work experience in a skilled occupation earning maximum points. • Age - Maximum points are awarded to individuals between ages 21 and 49. • Employment in Canada - a legitimate offer of permanent employment from a Canadian employer. • Adaptability - applicants earn points based on demonstrated ability to adapt to life in Canada.

8. Immigrant languages • Statistics Canada, 2001 Out of 29.6 million citizens of Canada 17.3 million are native English speakers 6.7 million are native French speakers 5.2 million are native speakers of neither of Canada’s two official languages 400 thousand people have more than one native language

9. English 17,352,315 French 6,703,325 Chinese 853,745 Italian 469,485 German 438,080 Punjabi 271,220 Spanish 245,500 English and a language other than French 219,860 Portuguese 213,815 Polish 208,375 Arabic 199,940 Tagalog 174,060 Ukrainian 148,090 Dutch 128,670 Vietnamese 122,055 Greek 120,365 English and French 112,575 Russian 94,555 Persian 94,095 Tamil 90,010 Statistics Canada,2001

10. Urdu 80,895 Hungarian 75,555 Cree 72,800 Gujarati 57,555 Hindi 56,325 Croatian 54,880 Romanian 50,895 Serbian 41,180 French and a language other than English 38,630 Japanese 34,815 Bengali 29,505 Inuktitut 29,005 Armenian 27,350 Serbo-Croatian 26,690 Somali 26,110 Czech 24,790 Finnish 22,405 Ojibway 21,000 Yiddish 19,295 Statistics Canada,2001

11. Statistics Canada,2001 • Turkish 18,675 • Danish 18,230 • Slovak 17,545 • Macedonian 16,905 • Khmer 15,985 • Lao 12,945 • Slovenian 12,800 • Hebrew 12,435 • Twi 11,070 • English, French and another language 10,085

12. Immigrant languages:CHINESE • Most of the Chinese-speaking population live in Ontario, Vancouver and Toronto • Chinese has become a No.3 language used in Canada • Chinese Canadians are sent to after-school Mandarin and/or Cantonese Chinese schools – cultural and social centres The gate to Montreal's Chinatown

13. Immigrant languages:ITALIAN • The majority of Italian-Canadians live in Ontario (781,345) where they constitute almost seven per cent of the population, while another 249,205 live in Quebec. • More than half of Italian-Canadians (670,300) claimed English as their mother tongue, 81,000 French and 469,485 Italian. Preston Street is the main commercial district in Little Italy

14. Immigrant languages:ITALIAN • TeleItalia, an Italian-language television service, was founded in Montréal.TeleItalia shared airtime with other multicultural programming at the station but had the most and best timeslots. • The first Italian newspaper in Canada was Il Corriere Italiano, founded by Alfredo Gagliardi at Montréal in the early 1950s. Il Corriere Canadese is the only national Italian-language daily today and is published in Toronto.

15. References • www.mta.ca/faculty/arts/canadian_studies (Mount Allison University) • www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com • www.immigrationexpert.com

16. Thank you for your attention!