Diversity in Canada - Research Paper Example

Diversity in Canada In a survey conducted by the Canadas Changing Labor Force Census in 2006, it was found that 3634800 of the total 17146100 of theemployed people in Canada were born out of Canada (wln.ualberta.ca, n.d., p. 1). By percentage, the foreign-born workers in the Canadian workforce made up to 21.2 per cent of the total in 2006. More than 50 per cent of the people who have immigrated to Canada from 2001 to 2006 possess a university degree. They make more than double the total population of the Canadian-born workers that have a university degree. The employment rate of the indigenous people in Canada that were aged between 25 and 54 years increased from 61.2 per cent in the year 2001 to 65.8 per cent in the year 2006. On the other hand, 80.3 per cent of the immigrants In Canada were employed in 2001 and in 2006, they employed population increased to 81.6 per cent. The local Canadian market is quite diverse culturally just like the global market. Thus, businesses in Canada need to perceive and deal with the cultural diversity as well as the way it affects the economic behavior, market trends and demands. This paper assesses the opportunities and challenges brought by the cultural diversity in Canada. Canada has conventionally had a very unique experience with diversity. The linguistic, cultural and ethnic makeup reflected by the 32 million residents of Canada is hard to be found anywhere else in the world. Impressed by the standard of living Canada has to offer, as well as the reputation of Canada as a caring and peace-loving country that places high value in diversity, roughly 200000 people from all over the world choose to migrate to Canada on the yearly basis. “In order to encourage the creation and sharing of Canadian stories, both at home and abroad, which reflect Canadas cultural mosaic, Canadian Heritage is pursuing a number of strategic objectives” (pch.gc.ca, 2009). One of the most cardinal strategic objectives is the realization of the significance of cultural diversity for Canada. Nevertheless, there has been huge debate about the usefulness of multiculturalism in Canada and the potential ways it is impacting the lifestyle of both the indigenous and the immigrant population in the country. The current state of cultural diversity in Canada can best be predicted by Charles Dickens’s words, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” (cic.gc.ca, 2010, p. 5). On one hand, Canada has not only seen increased comparative advantage in terms of the immigrants’ integration into the society, but also has witnessed more and more evidences of the important role of the Canadian multiculturalism policy in the achievement of comparative success. The benefits of the Canadian multiculturalism policy are the strongest today than they were ever before. On the other hand, Canada observes the growing anti-multiculturalism notion shown by many areas of the world in general and the Western Europe in particular. Cultural diversity is increasingly been seen as an emblem of the not-so-bright future of the countries that cultivate it. Critics see the cultural diversity as an intrinsically flawed concept. Many of these flaws have already shown up in the Western Europe, and their predictability in Canada is also high. There is no doubt in the fact that cultural diversity is Canada’s one of the biggest means of comparative economic advantage. When the merits of cultivating a culturally diverse population are added to the merits already possessed by the Canadian cities, they automatically become global cities that possess a cosmopolitan character. There is a strong relationship between the two. The Canadians’ cosmopolitan character developed as a consequence of the cultural diversity causing all the world’s religions and languages to dwell in the Canadian cities serves as an incentive for the international companies to establish their businesses in the Canadian cities, thus promoting the global character of those cities further. In the past few decades, a lot of Canadian companies have managed to illustrate a diversity dividend or an economic expansion which has resulted from the creative ways of tapping the workers’ cultural diversity to the competitive advantage of the businesses. The culinary dimension of the cultural diversity plays a fundamental role in making the Canadian cities exciting, vibrant and cosmopolitan places in the contemporary world. There is a significant population of the immigrants both from the first and the second generation that have opened their own cafes and grocery stores. These practices have laid the basis for the urban renewal in a lot of inner-city areas in Canada. Cultural diversity in Canada has played a cardinal role in making the political processes in the country increasingly inclusive. Bloemraad (2006) conducted a study upon the Vietnamese immigrants in Toronto and in Boston to compare their political integration in Canada and the US respectively. She found no significant variations in the demographic traits of the Vietnamese immigrants who were settled either in Toronto or in Boston i.e. their fluency of language, work experience and the education status was comparable with each other. However, Bloemraad (2006) found a much robust sense of Canadian citizenship in the Vietnamese immigrants in Toronto than those in Boston. The global anti-Muslim notion has been close to negligible in Canada as compared to many other countries. Accordingly, Canada has been least affected by the consequential polarization in the relationships among different ethnic populations. Focus Canada (2006) conducted a research and found that 83 per cent Canadians are of the view that immigration of Muslims in Canada has had a positive impact on Canada. Also, Muslims in Canada share their experiences of interactions with the native population in a positive manner. 91 per cent of the Muslims consent that Canada is proceeding in the right direction which is more in population than the 71 per cent of the other communities in Canada that believe the same (Adams, 2007). What fundamentally makes Canada different from other countries in terms of the cultural diversity is the fact that Canada officially declares herself as a multicultural country. Cultural diversity brings along with it, as many challenges as opportunities. The first and the foremost challenge that is caused by the multiculturalism in the workplace is the difference of language and the inability of some workers to understand the meaning of others. The use of more than one language in the workplace in Canada has been on an increase over the years. This can be estimated from the fact that the number of Canadians who used more than one language to communicate with their colleagues at the workplace in 2001 was 2.5 million and within five years, this population has increased to 2.8 million. Although apparently, the variation of language is too mild an element of diversity to cause trouble at the workplace, yet it can aggravate as a problem to dangerous levels sometimes. People at the workplace are very sensitive about the gossip that occurs around them. Workplace is a place that has to be visited on a daily basis by the worker. Being the source of income, it is very important in the life of any individual. In order to spend their time comfortably at the workplace, people tend to build good reputation and are very reactive towards any elements or factors that challenge their reputation. In such circumstances, when somebody is communicating with another person or a group in a language that is non-comprehensible for one at the workplace, one becomes curious and may doubt that the different language has been intentionally used to disable one to understand the gossip. This is the fundamental reason why English is established as the standard language for communication in a vast majority of the workplaces in Canada. Managers in the Canadian organizations find themselves in a difficult situation when one or more employees complaining having heard a colleague or colleagues talking to one another in a language other than English. It is equally difficult to convince the workers to necessarily talk to one another only in the English language when the conversation is not related to the business in any way. Two people want to talk about a non-business matter in a certain language, one speaks and the other comprehends; there is no reasonable justification to hold the two accountable for their conversation. When the managers warn such employees, they feel that they are being plotted against and are being victimized with racism. The socioeconomic status of the immigrants in Canada is a potential challenge for the government. Despite the fact that the policy of the Canadian government is pro-immigrant, yet the immigrants are at risk of experiencing racism. There are a lot of hindrances in the equal integration of the native and the immigrant population in the areas of housing, employment and education. An individual who has migrated to Canada and is sufficiently capable of doing the work in a certain field may be denied the job on account of lesser than acceptable level of fluency in the English language or for not having prior Canadian experience. Many overqualified people in Canada are placed in the full-time positions with the minimum salary and without additional benefits or training opportunities. Such circumstances put the immigrants into alienation and isolation and it becomes difficult for the immigrants to integrate into the society. Nevertheless, there are numerous non-profit agencies in function in Canada that take measures to facilitate the integration of the immigrants into the Canadian culture and society. The myriad of subcultures in Canada have experienced clashes in the past. The clash between the French Canadians and the English Canadians is of a very high magnitude. The French Canadians’ claim to the land in Quebec enables them to overlook the concerns of the minorities, Quebec being the only province in Canada that is fully French. This province has conventionally maintained a separate identity that isolates it from the other provinces of Canada. In order to gain public opinion upon the sovereign status of the province of Quebec, a referendum was held for the first time in 1980. “The referendum sought to allow the provincial government to negotiate “sovereign-association” status with Canada” (Desaulniers, 2003, p. 80). In this referendum, 40 per cent voters approved the sovereign-status and the rest disapproved it. The province of Quebec held a referendum for the second time in 1995 regarding the separatism. In this referendum, 49 per cent voters approved separatism and the rest disapproved it. The conflict between the French Canadians and the English Canadians is fundamentally based on the differences between the French and the English culture. Quebec has projected a xenophobic identity and has conventionally been over-concerned about preserving its individualistic history and civilization. Nevertheless, the 1995 referendum has played an important role in eliminating the tensions. The national administration of Canada has also taken certain measures to integrate the identity of the province of Quebec into the identity of the country as a whole. Thus, although the modern identity of Canada is based on two distinct cultures with clashing values and ideologies, yet the supportive multicultural stance of Canada has helped minimize the intercultural conflicts before they could reach the point of violence. Concluding, Canadian multiculturalism policy sees the cultural diversity as a positive trait of the Canadian culture. Multiculturalism is an intrinsic element of the Canadian identity. The positive instinct for the multiculturalism has conventionally kept Canada away from many of the evils of the cultural diversity that have shown up in other countries. The opportunities cultural diversity brings for Canada include but are not limited to improved relations with other countries of the world, exchange of cultures and increased trade with other countries, and a growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) with the in-pour of highly skilled workforce in Canada. In spite of all the support for the immigrants in Canada, some immigrants still occasionally encounter racism. The clash between the French Canadians and the English Canadians has always been a challenge for the Canadian government. Nevertheless, the Canadian government has always taken steps to eliminate the intercultural differences and promote mutual understanding and harmony in an attempt to have increased integration and representation of people belong to different cultures in all areas. References: Adams, M 2007, Unlikely Utopia: The Surprising Triumph of Canadian Pluralism, (Viking, Toronto). Bloemraad, I 2006, Becoming a Citizen: Incorporating Immigrants and Refugees in the United States and Canada, Berkeley: University of California Press. cic.gc.ca 2010, The Current State Of Multiculturalism In Canada And Research Themes On Canadian Multiculturalism 2008–2010, viewed, 26 November 2011, . Desaulniers, KL 2003, Canada, USA: Chelsea House Publishers. Focus Canada 2006, Canadians’Attitudes Toward Muslims (Environics). pch.gc.ca 2009, Canadas Commitment to Cultural Diversity, viewed, 26 November 2011, . wln.ualberta.ca n.d., Diversity in the Workplace in Canada, viewed, 26 November 2011, . Read More