ABSTRACT
Theories and practices of multiculturalism have come under considerable debate since its inception and with even greater urgency in recent years. Multicultural citizenship, a concept advanced by Kymlicka (1996), calls for the recognition of minority groups, such as immigrants, and the allocation of rights to their cultural communities so as to facilitate citizenship participation. Abu-Laban (2002) defines multiculturalism as “the freedom to exercise rights as differentiated beings” (p464). Multiculturalism, however, has been criticized by several scholars in different ways. For example, Grillo (2007) regards multiculturalism as a “fuzzy” concept; in other words, it is “difficult, opaque, elusive, and with multiple contested meanings” (p981). More recently, a number of scholars further argue that state-sponsored multiculturalism is in decline (Grillo 2007; Mitchell 2004). Multiculturalism has also come under attack for purportedly contradicting the liberal values underpinning several of the societies that practice it, including Canada. Other scholars claim that multiculturalism treats cultures in an essentializing manner (Abu-Laban 2002) and reinforces power hierarchies within cultural groups, making some such as women more vulnerable to oppression (Shachar 2000). As we will see in this chapter, these scholarly arguments resonate with media debates on multiculturalism and immigration adaptation in Canada, a multi-ethnic society. These media debates draw attention to concerns over migrant employability and failed expectations, the formation of ethnic enclaves, the limits to migrant integration, and, of particular interest to the empirical study in this chapter on Mainland Chinese migration, the resilience of intergroup social distance between cultural groups in multi-ethnic societies.
