Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is a policy that emphasizes the unique characteristics of different cultures, especially as they relate to one another in receiving nations. The word was first used in 1957 to describe Switzerland, but came into common currency in Canada in the late 1960s. It quickly spread to other English-speaking countries.

Criticisms

There have been many criticisms of official multiculturalism from both the left and right. However, criticism of such policies can be difficult, because it can quickly lead to accusations of racism and xenophobia.

Related Topics:
Racism - Xenophobia

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Criticisms of multiculturalism can focus on the circumstances of one country or they can be more general.

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Criticisms of multiculturalism in general

Critics charge that one of the dangers of pursuing multicultural social policies is that social integration and cultural assimilation can be held back. This can potentially encourage economic disparities and an exclusion of minority groups from mainstream politics. The political commentator Matthew Parris has questioned whether the pursuit of particularist multiculturalism is not apartheid by another name.

Related Topics:
Matthew Parris - Apartheid

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One of the most forceful critics of multiculturalism was Ayn Rand, who condemned the world-wide ethnic revival of the late 1960s as a manifestation of tribalization that would lead to an ethnic Balkanization destructive to modern industrial societies. Her philosophy considers multiculturalism to be based on the same premise as monoculturalism; this premise being culturally determinist collectivism (i.e., that individual human beings have no free choice in how they act and are conditioned irreversibly by society). Philosophically, Rand rejected this form of collectivism on the grounds that: 1) it undermines the concept of free will, and 2) the human mind (according to her philosophy) is a tabula rasa at birth. Combining these two premises, she concludes that we all can modify our actions volitionally, assuming we modify the premises we hold to support those actions (which is also volitional). Since this thinking was also her basis for rejecting racism, Objectivists and Neo-Objectivists/Post-Objectivists consider multiculturalism to be akin to racism.

Related Topics:
Ayn Rand - Balkanization - Collectivism - Tabula rasa - Objectivists

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In her 1999 essay, later expanded into an anthology, "Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?" the feminist and political theorist Susan M. Okin argues that a concern for the preservation of cultural diversity should not overshadow the discriminatory nature of gender roles in many minority cultures, that, at the very least, "culture" should not be used as an excuse for rolling back the women's rights movement.

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One of the most articulate and careful recent critics of multiculturalism is the political theorist Brian Barry, who argues from the liberal left in his 2002 book "Culture and Equality: An Egalitarian Critique of Multiculturalism" that multiculturalism divides people when they need to be united in order to fight for social justice.

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Another more recent and conservative criticism of multiculturalism based largely upon the Nordic and Canadian experience has been presented by the administrative scientist Gunnar K. A. Njalsson. According to him, multiculturalism is in fact a utopian ideology with a flawed, simplistic and overly optimistic view of human nature, the same weakness he attributes to Communism, Anarchism, National Socialism and many strains of Liberalism. He points out that the current climate in many western nations with official multicultural policies and programmes is such that even lucid and well-argued criticism of the ideology will tend to be met by emotional, sensationalist and even violent opposition. It is this aspect combined with a tendency to require all citizens to think and act in accordance with multiculturalism which, according to Njalsson, would tend to define multiculturalism as a potentially extreme and totalitarian ideology. He also voices concerns that some variants of the multiculturalist ideology may in fact equipe non-egalitarian cultural groups with political clout and influence in such a way as to eventually allow them to dominate the values system of a particular society. This realist criticism of multiculturalism maintains that in countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand or the US multiculturalism may actually further aggravate a situation where old-stock families are not permitted by their old world countries to consider themselves as English, French, Scandinavian, etc. while at the same time their identity-related sovereignty in their new world countries is reduced by equating them in culture with newer arrivals who can claim two or more national identities.

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Country-specific criticisms

United States

Diane Ravitch argues that the celebration of multicultural diversity in America is used to mask hostility toward the mainstream.

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In his 1991 work, Illiberal Education, Dinesh D'Souza argues that the entrenchment of multiculturalism in American universities has undermined the universalistic values that liberal educations once attempted to foster. In particular, he was disturbed by the growth of ethnic studies programmes, (e.g., Black Studies).

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Australia

The response to multiculturalism in Australia has been extremely varied, with a recent wave of criticsm against it in the past decade. While Paul Keating's Labor Government was an advocate of multiculturalism in the early 1990's the current Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard himself is a critic of multiculturalism, preferring instead a "shared national identity". An anti-immigration party; One Nation, was formed by Pauline Hanson in the late 1990's and enjoyed significant electoral success.

Related Topics:
Paul Keating - John Howard - One Nation - Pauline Hanson

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Much of Australia's traditional Anglo-Celtic population are either opposed to or show apathy towards multiculturalism, which has brought about noted seperatism and "ethnic ghettos" in Australian society. Many immigrants to the country use the guise of "multiculturalism" to avoid inclusion and integration into the country's social makeup.

Related Topics:
Anglo-Celtic - Immigrants

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Canada

In Canada, the most noted critics of multiculturalism are Kenneth McRoberts, Neil Bissoondath and Reginald Bibby.

Related Topics:
Kenneth McRoberts - Neil Bissoondath - Reginald Bibby

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As a young man, McRoberts worked for the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism and his career as a political scientist has roughly coincided with the policy of multiculturalism. While some argue that the shift in official discourse from biculturalism to multiculturalism has had a neutral effect on relations between Quebec and the rest of Canada, McRoberts believes that it was disastrous for Canadian nationalism, as it offended Quebeckers and their a dualistic vision of Canada as a bilingual and bicultural society.

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In 1971, when official multiculturalism was introduced by the federal government, separatism was fringe movement in Quebec, with less than a tenth of the population supporting the idea of being an independent country. The next few years saw the growth of separatist sentiment and the election of a provincial government committed to independence. To many French Canadians, multiculturalism threatened to reduce them to just another ethnic groups, along with the Greeks and the Vietnamese. In the 1995 independence election on separation from Canada, the advocates of Quebec independence lost by only a small margin.

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Of all Canadian provinces, Quebec has been the least supportive of multiculturalism, welcoming people of all races, but insisting that they assimilate into Quebec's French-speaking society. Recently, the more assimilationist aspects of this policy have been tempered with a recognition that Quebec is a de facto pluralist society. The Quebec government has adopted a form of multiculturalism. It is described by the Quebec government as an "interculturalism policy." This policy seeks to integrate immigrants to the mainstream French-speaking society of Quebec.

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The government of Quebec understands pluralism as being a feature of modern Quebec society or any other society that welcomes immigrants. Because it considers itself the national government of all Quebecers, the Quebec government seeks to have all its citizens participate to a common civic culture. In order to accomplish this, it promotes French, the language of the majority, as the common public language of all Quebecers.

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Whether as a first, second, or third language, French becomes the instrument which allows the socialization of Quebecers of all origins and forces interaction between them. Interculturalism is a policy that aims at fighting racism, misunderstanding of others, and ultimately bring about the solidarization of the multiethnic human collectivity the nation is supposed to be.

Related Topics:
Socialization - Solidarization - Multiethnic - Collectivity - Nation

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In his Selling Illusions: The Cult of Multiculturalism in Canada, the Trinidad and Tobago born Bissoondath argues that official multiculturalism limits the freedom of minority members by confining them to cultural and geographic ghettos. He also argues that cultures are very complex and must be transmitted through close family and kin relations. To him, the government view of cultures as being about festivals and cuisine is a crude oversimplification that leads to easy stereotyping.

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Bibby, in his Mosaic Madness: Pluralism Without a Cause, argues that official multiculturalism is a divisive force that is reducing national solidarity and unity.

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Criticism of Kymlicka's communitarianism

It devolves responsibility of the public society to its "subsets" which are cultural communities, whose responsibility is to integrate individuals experiencing cultural alienation or in need of cultural choices. In other words: the society doesn't integrate individuals, "communities" do; the society doesn't integrate individuals, it only integrates "communities". Through such communal devolution, the society actually devests itself of the direct responsibility to rein in racism assaulting human dignity (not just "group dignity") and to provide equal opportunities and cultural fulfillment for individuals. And then, the discourses concerning anti-racism and egalitarianism are directed exclusively toward the preservation of group dignity, group integrity, group autonomy and inter-group harmony.

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United Kingdom

In the UK, supporters of the current Labour government's approach have described it as having defended the rights of minorities to preserve their culture, while also seeking to ensure they become fully particpatory citizens ? that is, integrating without assimilating. Critics say the policy fails on all accounts: If social conditions and racism become barriers to the integration of minorities, then multiculturalism does not properly function. There is now a lively debate in the UK over multiculturalism versus "social cohesion and inclusion." The current Labour government appears to favour the latter. In the wake of bomb attacks on London in 2005 (which left over 50 people dead) the opposition Conservative home secretary called on the government to scrap its "outdated" policy of multiculturalism. One of the foremost critics of multiculturalism is Trevor Phillips the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality and a one-time black activist. Criticisms of the multiculturalism policy have also been made by Uganda-born author Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, in her book After Multiculturalism. While it is claimed that the United Kingdom receives the largest number of immigrants every year, ahead of France and the United States, the UNHCR reports on its website that this is in fact exaggerated. Most of the immigrants come from the Indian sub-continent or the Caribbean. This is the main reason why London is the world's most cosmopolitan city. In the May 2004 edition of Prospect Magazine, David Goodhart, the Editor, temporarily couched the debate on Multiculturalism in terms of whether a modern welfare state and a "good society" is sustainable as its citizens are becoming increasingly diverse. David Goodhart. Too Diverse? Prospect,

Related Topics:
Trevor Phillips - Commission for Racial Equality - Uganda - Yasmin Alibhai-Brown - After Multiculturalism - France - United States - London

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http://www.media-diversity.org/downloaded%20articles/Goodhart%20%20Feb%2004.htm Open criticism of multiculturalism, given Prospect's pedigree and reputation, was thereafter firmly part of the mainstream. Events since then - such as the London bombings - have shifted the debate away from sustainability and cohesion towards a focus on the uneasy bedfellows of free speech and security.

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