Liberal and Radical Multiculturalism Flashcards
Will Kymlicka
Canadian liberal multiculturalist, Czech
- Multicultural citizenship, 1995
Discussed problem of how to reconcile individual human rights and group rights
- Believes a court is needed to protect individual and group rights
Multicultural Citizenship
Multiculturalism on the surface promotes pluralistic societies that encompass many different religious, cultural and ethnic identities
Kymlicka Version (1995)
- Discusses how to reconcile individual human rights with group rights
- Individuals need access to their culture to be ‘free’, therefore we need to protect it rather than suppress it
Different kinds of group rights should be conferred to these groups: self gov’t rights; polyethnic rights (legal protections + financial support to protect ethnic rights); special representation rights (affirmative action)
National Minorities vs Polyethnic Minorities
National minorities: Exists within a given territory and were there BEFORE creation of state (ex: Quebec/first nations)
Poly ethnic minorities : People who come into a pre-existing culture AFTER creation of state (Immigrants)
- Kymlicka argues that poly ethnic minorities are less deserving of rights because they bear a responsibility to integrate into culture because they voluntarily entered the state
Charles Taylor
Canadian; reflects on multiculturalism
Author of Politics of Recognition
Politics of Recognition
Written by Charles Taylor, 1994
Liberal theories overemphasize autonomous individuals with rights and therefore promote a passive form of citizenship
Taylor argues individual is formed WITHIN COMMUNITY, in a DIALOGICAL fashion: understanding ourselves in RELATION to others
- Active citizenship = dialogical recognition of difference, we need to understand each other and recognizes differences ESP majority community
Key to contemporary politics = need to recognize others cultural difference; great damage done when they are ‘mis-recognized’
- Cultural minorities can only flourish if their differences are recognized and accommodated within liberal states, therefore a court is also needed to enforce this
Canadian Royal Commission on Bilingualism & Outcomes (2)
1963-1969
-PM Lester Pearson appointed commission
Goal: increase recognition of biculturalism in Canada
-findings: francophones were second class citizens; anglophones had little opportunity to learn french (ex: french immersion)
REACTION: Canada was a ‘multicultural’ not bicultural nation was the reaction (white-cultural minorities eventually made this argument in prairies)
Two outcomes:
1. Bilingualism official language act 1969; ensure all citizens are able to access services in their first language
- Multiculturalism: Official multiculturalism policy (1971); programs and services to support ethnocultural organizations; principle of recognizing difference/cultural mosaic; notion of integration of ethnic minorities into political/economic mainstream
Biculturalism
The presence of two different cultures in the same country or region: a commission on bilingualism and biculturalism in Canada
1988 Canadian Multiculturalism Act & Goals (2)
Multiculturalism is fundamental characteristic of Canadian society, as immigration patterns changed (rather than Eastern Europe, immigration from US)
Goals:
1. preserve culture (reduce racial/religious/cultural discrimination)
2. Requirement that all federal government legislation be responsive to multicultural reality’ of Canada
“Retreat” from Multiculturalism
A perceived retreat from multiculturalism; only a retreat from multiculturalist rhetoric, but not a retreat in reality
Multiculturalism is a term seen as a hostile unpopular, ‘tired’ and ‘naive’ connotations
-Leaders promoting instead a more ‘innovative’ and ‘realistic’ approach
Kymlicka argues this is exaggerated: the real change is not a matter of policy but of talk and language used around ‘multiculturalism’, emphasizing instead on ‘integration’
Civic Intergration
CI emphasizes integration of immigrants into mainstream society through: employment, respect for basic liberal-democratic values, basic knowledge of host-society’s culture, necessity of anti discrimination laws and policies
(ex : Canada and Australia can be modelled as multicultural integration)
The proliferation of civic integration policies in the form of language and country-knowledge requirements at different stages of immigration process that have dramatically risen from 1997 to 2009 in contrast to modest strengthening of MCPs
Canadian “Success Story”
Irene Bloemraad study of vietnamese and portugese immigrants in boston and toronto concludes immigrants settle better in cananda
-proactive MCPs have sent a clear message that Vietnamese political participation is welcome, provided material and logistical support for the self-organization and political
representation of the community
-Canada the first western country to adopt an official multiculturalism policy toward immigrants and multiculturalism featured in constitution = immigrants more likely to become citizens, vote and run for office, and be elected to office; better educational outcomes for immigrants and less ‘ethnic penalty’; canadians more likely to say immigration is beneficial
Critical/Radical Multiculturalism (4)
Traits/Tenets
- Link between heterogeneity and power
- Resisting eurocentrism
- push for the inclusion of multiple viewpoints
- deconstructing assumed knowledge - Questioning basic terms like ‘west’, ‘east’, ‘orient’, ‘indian’ and the implicit power they hold
- Importance of ‘identity’ and ‘otherness’: how we define ourselves is in relation to others
Colonial/Classic Liberalism & Results (3)
Link between classical liberalism and colonialism = classical liberalism as a validating ideology for colonialism (Classical liberalism is a political ideology that favors the protection of individual liberty and economic freedom by limiting government power)
Link between liberalism and colonialism results in:
- citizens vs non citizens (property/land is condition and excludes certain ethnicities and races)
- Civilized vs non civilized (west is civilization and non-west has to be improved so it too can be civilized)
- Eurocentrism
Edward Said
Author of Orientalism (1978)
- Founder of post colonial studies
- Illuminates the gaps of cultural and political understanding between the Western world and the Eastern world using literature and textual analysis
Orientalism & Aspects (3)
Europeans have treated the middle east for centuries as its major “cultural contestant” and thus defined themselves in contrast with the ‘orient’
Orientalism’ refers to
- An academic tradition or field
- A worldview, representation, based upon distinctions made between “the Orient” and “the Occident”
- As a powerful political instrument of domination
Draws on Gramsci’s ideas of hegemony and Foucault’s ideas of the power/knowledge nexus;
- Argues Orientalism is a hegemonic discourse - a narrative used by European elite to dominate middle east and promote a PARTIAL view of history
Orientalism now applied to any western construction of non-european ‘others’; also used to understand anti indigenous racism
