Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
2005 7:24pm
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism, as distinct from the adjective multicultural (‘‘of or pertaining to a
society consisting of varied cultural groups’’), first came into wide circulation in the 1970s
in Canada and Australia as the name for a key plank of government policy to assist in the
management of ethnic pluralism within the national polity. In this context, the emergence
of the term is strongly associated with a growing realization of the unintended social and
cultural consequences of large-scale immigration. Coined by a Canadian Royal Commis-
sion in 1965, this governmental use of ‘‘multiculturalism’’ is widely supported and
endorsed by its proponents as both a progressive political imperative and an official article
of faith – a term associated in principle with the values of equality, tolerance, and
inclusiveness toward migrants of ethnically different backgrounds. ‘‘Canadian multicul-
turalism is fundamental to our belief that all citizens are equal. Multiculturalism ensures
that all citizens can keep their identities, can take pride in their ancestry and have a sense
of belonging’’ (Government of Canada, 2001). Typically, multiculturalism here is a social
doctrine that distinguishes itself as a positive alternative for policies of assimilation,
connoting a politics of recognition of the citizenship rights and cultural identities of ethnic
minority groups (Kymlycka, 1995; C. Taylor, 1992) and, more generally, an affirmation of
the value of cultural diversity.
By the lC20, it had become commonplace for Western liberal democracies to describe
themselves as multicultural societies, even though only a few had embraced official
policies of multiculturalism. Even nation states which had traditionally been known as
fiercely homogeneous, such as Germany and Japan, could no longer avoid acknowledging
the ethnic and racial diversification of their populations. As a result of intensifying global
migrations, ‘‘the world becomes increasingly a place of multi-ethnic states, with up to
30% of the population coming from other societies’’ (Davidson, 1997: 6). ‘‘Multicul-
tural’’ is thus often equated with multiethnic in public discourse, which in turn is conflated
with multiracial, indicating the extent to which debates on multiculturalism are concerned
predominantly with the presence of non-white migrant communities in white, Western
societies. In this context, multiculturalism is variously evoked as a response to the need to
address real or potential ethnic tension and racial conflict.
For example, in Britain a Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain, set up in
1998 by the Runnymede Trust, was ‘‘devoted to the cause of promoting racial justice’’ and
to proposing ways of ‘‘making Britain a confident and vibrant multicultural society at ease
with its rich diversity.’’ The Commission’s report, The future of multi-ethnic Britain
(Runnymede Trust Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain, 2000), also
known as the Parekh Report after the Commission’s chairperson, Bhikhu Parekh, stated
famously that ‘‘Britain is both a community of citizens and a community of communities,
both a liberal and a multicultural society, and needs to reconcile their sometimes conflict-
ing requirements’’ (p. 1). This statement illustrates the unresolved, complex, and ambigu-
Bennett / New Keywords list-Lisa Final Proof page 35 15.2.2005 7:24pm
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
for a consensual idea it seems to have become unworkable, but it is still necessary as an
heuristic concept that points to the uneasy and contested space between exclusionary and
homogenizing modes of nationalism, on the one hand, and on the other, the unrealistic
utopia of a rootless cosmopolitanism where everyone is supposedly a ‘‘world citizen’’ in a
borderless world.
Ien Ang