Multiculturalism and the Integration of Immigrants in the Canadian Society

[Name of the Institute]Multiculturalism and the Integration of Immigrants in the Canadian Society

Introduction

Canada is a country of many cultures. Over tens of thousands of years it had been home to the indigenous people. About four centuries ago, settlers began arriving, who were mainly the French and British. Initially European settlements grew slowly, but when they occur, the waves of immigrants began arriving, opening the wilderness, inhabiting prairies and building Candian cities. Since the mid-nineteenth century newcomers began to appear from other regions like Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, South Asia and the Caribbean. Over the last thirty years they were joined by immigrants from Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

Canada as a country tried to address the challenges caused by large influx of immigrants by introducing a policy of multiculturalism. This paper aims at presenting the Canadian multicultural reality, while exploring the state of the policy of multiculturalism and explaining why the Canadian experience is important for the whole world (Kislowicz, 2012).

Discussion

The last census, held in 2001, showed that Canada is inhabited by over 200 ethnic groups. 30 million Canadians or 18.4% of its population were born outside the country. That's the highest rate in 70 years. Undoubtedly, such a high number of immigrants is a challenge to manage. Canada is a big country, and due to the fact that immigrants usually settle in the major cities, the effects of immigration are distributed unevenly. Among Canadians living in the country for generations, this influx of new cultures sometimes arouses resentment. At the same time new immigrants often feel it extremely difficult to adapt to the conditions prevailing in their new home (Harles, 2004).

In the second case (Canada), however, the discourse on multiculturalism develops primarily as a corollary of the consequences produced by migration from former colonies first, then from the poorest countries. Immigration to Canada, the world's poor is considered to be the cause of growing social problems, and the increasing cultural diversity, with the associated problems of coexistence that this entails.

History of Immigration

Before the arrival of Europeans, Canada was home to its native inhabitants. Numerous tribes inhabiting it were divided into two groups essential - Indian and Inuit. After the arrival of Europeans, some of which entered into marriage with the indigenous people of Canada, there is a third group - mestizos. Today, more than 1.3 million Canadians are appointed for at least partial descent from the indigenous people of the country. There is a growing number of people with pedigree derived from the indigenous people of Canada: in 1996 they accounted for 3.8% of the population, and in 2001 - 4.4% (Hawkins, 2005).

European settlers from France and Great Britain began to arrive in Canada in the seventeenth century. In the mid-nineteenth century Irish settlers arrived in one thousand, changing the composition of the current ethnic mix. The first census, conducted after the creation of the Canadian state in 1867, showed that 60% of the population of its ...