A rchive Date
[ 20-07-2004 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/London/Rory_Leishman/2004/07/19/549165.html
Canadian identity dissolving in a multicultural stew
RORY LEISHMAN, London Free Press
2004-07-20
Samuel P. Huntington is a distinguished professor of government at Harvard, best known for his influential treatise, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. His latest book is entitled Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity.
What about Canada? Are there any challenges to our national identity? Prime Minister Paul Martin thinks not. He relishes the image of Canada as a diverse multicultural mosaic. In his Canada Day address, he assured us that "our pride in our cultural diversity is second to no other."
Many Canadians agree. They commend Canada for fostering multiculturalism while condemning the United States for consigning immigrants to a culture-destroying melting pot.
In Huntington's opinion, this image of the United States as a cultural monolith is inaccurate. He contends that the process of assimilating immigrants has broken down no less in the U.S. than in Canada.
Prior to the 1960s, almost all children born of non-English-speaking immigrants to the United States learned to speak fluent English, integrated into the predominant culture of the United States and often married outside the ethnic group of their parents. By the third generation, most descendants retained little more than a sentimental regard for the language and culture of their grandparents.
Much the same used to be true of Canada: By the third generation, most immigrants had thoroughly assimilated into either English- or French-speaking Canada. As late as 1963, prime minister Lester Pearson appointed the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism - a name that still accurately reflected the cultural duality of Canada.
Huntington points out that in the United States, the assimilation of immigrants has failed most decisively within concentrated communities of Cuban and Mexican Americans in the southern states. In Miami, for example, Spanish is now the language spoken in most homes. In 1998, a Spanish-language television station in Miami became the first foreign-language station to achieve the highest viewer rating in any major city of the United States.
Huntington also notes, "Muslims, particularly Arab Muslims, seem slow to assimilate compared to other post-1965 groups." As evidence, he cites a number of studies, including a poll that asked American-born Muslims in Los Angeles whether they had "closer ties or loyalty to Islamic countries or the United States." Only 38 per cent gave primary loyalty to the United States.
Former president Bill Clinton has no qualms about multiculturalism. In a 1997 address, he suggested that in addition to the American revolution and the civil rights revolution, the United States now needs a third "great revolution" to "prove that we literally can live without having a dominant European culture."
Huntington is skeptical. Citing a wealth of polling data, he demonstrates that despite expanding pockets of unassimilated immigrants, the United States still retains a core culture bequeathed by the 17th- and 18th-century settlers. The core elements include "the Christian religion, Protestant values and moralism, a work ethic, the English language, British traditions of law, justice and the limits of government power, and a legacy of European art, literature, philosophy and music."
Huntington concedes that the United States is losing this core culture and could soon become, as Clinton hopes, a genuinely multicultural society. In Canada, of course, the process is much further advanced. According to the United Nations, 44 per cent of Torontonians are foreign-born.
What are the federal and provincial governments doing to inculcate in immigrants, not to mention native-born Canadians, an abiding respect for the British traditions of law, justice and constitutional government that also animated our Fathers of Confederation? Precious little.
Huntington warns that if the United States were to lose its core culture, "America could soon evolve into a loose confederation of ethnic, racial, cultural and political groups, with little or nothing in common apart from their location in the territory of what had been the United States of America. This could resemble the collections of diverse groups that once constituted the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian empires."
None of these empires was democratic. They were all strife-torn autocracies. They all collapsed in violence. What fate awaits the United States and Canada?
Write Rory at The London Free Press, P.O. Box 2280, London, Ont. N6A 4G1 or fax 519-667-4528 or E-mail leishman@sympatico.ca Home Page
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