Pierre Trudeau's Immigrant Integration Policy In Canada
1575 Words7 Pages
Canada, from an international perspective, is commonly known to be highly accepting and open to immigrants; a country with the intention promoting and preserving social unity with a diversity of people under a representative and liberal democratic system. Though, there have been concerns with Quebec’s immigrant integration policies and has recently been under more scrutiny than ever before. It can be said that Quebecois colonialism, nationalism and historical facts are a strong precursor to the current situation. This policy brief will analyze the evolution of Quebec’s immigrant integration policy. I will then explain the issues of Quebec’s multiculturalism policy and the reasons for its dissatisfaction amongst Quebecois. Furthermore, provide…show more content… The Canadian Multiculturalism Act fully acknowledges and respects the practice and preservation of the diverse ethnic and religious cultures, with the intent of creating social harmony as well as eliminating all barriers that may restrict individuals from doing so to promote a national diverse identity. Additionally, the act aims to strengthen the use of Canada’s two official languages while enhancing and protecting the language of minorities as well (Canadian Multiculturalism Act (1988), 2014). This policy reccomendation will particularly refer to the Act in order to explain the Quebec’s weak management of its ethno cultural diversity. Quebec differs in its multiculturalism policy as it focuses on more of an inter-culturalism approach, though this is not sufficient enough. This approach strongly promotes diversity by highly welcoming immigrants; it does so in its own restrictive and systematic manner, which imposes several barriers on minorities in the workplace, education and politics. The idea of adopting multiculturalism policy by the majority of Quebecois and nationalists, claim that it is incompatible with civic values, and is nonetheless a threat to secularism, which can be seen as Quebecois’ major success of the Quiet Revolution (Gervais, Kirkby & Rudy, 2011). Religious practices in the public sphere are considered inappropriate and should not be tolerated, as a way to preserve the majority’s identity. A belief that deters from the principle of promoting diversity, which Quebec affirms it is trying to do through acceptance of immigrants to increase demographics. The idea of religious symbols in public sphere can be associated with the emphasis on church to state, a large milestone in Quebec