Canadian Unemployment and the Threat to Multiculturalism

Abstract

The term ‘multiculturalism’ has a variety of meanings depending upon the context in which it is used. From a demographic and socio-cultural point of view it simply describes the reality of Canadian society. Close to 6 per cent of the population was born outside Canada. In addition to the two official languages, more than one in ten of the population reports a mother tongue other than English or French and these numerous languages are still frequently in use in the home and the community. The Native Peoples of Canada maintain distinctive life-styles, and religious minorities (such as Mennonites, Hutterites and Doukhobors) have retained largely separate and distinctive communities. The poly-ethnic origins of the Canadian population are still evident into the second and subsequent generations (Kalbach and McVey, 1979, 176–241; O’Bryan, Reitz and Kuplowska, 1976).