Multiculturalism and social cohesion: potentials and challenges of diversity

Does multiculturalism ‘work’? Does multiculturalism policy create social cohesion, or undermine it? Multiculturalism was introduced in Canada in the 1970s and widely adopted internationally, but more recently has been hotly debated, amid new concerns about social, cultural, and political impacts of immigration. Advocates praise multiculturalism for its emphasis on special recognition for cultural minorities as facilitating their social integration, while opponents charge that multiculturalism threatens social cohesion by encouraging socialisolation. Multiculturalism is thus rooted in a theory of human behaviour, and this book examines the empirical validity of some of its basic propositions,focusing on Canada as the country for which the most enthusiastic claims for multiculturalism have been made. The analysis draws on the massive national Ethnic Diversity Survey of over 41,000 Canadians in 2002, the most extensive survey yet conducted on this question. Exploring multiculturalism and diversity issues using an extensive national survey Diversity of findings on many different ethnic, racial and religious minorities, comparison of Quebec and rest of Canada Interdisciplinary and internationally-known scholars in sociology and psychology Findings challenge uncritically optimistic or pessimistic views of multiculturalism New proposals for multiculturalism policy INDICE: Acknowledgements.- One: Assessing Multiculturalism as a BehavioralTheory: J.G. Reitz.- Two: Ethnic Group Ties, Inter-Group Threat, and Ethnic Self-Identity: K.K. Dion and M.B. Phan.- Three: Discrimination, Ethnic Group Belonging, and Well-Being: K.L. Dion, K.K. Dion, and R. Banerjee.- Four: Inequalities and Patterns of Social Attachments in Quebec and the Rest of Canada: M.B. Phan and R. Breton.- Five Racial Inequality and Social Integration: J.G. Reitz and R. Banerjee.- Six: Behavioural Precepts of Multiculturalism: Empirical Validity and Policy Implications: J.G. Reitz.- References.

• ISBN: 978-1-4020-9957-1
• Editorial: Springer
• Encuadernacion: Cartoné
• Páginas: 205
• Fecha Publicación: 01/05/2009
• Nº Volúmenes: 1
• Idioma: Inglés