Canadian Multiculturalism

Running head: CANADIAN MULTICULTURALISM
CANADIAN MULTICULTURALISM
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1CANADIAN MULTICULTURALISM
Immigration has played an important part in the development of multiculturalism in
Canada.Canada is said to have the highest immigration rates in the world which is driven by
family reunification and economic policy (Hiebert, 2016). Immigration is highly supported
by the people of Canada and the major political parties of the country as not supporting
immigrants is sign of racism in the country. Canada highly believes in maintaining diversity
and is famous for the inclusion of people of various culture and religion in the society which
has contributed in developing multiculturalism in the society (Helliwell, Bonikowska &
Shiplett, 2016). In 1867 since Confederation, there have been about 17 million immigrants
who had arrived in Canada in order to settle here.
How Multiculturalism has changed over time?
After the Confederation the country Canada experienced The Great Transformation
that has helped immensely in bringing significant change in the Canadian society and has led
the society in being urbanized as well as industrialized.In the 1869 Canada introduced their
first ever immigration policy, Immigration Act of 1869 which aimed on making sure the
immigrants were safe and were protected from any kind of exploitation in the society. This
was introduced to encourage settlement in the country (Niles, 2018). However this initially
was not successful as people flew to the United States rather than staying there. The
government of Canada highly encouraged diversity and multiculturalism in the country
however favored people who were white Americans and British who had an experience in
farming but totally disregarded the indigenous people of the country (Preston, 2017). Canada
started to advertise and provide land for free in order to attract British settlers in the
country.The railway investors and business man viewed this as an opportunity and demanded
the government for more settlers that would help them and benefit the country as well.
However the government had a choice of settlers they wanted to settle in the country and
made lists on their preferences in the descending order where the least favored were the

2CANADIAN MULTICULTURALISM
Asians, Greeks, Romans, Blacks and the Jews.The rise of immigrants and refugees in the
country has paved way for debates in the society. Many started feeling that immigration
needs to be controlled when the rise in conflicts of social issues were being witnessed. In
Canada many looked at the immigrants as threats and feared them (Bhatnagar, 2017).There
were several Asians who had settled in the country however did not plan on staying forever
and making a family thus the government discouraged the immigration of the Asians in the
country. There were many people who belonged from the undesirable race from where the
people came and settled in Canada thus the country making certain policies and acts which
limits the immigration of people who are not favored. It had been seen that Canada indirectly
had made racial discrimination that was unfair to the people belonging from different races.
The British were at the privileged positions as they did not have tough immigration policies
unlike what others had to go through. However, slowly this changed and the 1976
Immigration Act which later came to effect in the year 1978 specified quotas rather than
making decisions based on their preference (Molloy & Madokoro, 2017). The government
identified three classes of immigrants one being the family class which were people who
wanted to reunite with their close relatives in the country and settle here. The other being the
independent classes which were people who were filling the gaps that was created in the
workforce. The refugees and humanitarians who had threat in their own country because of
reasons like natural disaster or political depression.However after the 20th century things
began to change as people had become more compassionate and tolerant towards different
race and the government had introduced different policies in order to safeguard the
immigrants in the society and has also striked off lists of preferences. It has been seen that the
government has apologized for the past social acts and now the country has introduced new
immigration policies which has led to Canada become one of the most diverse countries in
the world.