Refugees, Multiculturalism, and Canadian Identity: An Essay

This essay examines the multifaceted relationship between Canadian multiculturalism and the experiences of refugees. It explores the historical evolution of multiculturalism in Canada, highlighting its descriptive, ideological, and policy dimensions. The essay delves into the impact of immigration laws, particularly the Immigration Act of 1976 and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act of 2002, on the integration of refugees into Canadian society. It identifies the different classes of immigrants and the challenges faced by refugees, such as language barriers and employment issues, while emphasizing the welcoming nature of Canadian society and its governmental support systems. The essay also reflects on how Canadian multiculturalism has changed over time, emphasizing the country's openness to refugees, and how policies and societal attitudes contribute to the Canadian identity. The essay incorporates references to academic sources to support its claims and provide a comprehensive analysis of the topic.

Running Head: REFUGEES IN CANADA
Refugees in Canada
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Q) How has Canadian multiculturalism has changed over time?
Multiculturalism in Canada can be construed in two different ways, first is descriptively
as a sociological fact, prescriptively as an ideology and politically as a policy (www.canada.ca,
2019). Sociologically multiculturalism refers is when people from different background such as
different ethnicities and different races living together in one society. Ideologically,
multiculturalism is composed of rational set of ideas which pertains to the cultural diversity of
the country. At the level of policy, multiculturalism refers to the initiatives that are taken to
manage to the multicultural society of Canada.
Canada’s multicultural environment is because of the history of colonization and
settlement. The Canadian population is mainly composed of British, French and indigenous
people. The multiculturalism has also risen in the last few years because of the refugees. Canada
is one of the few countries in the world who have been open to receiving refugees. The first law
that dealt with the people who came in as immigrant was formed in the year 1947 (Root et al.,
2014). This policy then underwent some major change which finally led to the creation of
Immigration Act, 1976 (Gravelle, 2017). The latest law that tries to address the problem of
refugees is the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act of 2002 (Gravelle, 2017). There are
currently 4 kinds of immigrants in Canada, family class, these people have their relatives in
Canada, the second in the economic class, these are people who are in Canada for some
employment, thirdly are the immigrant. They have come to the country to escape the cruelty in
their land and finally are the humanitarian immigrant. These problems can be of different natures
like facing language barriers, problems getting employment, proper housing, and access to
different services among others. However, the immigration laws have helped the Canadians deal

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with the refugee problem and currently Canadian government has clearly stated that they will
take in all the immigrants and the country in open when it comes to immigrants.
What does this aspect reveal about the nature of Canadian society/culture?
The Canadian society is very open when it comes to the refugees. They welcome them at
the airport, give them temporary housing, the government also helps them look for permanent
housing when needed; they help out the immigrants with the various mandatory federal programs
that the government has (Immigration, 2019). The government makes sure that the language
barrier does not pose a major problem for the refugees, in order to ease them with language
problem, they help the immigrants with the public transport system, the laws and customs are
made clear to the refugees. This shows that the Canadian society is open and the government has
enough resources to allocate it to the refugees. The society is welcoming and the policies and the
laws dealing with immigration are flexible hence they can accommodate a lot of people. The
refugees in Canada also feel safe and that is the reason it is one of the most popular destinations
for the refugees.

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References
Gravelle, T. B. (2017). Partisanship, local context, group threat, and Canadian attitudes towards
immigration and refugee policy. Migration Studies, 6(3), 448-467.
Immigration, R. (2019). Refugees and asylum - Canada.ca. Canada.ca.
Root, J., Gates-Gasse, E., Shields, J., & Bauder, H. (2014). Discounting immigrant families:
Neoliberalism and the framing of Canadian immigration policy change. Ryerson Centre
for Immigration & Settlement (RCIS) Working Paper No, 7.
www.canada.ca. (2019). Refugees and asylum - Canada.ca. Canada.ca.