Introduction
As one of the world’s most multicultural societies, Canada has been making some strides to enhance multiculturalism in its society. This paper is going to discuss the weaknesses of multiculturalism in Canada. As an ongoing project, the Canadian multicultural project is beset with some notable failures which includes: –
Economic Differences Among DIfferent Cultures
Despite attempts to bridge the gap, there have been persistent economic differences between people of visible minorities and those of European origin. The differences are evident in Unemployment rates and median income (Ng & Bloemraad, 2015).
The median income of minorities is 83.4% compared to that of non-minorities while that of second-generation minorities is 91% compared to the non-minorities (Ng & Bloemraad, 2015). However, University educated second-generation minorities are at par with their non-minority counterparts with regard to median income. The economic differences are bound to persist if there is no sustained derive to lift the education standards of indigenous and second-generation non-indigenous minority Canadians (Ng & Bloemraad, 2015).
Discrimination
Discrimination incidences such as hate crimes continue to be higher for minority groups than their non-minority counterparts. Hate crimes among minorities, particularly blacks, are higher (0.28 per thousand blacks) than other ethnic origins. In religion, Jews are subjected to more hate crimes (0.66 per thousand Jews) (Yasemin, 2013). Discrimination is brought about by lack of integration in the society. The more a society consisting of one ethnic group resists attempts to allow people from other groups to be integrated, the more chances there are of prevalence of hate crimes (Ng & Bloemraad, 2015).
Political Representation
Despite some slow improvements, minorities continue to be under-represented in federal and provincial political offices. The number of ethnic and non-ethnic minority candidates is 9.4% across all parties compared to 15% of their total population in the country. The same case is replicated in judicial and public appointments (Yasemin, 2013). As long as there is level political playing field for all political candidates, the ratio of minorities in the political offices will continue to be low as compared to that of Canadians of European extraction. There is also a need to provide minorities with campaign funding in an attempt to level the campaigning field for all political candidates.
Conclusion
As discussed above, Multiculturalism has been a major issue in Canada, the government has been making some strides to enhance multiculturalism in its society. There are however several failures that have been evident in the country including; discrimination, economic differences and political representation among others. The government needs to offer minorities with equal chances to vie for all fields and also take participation in any field that involves the Canadian communities.
References
Ng, E., & Bloemraad, I. (2015). A SWOT Analysis of Multiculturalism in Canada, Europe, Mauritius, and South Korea. American Behavioral Scientist, 59(6), 619-636.
Yasemin, A. (2013). Diversity and Multicultural Education in Canada. Research Gate, 33-57.