The Modest Triumph of the Cultural Mosaic

[bibliogramma]

Unlikely Utopia: The Surprising Triumph of Canadian Pluralism, Michael Adams

In the interests of full disclosure, I must begin my comments with the observation that this book was written by my boss. It's his fifth book, and like his previous ones, it is based on research that the company he founded, Environics Research Group, has conducted into social values going back decades in Canada and the U.S. Each year in Canada, and every four years in the U.S, we poll a representative sample of peple to determine their values about all sorts of social issues. We have reseach partners in other countries who do the same kind of reseach in other countries around the world, and we all share this informaition, building up a database of global trends in social values and attitudes.

I'm not going to talk about the research in detail, because it is proprietary, but we track how much people agree or disagree with statements like "The father should be the master in the home" - one of the questions that Adams likes to use in his public speaking engagements and see how the percentages who agree or disagree change over time.

This particular book analyses some of that research, and some other research we have done over the years tracking issues associated with immigration, multi-culturalism, and a major study done earlier this year with two samples - one of Canadians in general and one of Canadian Muslims.

I think I'll leave the summary of this research up to the author himself. Here's an excerpt from the book that was printed earlier this fall in The Toronto Star, and the short version is that the research shows that, despite all the headlines about immigrant backlash and accommodation crises, we're not doing all that badly at this learning to live with each other despire our differences thing, and the odds are that we'll continue to manage to muddle along in our modest Canadian way. And that we will find every way possible to politely brag about it.

Comments

Re: Part One of My Response

[hawkeye7.livejournal.com]

Australia's population policy is a little more complex. There are incentives in place to encourage couples to have children. The birthrate is higher than Canada's but below generational replacement. Nonetheless, there is still a natural population increase due to the age structure and a decline in death rates.

Family reunion is the major component of the immigration program but the effect seems to be the opposite of that in Canada. Here it reflects the mix of people that are already here and therefore works against diversity.

We have quotas for various parts of the world as well as for categories. Again, it is not promoting diversity. The refugee program has become perverted so the preference is to refugees who have skills, or money, or family here.