Showing papers on "Multiculturalism published in 2001"

A Psychology of Immigration

Abstract: The discipline of psychology has much to contribute to our understanding of immigrants and the process of immigration A framework is proposed that lays out two complementary domains of psychological research, both rooted in contextual factors, and both leading to policy and program development The first (acculturation) stems from research in anthropology and is now a central part of cross- cultural psychology; the second (intergroup relations) stems from sociology and is now a core feature of social psychology Both domains are concerned with two fundamental issues that face immigrants and the society of settlement: maintenance of group characteristics and contact between groups The intersection of these issues creates an intercultural space, within which members of both groups develop their cultural boundaries and social relationships A case is made for the benefits of integration as a strategy for immigrants and for multiculturalism as a policy for the larger society The articles in this issue are then discussed in relation to these conceptual frameworks and empirical findings

Culture and Equality: An Egalitarian Critique of Multiculturalism

Abstract: All major Western countries contain groups that differ from the mainstream and from each other in religious beliefs, customary practices, or cultural ideas. How should public policy respond to this diversity? Brian Barry challenges the currently orthodox answer and develops a powerful restatement of an egalitarian liberalism for the twenty-first century.

Global software development

Abstract: The last several decades have witnessed a steady, irreversible trend toward the globalization of business, and of software-intensive high-technology businesses in particular. Economic forces are relentlessly turning national markets into global markets and spawning new forms of competition and cooperation that reach across national boundaries. This change is having a profound impact not only on marketing and distribution but also on the way produces are conceived, designed, constructed, tested, and delivered to customers. The author considers how software development is increasingly a multisite, multicultural, globally distributed undertaking.

Cultural Trauma: Slavery and the Formation of African American Identity

Abstract: In this book, Ron Eyerman explores the formation of the African-American identity through the theory of cultural trauma. The trauma in question is slavery, not as an institution or as personal experience, but as collective memory: a pervasive remembrance that grounded a people's sense of itself. Combining a broad narrative sweep with more detailed studies of important events and individuals, Eyerman reaches from Emancipation through the Harlem Renaissance, the Depression, the New Deal and the Second World War to the Civil Rights movement and beyond. He offers insights into the intellectual and generational conflicts of identity-formation which have a truly universal significance, as well as providing a compelling account of the birth of African-American identity. Anyone interested in questions of assimilation, multiculturalism and postcolonialism will find this book indispensable.

On Not Speaking Chinese: Living Between Asia and the West

Abstract: In this major new book, leading cultural thinker Ien Ang engages with urgent questions of identity in an age of globalisation and diaspora The starting point for Ang's discussion is the experience of visiting Taiwan Ang, a person of Chinese descent, born in Indonesia and raised in the Netherlands, found herself "faced with an almost insurmountable difficulty" - surrounded by people who expected her to speak to them in Chinese She writes: "It was the beginning of an almost decade-long engagement with the predicaments of `Chineseness' in diaspora In Taiwan I was different because I couldn't speak Chinese; in the West I was different because I looked Chinese" From this autobiographical beginning, Ang goes on to reflect upon tensions between `Asia' and `the West' at a national and global level, and to consider the disparate meanings of `Chineseness' in the contemporary world She offers a critique of the increasingly aggressive construction of a global Chineseness, and challenges Western tendencies to equate `Chinese' with `Asian' identity Ang then turns to `the West', exploring the paradox of Australia's identity as a `Western' country in the Asian region, and tracing Australia's uneasy relationship with its Asian neighbours, from the White Australia policy to contemporary multicultural society Finally, Ang draws together her discussion of `Asia' and `the West' to consider the social and intellectual space of the `in-between', arguing for a theorising not of `difference' but of `togetherness' in contemporary societies

Diversity within Unity: Essential Principles for Teaching and Learning in a Multicultural Society:

Abstract: The authors offer these design principles in the hope that they will help education policy makers and practitioners realize the elusive but essential goal of a democratic and pluralistic society. WHAT DO WE know about education and diversity, and how do we know it? This two-part question guided the work of the Multicultural Education Consensus Panel, sponsored by the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington and the Common Destiny Alliance at the University of Maryland. This article is the product of a four-year project during which the panel, with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, reviewed and synthesized the research related to diversity. The panel members are an interdisciplinary group consisting of two psychologists, a political scientist, a sociologist, and four specialists in multicultural education. The panel was modeled after the consensus panels that develop and write reports for the National Academy of Sciences. In such panels, an expert group studies research and practice and arrives at a conclusion about what is known about a particular problem and the most effective actions that can be taken to solve it. The findings of the Multicultural Education Consensus Panel, which we call essential principles in this article, describe ways in which education policy and practice related to diversity can be improved. These principles are derived from both research and practice. They are designed to help practitioners in all types of schools increase student academic achievement and improve intergroup skills. Another aim is to help schools successfully meet the challenges of and benefit from the diversity that characterizes the United States. Schools can make a significant difference in the lives of students, and they are a key to maintaining a free and democratic society. Democratic societies are fragile and are works in progress. Their existence depends on a thoughtful citizenry that believes in democratic ideals and is willing and able to participate in the civic life of the nation. We realize that the public schools are experiencing a great deal of criticism. However, we believe that they are essential to ensuring the survival of our democracy. We have organized the 12 essential principles into five categories: 1) teacher learning; 2) student learning; 3) intergroup relations; 4) school governance, organization, and equity; and 5) assessment. Although these categories overlap to some extent, we think readers will find this organization helpful. Teacher Learning Principle 1. Professional development programs should help teachers understand the complex characteristics of ethnic groups within U.S. society and the ways in which race, ethnicity, language, and social class interact to influence student behavior. Continuing education about diversity is especially important for teachers because of the increasing cultural and ethnic gap that exists between the nation's teachers and students. Effective professional development programs should help educators to 1) uncover and identify their personal attitudes toward racial, ethnic, language, and cultural groups; 2) acquire knowledge about the histories and cultures of the diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, and language groups within the nation and within their schools; 3) become acquainted with the diverse perspectives that exist within different ethnic and cultural communities; 4) understand the ways in which institutionalized knowledge within schools, universities, and the popular culture can perpetuate stereotypes about racial and ethnic groups; and 5) acquire the knowledge and skills needed to develop and implement an equity pedagogy, defined by James Banks as instruction that provides all students with an equal opportunity to attain academic and social success in school.1 Professional development programs should help teachers understand the complex characteristics of ethnic groups and how such variables as social class, religion, region, generation, extent of urbanization, and gender strongly influence ethnic and cultural behavior. …

Multicultural Jurisdictions: Cultural Differences and Women's Rights

Abstract: Is it possible for the state simultaneously to respect deep cultural differences and to protect the hard-won citizenship rights of vulnerable group members, particularly women? This 2001 book argues that it is not only theoretically needed, but also institutionally feasible. Rejecting prevalent normative and legal solutions to this 'paradox of multicultural vulnerability', Multicultural Jurisdictions develops a powerful argument for enhancement of the jurisdictional autonomy of religious and cultural minorities while at the same time providing viable legal-institutional solutions to the problem of sanctioned intra-group rights violation. This new 'joint governance' approach is guided by an innovative principle that strives for the reduction of injustice between minority groups and the wider society, together with the enhancement of justice within them. This book will interest students of political and social theory, law, religion, institutional design, as well as cultural and gender studies.

Moving with the Ball: The Migration of Professional Footballers

Abstract: As a universal game, association football has been particularly suited to the transfer of labour forces. It does not require the use of a specific national language, a recognized diploma or acquired qualification, and the rules are standardized across the globe. Thus the international football market could be considered an ideal example of a transnational and multicultural employment sector. Role models throughout the history of professional football have not necessarily come from the town, nation, racial group or religious denomination of the majority of supporters, as is seen in the cases of Maradona in Naples, the German Bert Trautmann after the Second World War, and more recently the Frenchman Eric Cantona in Manchester, the Cameroonese Milla in France, and the Argentinian Di Stefano in Madrid. Football provides a particularly revealing lens through which to examine changes in national styles and stereotypes as they have been (and still are) reflected in the search for identities in sporting heroes. In this book, the authors consider the movement of football labour from the late nineteenth-century to the present day within the framework of international migration as a whole. Emphasis is given to the initial role of the British in the early twentieth century and the impact of the earliest South American and Yugoslav football 'wanderers'. The position of African footballers in the postwar period and the failure of America's national league in the 1970s are also discussed, along with the international market for coaches and managers, the development of national playing styles and the immediate consequences and future implications of the Bosman ruling.

Illegitimate Subjects?: Abject Whites, Neoliberal Modernisation, and Middle-Class Multiculturalism:

Abstract: Political attention to the plight of the ‘socially excluded’ in contemporary Britain suggests a renewed interest in issues of class and inequality at government level. This paper addresses the nature of that engagement by analysing the dominant discourse of welfare reform as a cultural reconstruction project which references goals of modernisation and multiculturalism. The centrality of the white working-class poor to the realisation of these goals is examined as a racialised positioning, a stage in the reconstruction of nation through the reconstruction of white working-class identities. The shift from naming the working-class poor as ‘underclass’, a racialised and irredeemable ‘other’, to naming them ‘the excluded’, a culturally determined but recuperable ‘other’, is pivotal to the recasting of Britain as a postimperial, modern nation. Analysis of the modes of modernisation and multiculturalism through which new definitions of nation are being established shows the constitutive role of neoliberal and cl...

White Means Never Having to Say You're Ethnic White Youth and the Construction of “Cultureless” Identities

Abstract: This article examines the processes by which white identities are constructed as “cultureless” among white youth in two high schools: one predominantly white, the other multiracial. The author proposes that whites assert racial superiority by claiming they have no culture because to be cultureless implies that one is either the “norm” (the standard by which others are judged) or “rational” (developmentally advanced). Drawing on ethnographic research and in-depth interviews, the author argues that in the majority-white school, processes of naturalization—the embedding of historically constituted practices in what feels “normal” and natural—produced feelings of cultural lack among white students. Contrarily, at the multiracial school, tracking and add-on multiculturalism helped constitute cultureless identities through processes of rationalization—the embedding of whiteness within a Western rational paradigm that subordinates all things cultural. The implications of these findings for critical white studies...

Feminism versus Multiculturalism

Abstract: To posit feminism and multiculturalism as oppositional is to assume that minority women are victims of their cultures. This assumption is achieved by a discursive strategy that constructs gender subordination as integral only to certain cultures. This essay traces the origins of the ubiquitous claim that minority and Third World cultures are more subordinating than culture in the West to the history of colonialism, the origins of liberalism, depictions of the feminist subject, and the use of binary logic. Pitting feminism against multiculturalism has certain consequences: It obscures the influences that in fact shape cultural practices, hides the forces besides culture that affect women's lives, elides the way women exercise agency within patriarchy, and masks the level of violence within the United States. The piece concludes by suggesting a basis for a constructive dialogue beyond the discourse of feminism versus multiculturalism.

Policing Space, Policing Race: Social Control Imperatives and Police Discretionary Decisions

Abstract: THE TENUOUS AND OFTEN CONTENTIOUS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RACIAL MINORIties and the police is a perennial concern of scholars, policymakers, and the public. Despite the centrality of race in the historical development of the police, as well as in contemporary criminal justice policies and police practices, there are few scholarly attempts to develop a construct for understanding this relationship. This essay discusses the interactive relationship between race, space, and policing in U.S. history. These three factors have been central in forwarding race-based social control and have been intertwined in public policy and police practices since the earliest days of this country's history. Despite the demise of de jure segregation and discrimination, de facto discriminatory policies and practices perpetuate a substantially authoritarian, regulatory, and punitive relationship between racial minorities and the police. Drug-war related, quality of life, and zero tolerance policing are integral to the social control imp erative in the contemporary policing of racial minorities. This essay concludes with a discussion of avenues for change that could improve policing in a multicultural democracy. The interactive relationship between race, space, and policing has been of social and political significance since the earliest days of American history, Monitoring the movement of slaves was a central concern for plantation masters and slave patrollers. The desire to regulate and subjugate the behavior of newly manumitted slaves was the primary impetus for creating new legal rules against vagrancy and loitering in the post-antebellum South. The rise of Jim Crow and the location and construction of urban ghettos and public housing were deliberate efforts to promote social control and isolation through racial containment. For the better part of our history, race has been a central determinant in the definition, construction, and regulation of public spaces. Some authors have even used the analogy of internal colonization to describe the relationship between African-American communities, the state, and the police (see Staples, 2001; Blauner, 1969). Although the experiences of African Americans and the police are widely known and documented, history shows that the relationship between race, space, and social control also holds for other racial minorities. For example, in the 19th century, Chinese immigrants were harshly and legally discriminated against in California. Forced to live in ethnic enclaves, "Chinatowns" became a central feature on the West Coast. Soon, local municipalities created special Chinatown police squads to police Chinese workers. Divorced from "polite" society, the rule of law seemed to have limited bearing over police activities in various Chinatowns, and blatant police corruption was common (see, e.g., Friedman, 1981). A contemporary example of differential treatment for racially identified spaces is illustrated in one author's contention that the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) consciously sacrificed Koreatown during the L.A. uprisings in order to concentrate limited police resources on more affluent Anglo neighborhoods on t he periphery (Cho, 1993). The history of Latinos in the U.S. indicates a similar pattern of separation and social control. Edward Escobar's (1999) excellent history of the relationship between Mexican Americans and the LAPD argues that the emergence of a race-based political consciousness among Mexican Americans in Los Angeles was largely due to egregious police practices in Mexican-American barrios. The "Zoot Suit" riots and the "Sleepy Lagoon Murder Trial" are the best-known examples of discriminatory police actions against Latinos (Mirande, 1987; Escobar, 1999). Indeed, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission held hearings to discuss tensions between Mexican Americans and the police. The following excerpt illustrates the similarity of experience between Mexican Americans and African Americans with respect to policing: [The Commission] heard frequent allegations that law enforcement officers discriminated against Mexican-Americans. …

Culturally Responsive School Counselors and Programs: Addressing the Needs of All Students

Abstract: Among the issues facing contemporary school counselors, addressing the developmental needs of the growing number of students from culturally diverse backgrounds is, perhaps, the most challenging. Demographic trends indicate that the number of students in public elementary and secondary schools in the United States increased by approximately one million from 1987-1988 to 1990-1991. More than threequarters of this growth can be attributed to an increase in the number of Hispanic and Asian students. Data further indicate that the overall proportion of minority public school students increased from 1987-1988 to 1990-1991 while the proportion of White non-Hispanic students declined (National Center for Education Statistics, 1996). In concrete terms, these demographic estimates mean that, as never before, U.S. schools are becoming a social arena where children who represent truly diverse behavioral styles, attitudinal orientations, and value systems have been brought together with one goal-to prepare them for academic, career, and social success in the 21st Century. Cultural pluralism has become widely recognized as a major factor deserving understanding on the part of school counselors. Significantly, the American School Counselor Association (1999) established a position statement on cross/ multicultural counseling that calls for the facilitation of student development through an understanding of and appreciation for multiculturalism and diversity. This statement encourages school counselors to take action to ensure that students from culturally diverse backgrounds receive services that foster their development. However, there is a growing realization that current school counseling services often do not have broad applicability across the range of cultural backgrounds represented by students (Baruth & Manning, 2000; Herring, 1997; Lee, 1995). School counselors are becoming increasingly aware that their practices are rooted firmly in the values of European-American middle class culture, whereas the cultural values of a significant portion of the students with whom they work represent worldviews whose origins are found in Africa, Asia, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, or the Middle East (Herring, 1997; Lee, 1995). Cultural diversity must be effectively addressed in the provision of comprehensive school counseling programs. Three concepts underscore the importance of promoting cultural diversity in school counseling interventions. These are access, equity, and educational justice. All students, regardless of their cultural background and heritage, deserve equal access to a quality education. Anything less than that, for any child, is a grave educational injustice. School counselors need a different perspective from which to operate if they are going to ensure that students from culturally diverse backgrounds have access to services that promote optimal academic, career, and personal-social development (Baruth & Manning, 2000). This article provides such a perspective. The article provides direction for planning, implementing, and evaluating culturally responsive school counseling programs. The article first explores the concept of a culturally responsive school. It next considers the ways that a comprehensive guidance and counseling program can promote such a school. Within the context of a school counseling program that is both comprehensive and culturally responsive, specific counselor roles and functions considered critical for enhancing the quality of education for all children are discussed. Salient Aspects of Culturally Responsive Schools For the past 20 years, I have been an active consultant to schools across the country that have been grappling with the challenges and opportunities associated with a culturally diverse student body. It has become obvious to me that schools and school systems vary widely in their response to issues of cultural diversity. Those schools that have been successful in both meeting the challenges and seizing the opportunities associated with multiculturalism and diversity appear to share a number of important characteristics. …

Civic Community, Political Participation and Political Trust of Ethnic Groups

Abstract: We hope in this article to bridge the gap between all those researchers who in the trail of Almond and Verba (1963) have investigated the relationship between civic culture and political participation and those that are primarily interested in multicultural democracy. In earlier research we have found a correlation between political participation and political trust of ethnic minorities on the one hand and the network of ethnic associations on the other. (Fennema/Tillie, 1999) In this paper we treat the network of ethnic organizations a proxy for civic community. It is a long established assumption that voluntary associations create social trust, which, in turn can spill over into political trust. But if voluntary associations generate trust why would interlocking directorates among such organizations add to it? Our answer is that trust can travel trough a network of interlocking directorates and by doing so increase. Civic community building is the creation of trust among organizations.

Making Good Citizens : Education and Civil Society

Abstract: Americans have reason to be concerned about the condition of American democracy at the start of the twenty-first century. Surveys show that civic participation has declined, cynicism about government has increased, and young people have a weak grasp of the principles that underlie our constitutional system. Crucial questions must be answered: How serious is the situation? What role do schools play in shaping civic behavior? Are current education reform initiatives-such as multiculturalism and school choice-counterproductive? How can schools contribute toward reversing the trend? This volume brings together leading thinkers from a variety of disciplines to probe the relation between a healthy democracy and education. Their original and provocative discussions cut across a range of important topics: the cultivation of democratic values, the formation of social capital in schools and communities, political conflict in a pluralist society, the place of religion in public life, the enduring problems of racial inequality. Gathering together the most current research and thinking on education and civil society, this is a book that deserves the attention of everyone who cares about the quality and future of American democracy.

Multiculturalism in American Public Opinion

Abstract: Multiculturalism has emerged to challenge liberalism as an ideological solution in coping with ethnic diversity in the United States. This article develops a definition of political multiculturalism which refers to conceptions of identity, community and public policy. It then analyses the 1994 General Social Survey and a 1994 survey of Los Angeles County to assess the contours of mass support and opposition to multiculturalism, testing hypotheses concerning the role of social background, liberalism–conservatism and racial hostility. The main conclusions are that ‘hard’ versions of multiculturalism are rejected in all ethnic groups, that a liberal political self-identification boosts support for multiculturalism, and that racial hostility is a consistent source of antagonism to the new ethnic agenda of multiculturalism. There is strong similarity in the results in both the national and Los Angeles samples.

Education for Democratic Citizenship: Transnationalism, Multiculturalism, and the Limits of Liberalism

Abstract: Why and how do shifts in the philosophical underpinnings of education occur? How should students be educated in and for democratic citizenship? In this article, Katharyne Mitchell explores these questions by analyzing a debate regarding the purpose of education in a Vancouver suburb. She shows how immigrants from Hong Kong successfully contest the normative assumptions of Western liberalism, in which the production of democracy, the practice of education, and the constitution of the nation-state are naturally bound together. By tracking the recent ideological debates and the actual decisions made, it is possible to analyze some of the growing rifts between a Dewey-inspired understanding of education and democracy and newer, more global, transnational educational narratives.

Callaloo or Tossed Salad?: East Indians and the Cultural Politics of Identity in Trinidad

Abstract: Callaloo or Tossed Salad? is a historical and ethnographic case study of the politics of cultural struggle between two traditionally subordinate ancestral groups in Trinidad, those claiming African and Indian descent. Viranjini Munasinghe argues that East Indians in Trinidad seek to become a legitimate part of the nation by redefining what it means to be Trinidadian, not by changing what it means to be Indian. In her view, Indo-Trinidadians' recent and ongoing struggle for national and cultural identity builds from dissatisfaction with the place they were originally assigned within Trinidadian society. The author examines how Indo-Trinidadian leaders in Trinidad have come to challenge the implicit claim that their ethnic identity is antithetical to their national identity. Their political and cultural strategy seeks to change the national image of Trinidad by introducing Indian elements alongside those of the dominant Afro-Caribbean (Creole) culture. Munasinghe analyzes a number of broad theoretical issues: the moral, political, and cultural dimensions of identity; the relation between ethnicity and the nation; and the possible autonomy of New World nationalisms from European forms. She details how principles of exclusion continue to operate in nationalist projects that celebrate ancestral diversity and multiculturalism. Drawing on the insights of theorists who use creolization to understand the emergence of Afro-American cultures, Munasinghe argues that Indo-Trinidadians can be considered Creole because they, like Afro-Trinidadians, are creators and not just bearers of culture.

Developing an Instrument for Measuring Attitudes toward and Perceptions of Workplace Diversity: An Initial Report.

Abstract: Despite the wealth of information on the ‘how-to’s’ of workplace diversity, relatively little attention has been paid to developing measures of workplace diversity itself. In this article we present the results of a three-year investigation. A multidimensional framework for conceptualising perceptions of and attitudes towards workplace diversity was constructed, an instrument was developed to measure them, and the instrument was administered in three research settings. Initial results suggest that it offers a valid, useful assessment of diversity attitudes and perceptions. The article concludes with suggestions for future research.

Cultural Diversity in Our Schools

Abstract: This fascinating text is designed to provide pre-service and in-service teachers with a sharper understanding of the nature of diversity in today's schools. Readers are initially introduced to concepts associates with diversity (culture, worldview, race/ethnicity) and are sensitized to the manner in which their own cultural orientations influence their approaches to the teacher roles. With this understanding, readers are then better equipped to approach the comprehensive chapters on five major racial and ethnic groups in U.S. schools: African Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans and White Americans. Later chapters describe strategies and techniques classroom teachers can utilize to enhance their effectiveness in teaching culturally diverse students. Finally, students are lead to critically analyze the bureaucratic dynamics of contemporary schools and how teachers can work to overcome the hurdles that impede effective multicultural schooling.

Race, gender and sexuality: The oppression of multiculturalism

Abstract: In this article we analyse the impact of multicultural ideology on struggles for equality in the spheres of gender, race/ethnicity and sexuality. We argue that multiculturalism has permeated theory, policy and action in these areas and that this has resulted in divisions and conflicts between movements for human rights. This has allowed an uncritical brand of multiculturalism to flourish which operates to further oppress already disadvantaged groups. We illustrate our thesis in relation to the violence committed against Black/Asian women through such cultural practices as forced arranged marriage, domestic violence and female genital mutilation. We also note the violence against gay and lesbian people which is sanctioned by some cultural and religious traditions. We conclude that failure to address fundamental questions about possible limits to cultural diversity in liberal democratic societies has implications for the continued oppression of the least powerful and the future of human rights.

Refugee children in Canada: searching for identity.

Abstract: Canada is providing a new home to refugees from around the globe, who have left their countries of origin because of persecution and are seeking safety elsewhere. These families bring with them myriad stresses arising from their migration. Child refugees, in particular, have special needs that must be consideredtrauma from witnessing violent crimes, language difficulties, family disruption, and adjustment to a different culture-in addition to the challenges that accompany childhood and growing up. Refugees are defined by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as persons (both children and adults) who are residing outside their countries and cannot return due to a well-founded fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. UNHCR estimates that one-half of the world's 22.3 million refugees and displaced persons are children. Every day, nearly 5,000 children become refugees, with a vast number growing up and spending their entire lives in refugee camps. The majority of refugees are located in Africa, Asia, and Europe (UNHCR, 2000). Canada as Host Canada has a longstanding humanitarian tradition toward refugees. Since the end of World War II, Canada has resettled about 800,000 refugees from every region of the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Central and South America. Canada is one of the few countries in the world with an active resettlement and permanent immigration program. Nearly one in five (17.4%) persons living in Canada was born outside the country (by comparison, the U.S. ratio is one in 10) and 11.2% of the total population of 31 million identify themselves as members of a visible minority. Canada is a country with two official languages (English and French) and a national policy of multiculturalism (Statistics Canada, 1996). In the last five years (1995-1999), more than 300,000 immigrant children have resettled in Canada; approximately 15% of these are refugees. Seventy percent of the refugee children came from non-European countries, mainly Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific region. Most of them have settled in large urban centres in the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta. The majority of the refugee children (70%) spoke neither of Canada's official languages when they arrived in the country (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 1995 & 1996; Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2000). Refugee and Immigrant Children: A Comparison Refugee and immigrant children in Canada have significant similarities. Both groups must deal with migration, which represents a disruptive loss to one's life. Once in Canada, they both have to endure the "push-and-pull" forces of home and school, which often work in opposite directions. At school they share with other adolescents the desire to be accepted by their peer group. At home, both groups may experience a role and dependency reversal in which they may function as interpreters and "cultural brokers" for their parents. Both refugee and immigrant children may encounter society's discrimination and racism, and both have to accomplish the central task of childhood and adolescence-developing a sense of identity-while trying to bridge generational and cultural gaps. Perhaps the greatest threat to these children is not the stress of belonging to two cultures but the stress of belonging to none (Lee, 1988). Successful adaptation can bring with it the opportunity for growth. How well children adapt is influenced by several factors, including age at arrival, severity of previous traumatic events, family background, individual resiliency, and reception by the host community and society. One key factor in determining success is the reception of newcomers by the host society. Settlement support services, schools, health and social services, and the community at large play a crucial role in assisting and supporting children to adjust and integrate into Canadian society (Task Force on Mental Health Issues Affecting Immigrants and Refugees, 1988). …

Recognition and Difference

Abstract: Are there any cultural universals left? Does multiculturalism inevitably involve a slide into moral relativism? This timely and insightful book examines questions of politics and identity in the age of multicultures. It draws together the contribution of outstanding contributors such as Fraser, Honneth, O'Neill, Bauman, Lister, Gilroy and De Swann to explore how difference and multiculturalism take on the arguments of universalist humanism. The approach taken derives from the traditions of cultural sociology and cultural studies rather than political science and philosophy. The book takes seriously the argument that the social bond and recognition are in danger through globalization and deterritorialization. It is a major contribution to the emerging debate on the form of post-national forms of civil society.

Religion, ethnicity and politics: Hindu and Muslim Indian immigrants in the United States

Abstract: This article focuses on the political struggles between Hindu and Muslim Indian immigrant groups in the United States over the definition of "Indianness" Hindu Indian American organizations define India as a Hindu society and are strong supporters of the Hindu nationalist movement in India Muslim Indian American organizations, on the other hand, view India as a multi-religious and multicultural society They are striving to safeguard India's secularism and towards this end, have entered into coalitional relationships with lower caste groups Both types of organizations are working to influence American and Indian politics in line with their respective interests, leading to an exacerbation of the conflict between the two immigrant groups This article examines the reasons for this development and its implications, both for the development of an Indian American community in the United States and for religion and politics in India

Rethinking 'Mixed Race'

Abstract: One of the fastest growing ethnic populations in many Western societies is that of people of mixed descent. However, when talking about multicultural societies or 'mixed race', the discussion usually focuses on people of black and white heritage. The contributors to this collection rectify this with a broad and pluralistic approach to the experiences of 'mixed race' people in Britain and the USA. The contributors argue that people of mixed descent reveal the arbitrary and contested logic of categorisation underpinning racial divisions. Falling outside the prevailing definitions of racialised identities, their histories and experiences illuminate the complexities of identity formation in the contemporary multicultural context. The authors examine a range of issues. These include gender; transracial and intercountry adoptions in Britain and the US; interracial partnering and marriage; 'mixed race' and family in the English-African diaspora; theorising of 'mixed race' that transcends the black/white binary and includes explorations of 'mixtures' among non-white minority groups; and the social and political evolution of multiracial panethnicity.

The Enigma of Ethnicity: Another American Dilemma

Abstract: In The Enigma of Ethnicity Wilbur Zelinsky draws upon more than half a century of exploring the cultural and social geography of an ever-changing North America to become both biographer and critic of the recent concept of ethnicity. In this ambitious and encyclopedic work, he examines ethnicity's definition, evolution, significance, implications, and entanglements with other phenomena as well as the mysteries of ethnic identity and performance. Zelinsky begins by examining the ways in which "ethnic groups" and "ethnicity" have been defined; his own definitions then become the basis for the rest of his study. He next focuses on the concepts of heterolocalism -- the possibility that an ethnic community can exist without being physically merged -- and personal identity -- the relatively recent idea that one can concoct one's own identity. In his final chapter, which is also his most provocative, he concentrates on the multifaceted phenomenon of multiculturalism and its relationship to ethnicity. Throughout he includes a close look at African Americans, Hispanics, and Jews as well as such less-studied groups as suburbanized Japanese, Cubans in Washington, Koreans, Lithuanian immigrants in Chicago, Estonians in New Jersey, Danish Americans in Seattle, and Finns. Reasonable, nonpolemical, and straightforward, Zelinsky's text is invaluable for readers wanting an in-depth overview of the literature on ethnicity in the United States as well as a well-thought-out understanding of the meanings and dynamics of ethnic groups, ethnicity, and multiculturalism.

Anti-Indianism in Modern America: A Voice from Tatekeya's Earth

Abstract: We all know what happened at Wounded Knee ...don't we? In this powerful and essential work, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn confronts the politics and policies of genocide that continue to destroy the land, livelihood, and culture of Native Americans. Anti-Indianism in Modern America tells the other side of stories of historical massacres and modern-day hate crimes, events that are dismissed or glossed over by historians, journalists, and courts alike. Cook-Lynn exposes the colonialism that works both overtly and covertly to silence and diminish Native Americans, supported by a rhetoric of reconciliation, assimilation, and multiculturalism. Comparing anti-Indianism to anti-Semitism, she sets the American history of broken treaties, stolen lands, mass murder, cultural dispossession, and Indian hating in an international context of ethnic cleansing, \u0022ecocide\u0022 (environmental destruction), and colonial oppression. Cook-Lynn also discusses the role Native American studies should take in reasserting tribal literatures, traditions, and politics and shows how the discipline has been sidelined by anthropology, sociology, postcolonial studies, and ethnic studies. Asserting the importance of a \u0022native conscience\u0022--a knowledge of the mythologies, mores, and experiences of tribal society--among American Indian writers, she calls for the expression in American Indian art and literature of a tribal consciousness that acts to assure a tribal-nation people of its future. Passionate, eloquent, and uncompromising, Anti-Indianism in Modern America concludes that there are no real solutions for Indians as long as they remain colonized peoples. Native Americans must be able to tell their own stories and, most important, regain their land, the source of religion, morality, rights, and nationhood. As long as public silence accompanies the outlaw maneuvers that undermine tribal autonomy, the racist strategies that affect all Americans will continue. It is difficult, Cook-Lynn concedes, to work toward the development of legal mechanisms against hate crimes, in Indian Country and elsewhere in the world. But it is not too late.

Racial identity and nationalism: A theoretical view from Latin America

Abstract: The empirical intersection of ideas about race and nation are well-established, but theoretical explanations for this are less developed. Some ideas are advanced about how and why ideologies of race, nation, gender and sexuality intertwine. This leads on to a consideration of the tensions between sameness and difference that are argued to be constitutive of national identities. From here, an argument is developed about dynamics of appropriation and the maintenance of hegemony in racially diverse and multicultural nations. These theoretical ideas are illustrated with material from Latin America, particularly Colombia, with reference to Colombian popular music as an important cultural form in nationalist expression.