加拿大多元文化主义

Multiculturalism in Canada

As a multi-ethnic, multilingual and multicultural country, Canadian multiculturalism plays an important role in its formation and development.Multiculturalism has experienced three development stages which from budding to formation, to the institutionalization ,and its time span is semicentury that it is about from the 1940s to 1990s. Pluralism culture embodies in various aspects such as language, education, employment, which makes many immigrants obtain real rights, in turn helping the wave of immigrants. The result is that improves the stable development of the Canadian politic and economy,and the sustainable development of social culture, making Canadian society culture more inclusive and open which gives priority to the British and French culture,and it’s a virtuous circle for the development of whole society.

Before and after the Second World War, assimilationism and Anglo consistent theory is very popular in most Canadian authorities, and it regulates that immigrants must give up the original cultural customs if they want to be in Canada,and live with Anglo Canadian life way. Only in this way, can they become a real Canadian. These policies may be revolutionaries’ wishful thinking, however, most of the migrants are not willing to accept the assimilation fact, especially in Quebec.To quell the Quebec doctrine,the government formulated and passed the Official Languages Act in 1969, that English and French is the two official language of Canada. Actually, bilingualism has not solve the problem fundamentally, but added many burdens to the French Canadian, as Stephen Dean said: "it is completely impossible to implement bilingual system , because when the two languages are within a regional competition, the dominant language will replace another language." In 1971, the prime minister of the federal government, Trudeau, announced that the government would accept all advice and opinions of the royal commission about two languages and two cultures. Cultural pluralism at this time was aimed at ethnic minorities, ethnic groups and cultural groups, and then expanded to all ethnic groups. After 1982, the Canadian government successively promulgated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,the Multicultural Culture Law and so on.These measures make multiculturalism institutionalization and legalization.

In a word, multiculturalism accelerates the immigrants into the mainstream society, provides abundant resources and opportunities for the development of economy, politics and culture , also makes an indelible contribution for pluralistic world. On the one hand, multiculturalism allows Canada to absorb foreign cultures. On the other hand, Canada's multiculturalism has also been brought to the world and it is a beautiful and unique part of the world's cultural family.There is no doubt that it is a innocent process of bringing in and going out for Canadian multiculturalism.So,It also has important implications for the cultural development of our country.