Cultural mosaic is a term used to describe the "patchwork quilt" of ethnic groups, languages and cultures that co-exist within Canadian society. The idea of a cultural mosaic is in contrast with that of a melting pot, which is often used to describe the United States' ideal of assimilation. However, the US expression salad bowl has also been opposed in the U.S. to the classic melting-pot, in a multiculturalist approach according to its supporters, or a communitarian approach according to its detractors. The word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). ... Alternate meaning: crucible (science) The melting pot is a metaphor for the way in which heterogenous societies develop, in which the ingredients in the pot (iron, tin; people of different backgrounds and religions, etc. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Salad Bowl can refer to the following: The Salad Bowl a defunct annual post-season American college football bowl game. ... Multiculturalism is a public policy approach for managing cultural diversity in a multiethnic society, officially stressing mutual respect and tolerance for cultural differences within a countrys borders. ... Communitarianism as a philosophy began in the late 20th century, opposing aspects of liberalism and capitalism while advocating phenomena such as civil society. ...

Overview

An ethnocultural profile of Canada prepared by Statistics Canada describes a nation that, at the outset of the 21st Century, has become a progressively butt more and more multi-ethnic and multicultural. The Introduction to the report stated that: Statistics Canada is the Canadian federal government bureau commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. ...

Immigration to Canada over the past 100 years has shaped Canada, with each new wave of immigrants adding to the nation’s ethnic and cultural composition. Half a century ago, most immigrants came from Europe. Now most newcomers are from Asia.

As a result, the number of visible minorities in Canada is growing. And, Canadians listed more than 200 ethnic groups in answering the 2001 Census question on ethnic ancestry, reflecting a varied, rich cultural mosaic as the nation started the new millennium.[1]

World map showing Europe Europe is one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to various perspectives about Europes borders. ... World map showing the location of Asia. ... Visible minorities are persons who are not of the majority race in a given population. ...

Origin and use of the term

The first use of the term mosaic to refer to Canadian society was by John Murray Gibbon, in his 1938 book Canadian Mosaic. Gibbon clearly disapproved of the American melting-pot concept. He saw the melting pot as a process by which immigrants and their descendants were encouraged to cut off ties with their countries and cultures of origin so as to assimilate into the American way of life. John Murray Gibbon (12 April 1875 - 2 July 1952) was a Scottish Canadian writer and cultural promoter. ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Canadian Mosaic was a book by John Murray Gibbon, published in 1938. ... Immigration is the act of moving to or settling in another country or region, temporarily or permanently. ...

In 1975, John Porter published his influential sociological study, Vertical Mosaic (By: Casimir Kuzyk) John Arthur Porter (November 12, 1921 - June 15, 1979) was one of Canadas most important sociologists during the period from 1950 to the late 1970s. ...

An Analysis of Social Class and Power in Canada. Porter's book showed that some groups (e.g., those of British origin) were better off with respect to measures of income, education and health than others. For example, groups of eastern and southern European origin tended to fare less well by these measures. The worst off were the First Nations and Inuit. Porter, saw this vertical arrangement as being related to power and influence in decision-making. Thus those of British origin tended to be overrepresented among the elites in government, economic and political spheres.

Porter’s findings have been tested in several studies since 1975 and have been modified slightly. For example, the economic disparity between ethnic groups has narrowed somewhat and Francophones are better represented in politics and government. However, the socio-economic elites in Canada remain dominated by people of British origin. This article is about the continent. ... Carved mask in Vancouver First Nations is a term of ethnicity used in Canada. ... Inuit (Inuktitut syllabics: ᐃᓄᐃᑦ, singular Inuk / ᐃᓄᒃ) is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic coasts of Siberia, Alaska, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Quebec, Labrador and Greenland (see Eskimo). ... Alternative meaning: Elite (computer game) In sociology as in general usage, the elite (the elect; sometimes the French form élite is used) refers to a relatively small dominant group within a larger society, which enjoys privileged status and, almost invariantly, exploits individuals of lower social status. ... Economics (deriving from the Greek words οίκω [okos], house, and νέμω [nemo], rules hence household management) is the social science that studies the allocation of scarce resources to satisfy unlimited wants. ... Politics is the process and method of decision-making for groups of human beings. ... Socioeconomics is the study of the social and economic impacts of any product or service offering, market intervention or other activity on an economy as a whole and on the companies, organization and individuals who are its main economic actors. ...

Influence on multiculturalism policy

Since the beginning of the 20th Century, Canada has been one of the world's major immigrant-receiving societies. Until the 1960's immigrants were expected to assimilate into the mainstream society. Arriving as it did at during a time of social upheaval, Porter's work had a marked influence on Canadian social policy. The view of Canada as a mosaic of cultures became the basis for the Trudeau government's multiculturalism policies in the early 1980's. Social policy is the study of the welfare state, and the range of responses to social need. ... Pierre Elliott Trudeau (October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000) was the fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984. ... Multiculturalism is a public policy approach for managing cultural diversity in a multiethnic society, officially stressing mutual respect and tolerance for cultural differences within a countrys borders. ...

The Canadian government established the Official Multiculturalism Act in 1971 and appointed a minister responsible for multiculturalism in 1972. In 1973 a Canadian Multiculturalism Council was established, along with a Multiculturalism Branch within the Department of the Secretary of State. The Act for the Preservation and Enhancement of Multiculturalism in Canada was passed in 1988, with minor organizational amendments since that time (Multiculturalism & Citizenship Canada, 1991). ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ...

Australia is the only other country to officially adopt the policy of Multiculturalism and is also seen as a cultural mosaic.

Criticism

The "cultural mosaic" theory is not without critics. Some pundits, such as the Globe and Mail's Jeffrey Simpson have argued that the entire Melting Pot / Mosaic dynamic is largely an imagined concept, and that there remains little measurable evidence that American or Canadian immigrants as collective groups can be proven to be more or less "assimilated" or "multicultural" than each other. Many conservative activists in Canada have likewise remained critical of multiculturalism as an "official" government policy. Some say that the mosaic concept encourages immigrant communities to remain concentrated and segregated in certin areas, or that it implies that they should never be considered Canadians.^{[citation needed]} In 2006 Governor General Michaëlle Jean openly criticized the concept herself, accusing it of leading to the "ghettoizing" of Canadians.^{[citation needed]} The Globe and Mail is a large Canadian English language national newspaper based in Toronto. ... Jeffrey Simpson, The Globe and Mails national affairs columnist, has won all three of Canadas leading literary prizes -- the Governor Generals Award for non-fiction book writing, the National Magazine Award for political writing, and the National Newspaper Award for column writing. ... Michaëlle Jean, CC, CMM, COM, CD (born September 6, 1957 in Port-au-Prince, Haïti) is the current Governor General of Canada. ...

References

• Gibbon, J. 1938. The Canadian Mosaic, McClelland & Stewart Limited, Toronto.
• Porter, J. 1965. The Vertical Mosaic: An Analysis of Social Class and Power in Canada. University of Toronto Press.

External links

• Statistics Canada Canada’s ethnocultural portrait: The changing mosaic
• "Vertical Mosaic" The Canadian Encyclopedia online By: Casimir Kuzyk