Language Diversity in the Classroom - ymerleksi - home

Multiculturalism and Multicultural Education 219could be seen as a tacit acknowledgement of ethnic ‘melting’, whichwould ultimately enlarge the anglophone proportions of the country.A summary statement in a Globe & Mail [Toronto] leader in May 1985remains insightful:Multiculturalism is a highly ambiguous concept. At one level, itaffirms the legitimacy of all the world’s cultures... At another, itencourages immigrants and their descendants to perpetuate originalvalues and customs [the implication here is that not all of these arepositive]. It is often said that only by nourishing their differences canimmigrants hope for equality within Canada, a thesis hardlyconfirmed by experience.We have returned, then, to the essential tension that applies in allmulticultural contexts, well beyond the specifically Canadian setting.Finally here, it is reasonable to ask what ‘ordinary’ people think aboutmulticultural policies and applications. As part of a well-known overviewof the contemporary scene, Raymond Breton (1986: 4748)summarized a number of experimental findings and opinion polls asfollows:the research results on popular attitudes do not indicate a strong andwidespread demand for state intervention in the ethnocultural field,except for the symbolic affirmation of Canada as a multiculturalrather then bicultural society. The demand for a federal policy ofmulticulturalism seems to have come primarily from ethnic organizationalelites and their supporters, from government agencies andtheir officers, and from political authorities.Recent developments have only reinforced Breton’s comments. TheCanadian population has a certain (unspecified, perhaps unspecifiable)level of tolerance for diversity, a certain fund of passive goodwill, acertain willingness to see the ‘others’ shape their lives as desired. It doesnot have any great sympathy for real changes in social institutions, fordirect (especially financial) official involvement in ethnocultural affairs,for any substantial alteration to an anglo-conformity pattern. One could,of course, dismiss public opinion here as uninformed and narrowly selfconcerned.The question of whether it would be wise or expedient to doso, and the even more interesting question of the degree of acuityrevealed in public surveys might suggest, however, that such a blanketdismissal would be inappropriate. In any event, cross-national comparisonsreveal that Canadian dynamics are similar to those in othercountries with substantial immigrant communities.