A Diverse Minority of Intolerance: Ethnic Relations in a Multicultural Society

Abstract

This study contributes to the international literature on ethnic relations and multiculturalism by empirically examining the claim that ethnic diversity can undermine social cohesion. The specific focus is on analyzing the attitudes of Canadians toward different ethnic groups to assess the level of ethnic intolerance. Canada serves as an ideal case study for this investigation due to the long-standing federal policy of multiculturalism. The multicultural we is an ideal, composed of many us which are opposed to others, all of which are themselves composed of individuals manifesting a heterogeneity of attitudes and opinions. By studying out-group attitudes, the study seeks to assess the viability of multiculturalism in addressing the challenges posed by ethnic diversity. The study has three primary objectives: firstly, to examine if the distribution of ethnic intolerance varies across different ethnic groups in Canada; secondly, to investigate whether Canadians perceive the Canadian mosaic in a vertical (hierarchical) or horizontal (egalitarian) manner, drawing from group position theory; and finally, to explore whether ethnic groups in Canada hold their own subjective group position hierarchies distinct from the national average. To achieve these objectives, the paper conducts an original quantitative analysis of the 2014 Provincial Diversity Project Survey.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, as well as all the participants to the conference Middle-Class Nation-building Through Immigration? that was held there from September 21–23, 2022.

Disclosure statement

I declare that I have no conflict of interest with the publication of this paper.

Data availability statement

The Provincial Diversity Project dataset is available through the Ontario Data Documentation Extraction Service and Infrastructure (ODESI). https://search2.odesi.ca/

Notes

1 See Christel Kesler and Irene Bloemraad, “Does Immigration Erode Social Capital? The Conditional Effects of Immigration-Generated Diversity on Trust, Membership, and Participation across 19 Countries, 1981–2000,” Canadian Journal of Political Science 43, no. 2 (2010): 319–47; Matthew Wright and Irene Bloemraad, “Is There a Trade-off between Multiculturalism and Socio-Political Integration? Policy Regimes and Immigrant Incorporation in Comparative Perspective,” Perspectives on Politics 10, no. 1 (2012): 77–95; Keith Banting, Stuart Soroka, and Edward Koning, “Multicultural Diversity and Redistribution,” in Inequality and the Fading of Redistributive Politics, edited by Keith Banting and John Myles (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2013), 65–186, etc.

2 Herbert Blumer, “Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position,” The Pacific Sociological Review 1, no. 1 (1958): 3–7; Lawrence D. Bobo, “Prejudice as Group Position: Microfoundations of a Sociological Approach to Racism and Race Relations,” Journal of Social Issues 55, no. 3 (1999): 445–72.

3 Elke Winter, Us, Them and Others: Pluralism and National Identities in Diverse Societies (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011).

4 Will Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995).

5 Enzo Colombo, “Multiculturalisms: An Overview of Multicultural Debates in Western Societies,” Current Sociology 63, no. 6 (2015): 800–24.

6 Keith Banting and Will Kymlicka, “Canadian Multiculturalism: Global Anxieties and Local Debates,” British Journal of Canadian Studies 23, no. 1 (2010): 43–72.

7 Will Kymlicka, “Canadian Multiculturalism in Historical and Comparative Perspective: Is Canada Unique,” Constitutional Forum / Forum Constitutionnel 13, no. 1 & 2 (2011): 2003.

8 Robert D. Putnam, “E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty‐First Century,” Scandinavian Political Studies 30, no. 2 (2007): 137–74.

9 Jeremy Waldron, “Minority Cultures and the Cosmopolitan Perspective,” in The Rights of Minority Cultures, edited by W. Kymlicka (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 97–112.

10 Brian Berry, Culture and Equality: An Egalitarian Critique of Multiculturalism (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002).

11 Susan Moller Okin, “Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?,” in Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?, edited by J. Cohen, M. Howard, and M. C. Nussbaum (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), 7–24.

12 Ayelet Shachar, “On Citizenship and Multicultural Vulnerability,” Political Theory 28, no. 1 (2000): 64–89.

13 Chandran Kukathas, The Liberal Archipelago: A Theory of Diversity and Freedom (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

14 Glen Coulthard, “Subjects of Empire: Indigenous Peoples and the ‘Politics of Recognition’ in Canada,” Contemporary Political Theory 6, no. 4 (2007): 437–60.

15 Christel Kesler and Irene Bloemraad, “Does Immigration Erode Social Capital?"

16 Matthew Wright and Irene Bloemraad, “Is There a Trade-off.”

17 Banting et al., “Multicultural Diversity and Redistribution,” in Inequality.

18 John W. Berry and Rudolf Kalin, “Multicultural and Ethnic Attitudes in Canada: An Overview of the 1991 National Survey,” Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement 27, no. 3 (1995): 301–20.

19 John Porter, Vertical Mosaic: An Analysis of Social Class and Power in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015 [1965]).

20 Harold A. Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada: An Introduction to Canadian Economic History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999); Everett C. Hughes, French Canada in Transition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1943); Donald G. Creighton, The Empire of the St. Lawrence: A Study in Commerce and Politics (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002 [1935]).

21 Placing the English and the French in the same category is highly problematic, especially for the French Canadians who historically faced much discrimination in Québec, as well as those outside of Québec who faced much pressure to assimilate.

22 Edward N. Herberg, “The Ethno-Racial Socioeconomic Hierarchy in Canada: Theory and Analysis of the New Vertical Mosaic,” International Journal of Comparative Sociology 31, no. 3-4 (1990): 206–21.

23 Jason Z. Lian and David Ralph Matthews, “Does the Vertical Mosaic Still Exist? Ethnicity and Income in Canada, 1991,” Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue Canadienne De Sociologie 35, no. 4 (2008): 461–81.

24 Richard Ogmundson and J. McLaughlin, “Trends in the Ethnic Origins of Canadian Elites: The Decline of the BRITS?,” Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue Canadienne De Sociologie 29, no. 2 (1992): 227–42; M. Reza Nakhaie, “Vertical Mosaic among the Elites: The New Imagery Revisited,” Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue Canadienne De Sociologie 34, no. 1 (1997): 1–24.

25 Harvey Rich, “The Vertical Mosaic Revisited: Toward a Macrosociology of Canada,” Journal of Canadian Studies 11, no. 1 (1976): 14–31; A. Gordon Darroch, “Another Look at Ethnicity, Stratification and Social Mobility in Canada,” Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers Canadiens De Sociologie 4, no. 1 (1979): 1–25; In today’s theoretical landscape, Porter’s work could almost have been intersectional avant l’heure had he substantially examined the issue of gender along class and ethnicity.

26 Rich, “The Vertical Mosaic Revisited."

27 E. Hugh Lautard and Donald J. Loree, “Ethnic Stratification in Canada, 1931-1971,” Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers canadiens de sociologie 9, no. 3 (1984): 333–44.

28 Based on the research by Lautard and Loree, one might be inclined to assert that ethnic inequality reached unparalleled levels prior to 1931 (Lautard and Loree, “Ethnic Stratification in Canada, 1931-1971). In the absence of data, it is not unreasonable to extrapolate that earlier decades were characterized by greater ethnic inequality. However, as highlighted by Eric Sager and Christopher Morier (E. Sager and C. Morier, “Immigrants, Ethnicity, and Earnings in 1901: Revisiting Canada’s Vertical Mosaic,” Canadian Historical Review 83, no. 2 (2002): 196–229), this conclusion is not easily drawn when considering the studies conducted by Darroch and Ornstein (A. Gordon Darroch and Michael D. Ornstein, “Ethnicity and Occupational Structure in Canada in 1871: The Vertical Mosaic in Historical Perspective,” Canadian Historical Review 61, no. 3 (1980): 305–33).

29 Keith Banting and Debra Thompson, “The Puzzling Persistence of Racial Inequality in Canada,” Canadian Journal of Political Science 54, no. 4 (2021): 870–91.

30 Constance Backhouse, Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900-1950 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999); Colleen Sheppard, “Challenging Systemic Racism in Canada,” in Race and Inequality, edited by Elaine Kennedy-Dubourdieu (Boca Raton, FL: Routledge, 2017), 57–76; Debra Thompson, The Long Road Home: On Blackness and Belonging (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2022); Christoph Schimmele, Feng Hou, and Max Stick, Poverty Among Racialized Groups Across Generations (Catalogue no. 36-28-0001). Statistics Canada, Economic and Social Reports, 2023).

31 Debra Thompson, “Is Race Political?,” Canadian Journal of Political Science 41, no. 3 (2008): 525–47.

32 Kevin Gosine, “Revisiting the Notion of a ‘Recast’ Vertical Mosaic in Canada: Does a Post Secondary Education Make a Difference?,” Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal 32, no. 3 (2000): 89–104; Naomi Lightman and Luann Good Gingrich, “Measuring Economic Exclusion for Racialized Minorities, Immigrants and Women in Canada: Results from 2000 and 2010,” Journal of Poverty 22, no. 5 (2018): 398–420.

33 Sheila Block and Grace-Edward Galabuzi, Canada’s Colour Coded Labour Market (Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2011).

34 Paul Attewell, Philip Kasinitz, and Kathleen Dunn, “Black Canadians and Black Americans: racial Income Inequality in Comparative Perspective,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 33, no. 3 (2010): 473–95.

35 See Grace-Edward Galabuzi, “Canada’s Creeping Economic Apartheid: The Economic Segregation and Social Marginalisation of Racialized Groups,” CSJ Foundation for Research and Education (2001).

36 Attewell et al., “Black Canadians and Black Americans."

37 A cautionary note is warranted here. While we do not subscribe do the view that all differences in outcomes are strictly due to inequality, it is also important not to conclude that the reduction of the racialized income gap through statistical controls equates to the absence of racial inequality. This is mainly attributable of the difficulty in assessing whether underlying differences in the group average of individual characteristics stems from genuine personal choices or structural barriers and symbolic violence.

38 Erin Lashta, Loleen Berdahl, and Ryan Walker, “Interpersonal Contact and Attitudes towards Indigenous Peoples in Canada’s Prairie Cities,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 39, no. 7 (2016): 1242–60.

39 Nadha Hassen, Aisha Lofters, Sinit Michael, Amita Mall, Andrew D. Pinto, and Julia Rackal, “Implementing anti-Racism Interventions in Healthcare Settings: A Scoping Review,” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 6 (2021): 2993; Brenda L. Beagan, Stephanie R. Bizzeth, and Josephine Etowa, “Interpersonal, Institutional, and Structural Racism in Canadian Nursing: A Culture of Silence,” The Canadian Journal of Nursing Research = Revue Canadienne De Recherche En Sciences Infirmieres 55, no. 2 (2023): 195–205.

40 George J. S. Dei, “The Challenges of anti-Racist Education in Canada,” Canadian Ethnic Studies 25, no. 2 (1993): 36–51; Francis Henry, Enakshi Dua, Carl E. James, Audrey Kobayashi, Peter Li, Howard Ramos, and Malinda S. Smith, The Equity Myth: Racialization and Indigeneity at Canadian Universities (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2017).

41 Robyn Maynard, Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2017).

42 Lashta et al., “Interpersonal Contact and Attitudes”; Anita C. Benoit, Jasmine Cotnam, Doe O'Brien-Teengs, Saara Greene, Kerrigan Beaver, Art Zoccole, and Mona Loutfy, “Racism Experiences of Urban Indigenous Women in Ontario, Canada: “We All Have That Story That Will Break Your Heart,” International Indigenous Policy Journal 10, no. 2 (2019): 1–27.

43 Gerry Veenstra, “Race, Gender, Class, Sexuality (RGCS) and Hypertension,” Social Science & Medicine 89 (2013): 16–24.

44 Amal I. Madibbo, Minority within a Minority: Black Francophone Immigrants and the Dynamics of Power and Resistance (Boca Raton, FL: Routledge, 2007).

45 Blumer, “Race Prejudice."

46 See Lawrence Bobo, “Prejudice as Group Position.”

47 Ibid.

48 Blumer, “Race Prejudice."

49 Bobo, “Prejudice as Group Position.”

50 Winter, Us, Them and Others; E. Winter, “Us, Them, and Others: Response to my Interlocutors,” Canadian Ethnic Studies 43, no. 1–2 (2011): 277–85; E. Winter, “Us, Them, and Others: Reflections on Canadian Multiculturalism and National Identity at the Turn of the Twenty‐First Century,” Canadian Review of Sociology = Revue Canadienne De Sociologie 51, no. 2 (2014): 128–51.

51 We see here that Max Weber was influenced by Hegel’s criticism of political liberalism in acknowledging the diverse cultural and ethnic compositions within societies (Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, (1991 [1821]). Elements of the Philosophy of Right (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

52 Winter, Us, Them and Others

53 Winter, “Us, Them, and Others: Reflections,” 136.

54 Stephen Harold Riggins, “Not Quite Us, Not Quite Them,” Journal of International Migration and Integration 16 (2015): 451–4.

55 See Riggens, “Not Quite Us, Not Quite Them,” for a short discussion of several authors who have also adopted a three-category conception of ethnic relations which can be labelled in the “us/both/them” fashion, etc.

56 Winter, Us, Them and Others.

57 Antoine Bilodeau, Luc Turgeon, S. E. White, and A. Henderson, The Provincial Diversity Project [Data set] (ODESI, 2014), https://search1.odesi.ca/

58 Mathieu Lizotte, Ethnic Intolerance, Status Anxiety and the Challenge of Pluralism: Assessing the Bottom-Up Support for Canada’s Liberal Multiculturalism (Working Paper, University of Ottawa, 2022).

59 Stephen Cornell and Douglas Hartmann, Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing World (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2006).

60 Roxanne Connelly, Vernon Gayle, and Paul S. Lambert, “Ethnicity and Ethnic Group Measures in Social Survey Research,” Methodological Innovations 9 (2016): 205979911664288.

61 Statistics Canada, Ethnic and cultural origins of Canadians: Portrait of a Rich Heritage (98-200-X2016016) (Ministry of Industry, National Statistics Agency, 2017).

62 We should mention that an intolerant person is not an essentialist construct since an individual’s out-group biases can vary through time.

63 We have included a 15 ethnic group classification here in the boxplot since it serves the purpose to support the relatively minor differences in the distribution of intolerance between ethnic groups. However, in the section ahead, we limited our analysis to five ethnic groups (i.e. the five most important demographically in Canada).

64 It should be mentioned, however, that most individuals in the intolerant category fall within the -2 to -1 range of the ethnic tolerance index. The overall percentage of individuals who fall below -2, in the very intolerant range, is much smaller (approximately 5% of the national population).

65 The scores of the tolerance index are represented in the y-axis and range empirically from approximately -3 to 1.4.

66 For the sake of clarity, Statistics Canada often describes the Indian category with the adverbial qualifier “from India” to avoid confusion with the historical misidentification of First Nations Peoples.

67 Kerem Ozan Kalkan, Geoffrey C. Layman, and Eric M. Uslaner, “Bands of Others”? Attitudes toward Muslims in Contemporary American Society,” The Journal of Politics 71, no. 3 (2009): 847–62, 847.

68 This implies that the percentage of the intolerant within each group (and their degree of intolerance) mostly accounts for these relatively minor differences in the national averages.

69 Lizotte, Ethnic Intolerance.

70 The rows were sorted in decreasing order according to the intolerant category.

71 A quick overview of the level of intolerance, or rather, the differences in their level of intolerance, can be surmised by examining the average and the range. To interpret the table in detail, one simply has to select one of the five groups in the column and then consult the corresponding rows to examine their attitudes towards the 10 comparison groups. For example, the Chinese, as a group, demonstrate an attitude of 7.10 towards the English and an attitude of 5.86 towards First Nations.

72 To be clear, this broad group amalgamates several ethnic groups such as East Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, etc. The negative attitude can be common to all these ethnic groups, but it is also likely that the aggregate average dissimulates important differences.

73 The only group that prefers the French are Blacks, and this is undoubtedly due to the shared complex and delicate history of colonialism and, in many cases, a common language.

74 Christel Kesler and Irene Bloemraad, “Does Immigration Erode Social Capital?"; Wright and Bloemraad, “Is There a Trade-off”; Banting et al., “Multicultural Diversity and Redistribution,” in Inequality, etc.

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Mathieu Lizotte

Mathieu Lizotte is a professor at the School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies, University of Ottawa. His research is dedicated to the study of social inequality and the political and moral issues it poses to the political community.