The Crisis of Multiculturalism in Europe - Research Paper Example

Contents Introduction 3 1 Research objective & purpose: 3 2. The Background 3 2 Literature Review 4 2 1 Establishing the grounds 4 3. Analysis & Results 5 3.1 Research methodology 5 3.1.1 Characteristics of the sample 6 3.2.2 Limitation of the study 6 4. Findings 6 4.1 Composition of the groups: 7 References 11 1. Introduction Multiculturalism has been a deeply debated expression within Western political dialogue and educational discussions. In the British political field, multiculturalism is ever more seen as an unsuccessful project that supports inter-group isolation. By contrast, educational discussions have emphasized upon the institutional structures to be employed so as to advance cultural correspondence, integration and constructive intergroup relations. Rather than suppose or enforce one specific definition of multiculturalism, it has been argued that flourishing social policy and public debate are required to rest on a more thorough understanding of how people interpret and relate to multiculturalism in the background of their daily lives. 1.1 Research objective & purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the success or failure of multiculturalism quantitatively. The topic has been analyzed in the context of young Canadian Muslims’ lived experience of multiculturalism. As opposed to popular rhetoric, the interviews conducted among 50 young Muslim adults demonstrate that a lot of maintain a double Canadian-Muslim identity by using the ideology of multiculturalism, even though they are more and more stigmatized for their religion. These outcomes of this research lead us to problematize the dialogue surrounding the ‘failure’ of multiculturalism and to emphasize the contradictions within it. Therefore, this study aims to highlight: Has multiculturalism actually failed in the western world? What factors are behind the recent situation? 2. The Background On February 5, 2011, at the yearly Munich Security Conference, David Cameron, British Prime Minister affirmed: ‘State multiculturalism has failed’. According to him, multiculturalism creates isolated communities, promotes terrorism and fails to offer a mutual sense of British identity. In his dialogue, he also argues regarding increased examination of Muslim groups getting public money but not dealing with extremism (State multiculturalism has failed, says David Cameron.” 5 February 2011) . Cameron’s remarks followed hard on the heels of related warnings from Angela Merkel, German Chancellor and Nicolas Sarkozy, French President (Burns & John, 2011) Their remarks are reinforced by speedily shifting multiculturalism discourses and policies worldwide. A number of critics think about the return of assimilationist policies and a denial of pluralism in such states as the US, Netherlands and Germany (Brubaker & Rogers, 2001) (Grillo, & Ralph, 2003) while others observe current developing political consensus in Western Europe as a recalibration instead of a rejection of multiculturalism, while others see recent emergent political consensus in Western Europe as a recalibration rather a rejection of multiculturalism (Lentin, Alana, and Gavin T., 2012) 2.1 Literature Review Multiculturalism has been mainly observed as a normative structure and a collection of state policies which promote tolerance and advocate the respect for cultural difference. In the United Kingdom, which has in the past assumed a race relations means to equality (Favell & Adrian, 2001) multiculturalism was implemented as a suitable framework for handling cultural difference. Multiculturalism has certainly been an important term in British political conversation over the last few decades, particularly during New Labor’s government. Parekh (2000) in his renowned and greatly cited report on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain acknowledged this concept of Britishness as a plural identity that observes difference, as a ‘community of communities’. However Britain, just like other European countries, has freshly encountered a ‘backlash’ against cultural difference (Grillo & Ralph, 2007) The emergence of right-wing nationalist parties like the BNP, the increasing severity of immigration controls and the prologue of citizenship tests and ceremonies reveal this trend. Many would consent that there is overall a paternal shift in British political dialogue from multiculturalism to community cohesion, or from celebrating disparity to affirming mutual values. This shift started after the 2001 ethnic tensions in the north of England. The Cantle report (2001) at the instance reported that it was the lack of social cohesion that resulted in these tensions, paving the way for ‘less multicultural’ policies and rising uneasiness regarding the hypothetical isolation of minority communities (McGhee & Derek, 2005) 2.1.1 Establishing the grounds The recent bitterness with multiculturalism in both North America and Europe has been provoked by anxieties regarding Islam and fears about safety following 9/11 (Banting & Keith 2010). The disastrous events of 9/11 considerably distorted how Muslim communities are observed worldwide (Helly & Denise, 2004) Islam is the religion that has long been subjected to orientalist portrayal but following 9/11, Muslim communities were observed as a threat to the existence of western civilizations. (Banting & Keith 2010) In Canada, there was a 16-fold raise in hate crimes that victimized Muslims in the year following 9/11. (Banting & Keith 2010) A lot of western nations, including Canada, executed anti-terrorist laws targeted against Muslims. Canada’s Bill C36, was enforced about two months after 9/11(Banting & Keith 2010)., personalized 22 existing laws, inclusive of criminal code, and led to the formation of new criminal offenses like facilitating and tempting terrorist acts (Helly & Denise, 2004) The execution of anti-terrorist legislation also corresponded to fears that multiculturalism could promote terrorism. Since Muslim societies are at the forefront of debates concerning multiculturalism, and Canada is often usually taken as the world leader in multiculturalism (having been the first western nation to legitimately implement a multicultural policy), it appears appropriate to inspect young Canadian Muslims to simplify the dynamics of multiculturalism. Since 9/11 was a serious revolving point in world politics, resulting in a clear shift in the society’s and state’s attitudes to Muslim communities, the experiences after 9/11 of Canadians Muslims opens a door on multiculturalism and how it functions both as a concept and as a practice. In addition, by emphasizing upon Canadian Muslims, we can fill a gap in empirical data, as the handling of Muslim communities in Canada after 9/11 has largely been overlooked in academic literature. 3. Analysis & Results In our thorough interviews of 50 young Muslims, it was discovered that young Canadian Muslims are becoming more stigmatized and marginalized gradually, for their religion. Their Muslim identity is usually a target of favoritism and mistreatment in public spaces. Institutions like the labor market and state protection practices appear to have become more biased towards Canadian Muslims. Interestingly, a lot of young Canadian Muslims are using the philosophy of multiculturalism to oppose prejudice and pressures to assimilate, and proudly hold a dual Muslim and Canadian identity. This clear contradiction between the actuality of racial and cultural discrimination and philosophy of multiculturalism yields significant insights into the basic level dynamics of multicultural discussions. Our study recommends that in Canada, multiculturalism is not an agreed reality but a daily micro-contestation; in addition, the augmented public scrutiny of Muslims after 9/11 has, rather than pushing youths towards extremism, helped them articulate and hold multiculturalism. 3.1 Research methodology We conducted interviews with 24 Muslim men and 26 Muslim women belonging to the ages of 18 and 31. In-depth interviews are helpful for studying the thoughts and perspectives of marginalized groups, as they permit the discussion and broadcasting of their stories (Kymlica & Will, 2011) The interviews were conducted between 2005 and 2008, allowing us to find out the experiences of Muslims following 9/11. The respondents were ensured anonymity and given pseudonyms. The interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed, coded thematically, and analyzed using the SSPS, a quantitative analysis software program, which enables ideas and themes to be connected. All participants were Muslims. With the exception of one, who had recently converted to Islam, all belonged to the Muslim families. The huge majority are second-generation Canadians. The distribution of the sample of the quantitative study can be summarized as follows: Eighty-two percent (41/50) are Canadian citizens; 40 percent (20/50) were born in Canada, 42 percent (21/50) were naturalized, The rest were not Canadian citizens at the time of the interview and had lived in Canada for less than five years. 30 participants were born outside of Canada The majority was living in Canada for many years. Interviews were initiated at Vancouver and Toronto, two urban areas consisting of 70 percent of the Muslim population in Canada (Mackey & Eva, 1999) Personal networks were utilized to get interview participants. We approached young Canadian Muslims directly. We, at first, contacted Muslim students’ entities at the University of Toronto and Simon Fraser University. To shun over-sampling Muslim students’ entities, we contacted other university organizations also. At the end of every interview, we considered snowball sampling and asked the participants if they knew of anyone else who can be a part of interview. However, we limited the number of referrals from every interviewee to circumvent over-sampling from a specific group. 3.1.1 Characteristics of the sample Respondents are Muslims The age group is between 18 to 31 years Respondents are well educated; either having or got post secondary degree Respondents belong to diverse geographical backgrounds Female respondents comprise of both with hijab and without hijab Majority of males and females is non-white 3.2.2 Limitation of the study This study does not stand for all young Muslims living in Canada. Since this is not a randomly selected sample, we cannot generalize it to the wider population with any level of statistical confidence. Rather, it is intended to take a thorough look at the interpretations and experiences of as broad a range of young Canadian Muslims as possible. 4. Findings 4.1 Composition of the groups: The sample group consisted of a wide cross section of ethnic groups across a wide spectrum of demographics which included age, educational background, home country and religious background. The approximate constitution of the sample groups is as under: Ethnic Background: Indian: 22% Pakistani: 25.1% Bangladeshi: 10.2 % Caribbean: 22.5% African: 19.3% Other: .9% As we can see above the respondents are mostly from South East Asia and from Africa, making up the bulk of the ethnic identities. The sample size was also classified in terms of age groups mainly: 18-30 years: 32.6 % 31-45 years: 39.3 % 46-65 years: 20.7% Over 65 years: 7.4 % The study also took into account the breakup of demographics according to religious background as in: Christian: 30.1% Hindu: 8.8% Muslim: 42.1% Sikh: 6.3% Other: 12.7% There were several other demographic variables along which the sample size was divided and classified, however, religious background, nationality, and age group were the three variables which were found to have the most significant impact on the respondents feeling of national identification and by corollary their disgruntlement with the same. The chi-square results of the above sample size in relation to comparisons of national identity in regards to religious background can be summarized as below: As we can see above the biggest differences in terms of what was expected and what was actually observed was in the case of Christians and Muslims, in a way the differences in observed and expected behavior is also the largest between the two groups, people with a Muslim background were expected to have a comparatively lower parity with the national identity, on the contrary they as a group have shown the greatest affinity with the national character, contrast this with what was expected of the Christians and the data goes in the completely different direction contradicting the higher expectations of them in the opposite direction. The correlation between age group and national identity is given as below: As can be seen above the correlation between age and national identify is a very real one with the correlation increasing the higher up along the age spectrum one travels, the widest gap being in the 18-30 years group with the observed frequency falling a fair bit below what the expected correlation was. References 1. BBC. “State multiculturalism has failed, says David Cameron.” 5 February 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12371994. 2. Burns, John. “Cameron Criticizes ‘Multiculturalism’ in Britain.” The New York Times, 5 February 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/world/europe/06britain.html. 3. Brubaker, Rogers. “The return of assimilation? Changing perspectives on immigration and its sequels in France, Germany, and the United States.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 24 (2001): 531–48. 4. Grillo, Ralph D “Cultural essentialism and cultural anxiety.” Anthropological Theory 3 (2003): 157–73. 5. Lentin, Alana, and Gavin Titley. “The ‘Crisis of Multiculturalism’ in Europe: Mediated miranets, intolerable subjects.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 15 (2012): 123–38 6. Favell, Adrian (2001) Philosophies of Integration. Immigration and the Idea of Citizenship in France and Britain (second ed.), New York: Palgrave in association with Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations, University of Warwick. 7. Parekh, Bhikhu (2000) The Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain, London: Profile. 8. Grillo, Ralph (2007) An excess of alterity? Debating difference in a multicultural society Ethnic and Racial Studies 6, 30, pp. 979-998. 9. McGhee, Derek (2005) Intolerant Britain? Hate, Citizenship and Difference, Maidenhead: Open University Press. 10. Banting, Keith. “Is there a progressive’s dilemma in Canada? Immigration, multiculturalism and the welfare state.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 43 (2010): 797–820. 11. Helly, Denise “Are Muslims discriminated against in Canada since September 2001?” Canadian Ethnic Studies 36 (2004): 24–48. 12. Razack, Sherene. “Imperilled muslim women, dangerous muslim men and civilized European Legal and social responses to forced marriages.” Feminist Legal Studies 12 (2004): 129–74. 13. Kymlica, Will. “Testing the liberal multiculturalists’ hypothesis: Normative theories and social science evidence.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 43 (2010): 257–71. 14. Esterberg, Kristin. Qualitative Methods in Social Research. Boston: McGraw-Hill Press, 2002. 15. Mackey, Eva. The House of Difference: Cultural Politics and National Identity in Canada. New York: Routledge, 1999. Read More