Ethnicity And Multiculturalism Policy Of Canada

The goal of this thesis is to compare the attitude of Chinese Canadians and Quebec francophones toward Canadian multiculturalism policy by investigating coverage of multicultural ism by two ethnic newspapers from 1971 to 1990-Shing Wah Daily News and La Presse-and determine if any statistically significant difference exists.Qualitative and quantitative content analysis methods are used to conduct the study.After pretest and preliminary coding,newspaper articles were divided into six categories based on topic:policy,culture,politics,immigration,interracial relationship,and society.Utilizing the software tool of SPSS,quantitative tests were conducted to compare the two groups’ attitudes.The statistical results revealed that a significant difference existed between the two groups’ general attitudes toward the multiculturalism policy.While Chinese Canadians were mildly supportive,Quebec francophones were slightly negative.However,the attitude difference is smaller than what is depicted in previous literature.In the two categories of policy and society,the attitudes of the two groups differ the most.The analysis showed that the focus of the Chinese newspaper was on cultural matters,whereas the French newspaper made more reports on political affairs.Besides,the Chinese newspaper held a much more negative attitude in the category of interracial relationship.These differences were explained by applying theories of ethnicity and acculturation.To be specific,the three factors of group identification,relative strength,and acculturation mode resulted in the differences.Additionally,this thesis found that from 1971 to 1990,the emphasis of the multiculturalism policy changed from language and culture to anti-racism and then to the economy.Furthermore,the Quebec interculturalism model that emerged in the 1980s differed from multiculturalism in several aspects.The results and analysis imply that the government should make more substantive measures in cracking down on racism,harmonizing ethnic relations,and enhancing the political and social participation of ethnic groups in the future.