Chapter 2: History, Culture, and Canadian Families

Sociological Perspectives on Diversity

  • Structural Functionalism: Views the family as one of many social institutions.
  • Conflict Theory: Social inequality arises because those in power resist change and exploit minority groups.
  • Feminist Theory: Focuses on gender inequalities within the family and society.
  • Symbolic Interactionism: Examines the interactions between individuals within families and how they create meaning.

Race and Ethnicity

  • Race: A system of classifying people based on physical characteristics, such as skin color. The social construction of race is called racialization.
  • Ethnicity: A term used to specify a group of people who share a common cultural heritage.
  • Challenges in Interpreting Census Data on Ethnicity:
    1. The concept of ethnicity is fluid.
    2. Respondents' understanding of their ethnicity, generational cohort, length of time since immigration, and social context at the time of data collection affect reporting from one census to another.
    3. Increasing intermarriage among various groups increases reporting of multiple ancestries.
    4. Changes in the format of census questions affect reporting over time.
  • Visible Minority: A person, other than an Indigenous person, who is non-Caucasian in race or non-white in color.
  • Indigenous: A person who is First Nations, Inuit, or Métis. Many people in that community prefer the term Indigenous over the term Aboriginal.
  • Minority Group: Refers to any group that holds less power than the dominant group.

Prejudice and Discrimination

  • Prejudice: A negative attitude toward an entire group of people.
  • Discrimination: The unfair treatment of people based on their social characteristics rather than on merit.
  • Structural (or Systemic) Racism: A form of racism that is embedded within society and its institutions.

Stereotypes

  • Stereotypes: Simplified perceptions people have of an entire group.
  • Negative stereotypes are unreasonable and harmful.
  • Positive stereotypes can be similarly damaging.

Acculturation Strategies: Minority Status

  • Acculturation strategies can be located along two dimensions:
    • Acceptance or rejection of the new culture
    • Acceptance or rejection of the culture of origin
  • Four main responses to minority status:
    • Integration
    • Assimilation
    • Separation
    • Marginalization

Acculturation Strategies

  • Integration: High levels of engagement in both the heritage and mainstream cultures are sought. It implies bicultural competence and flexibility (e.g., Polish-Canadian).
  • Assimilation: Based on rejection of heritage culture; may be voluntary or forced. A form of passing—trying to hide membership in minority group. Members of minority groups sometimes attempt to pass as a member of the majority group to avoid discrimination.
  • Separation: Strategy based on voluntary rejection of dominant culture or involuntary exclusion from dominant culture. It can be a collective versus individual strategy and can occur by choice or be forced on a particular group (e.g., Chinese workers during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway).
  • Marginalization: Little possibility or interest in maintaining heritage culture and little interest in having relations with others in the dominant culture. Often associated with dysfunctional and deviant behaviors (e.g., delinquency, substance abuse, family abuse).

Acculturation Policies

  • Acculturation policies are strategies for integrating or excluding immigrants that are promoted or enforced by the dominant group through laws or other official programs.
    • Multiculturalism: Diversity accepted
    • Melting Pot: Assimilation into dominant culture
  • Segregation: Minority culture rejected, dominant culture accepted.
  • Exclusion: Both minority and dominant cultures rejected.

The Canadian Population

  • The area that is now Canada has been populated by many different groups of people.
  • The Indigenous peoples were the original inhabitants.
  • Settlers, colonizers, and immigrants have also chosen to live here.

Indigenous Peoples

  • Indigenous families in North America had multiple patterns of family relationships.
  • In Iroquoian and the Pacific Coast societies, clan lineages held rights to specific tracts of land and controlled specific trading routes.
  • Under the rules of clan membership, individuals were required to marry outside the clan to which they belonged.
  • Plains buffalo-hunting societies, such as the Blackfoot (Niitsitapi), resembled both the clan and migratory groups.
  • Family also means an extended network of other relatives, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

English and French Canadians

  • The character of English Canadian society has roots in Britain.
  • Canada became part of the British Empire as a result of conquest and colonization.
  • Married women assumed the nationality of their husbands.
  • The Canadian Citizenship Act of 1947 created the category of Canadian citizen and permitted married women to be citizens in their own right.
  • Quebec government encouraged a society that mirrored France and discouraged dissidents
  • Roman Catholic Church defined family and educational goals.
  • The Quebec Act of 1774 defined the borders of Quebec and preserved the French legal code and the seigneurial system of land ownership.
  • Quebec still follows the civil law system, and many elements of family law are different in Quebec than in the rest of Canada.

Other Immigrant Groups and Increasing Diversity

  • The diversity of Canada’s population will continue to increase significantly over the next decades.
  • By 2036:
    • About 25-30% will be foreign-born, and about 35-40% will belong to a visible minority group.
    • The vast majority of immigrants will live in cities, making up 77-81% of Toronto, 50-59% of Montreal, 69-74% of Vancouver.
    • Half of those 15 and older will be foreign-born or have at least one foreign-born parent.

Patterns of Immigration to Canada

  • Many factors have affected who was allowed to immigrate from where and how many could come in a particular period.
  • For some, immigration was not a choice. Many Black people originally came to Canada as slaves; slavery existed in eastern Canada until the early 1800s.

The Need for Labour

  • The desire to keep Canada European conflicted with the need for labor (e.g., in mining, lumber, railway construction).
  • Chinese, Sikh, and Japanese workers were brought in because they would accept the low wages and harsh conditions.
  • The development of the prairie provinces in the late 1800s and early 1900s required families to farm.
  • In boom times, both employers and the federal government supported the influx of workers.
  • During recessions and the Great Depression, immigration was discouraged.
  • Government placed many barriers to the immigration of people of color, members of certain religious groups, and others regarded as difficult to assimilate into British-based culture:
    • Late 1885 Chinese Immigration Act
    • In 1908, the "continuous journey" regulation intended to block immigration from India required immigrants to travel directly to Canada by continuous journey from their home country.
    • 1930s, Jews fleeing Nazi Germany were turned away by Canada
    • During World War II, Japanese families were interned.
  • After WWII, economic growth once again demanded a larger workforce, and public attitudes toward outsiders softened (Cheatham, 2020).
  • 1967 introduced points system.

Immigration Categories

  • Currently, new immigrants can apply to become a permanent resident of Canada in one of four classes:
    • The economic class – skilled workers, entrepreneurs, and investors.
    • The family class – spouses or partners, children, parents, grandparents, and other relatives can be sponsored.
    • The refugee class
    • Other immigrants – includes those admitted on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Humanitarian Motives

  • Many groups also admitted to Canada for humanitarian reasons:
    • Fugitive slaves who escaped from the US came to Canada.
    • Doukhobors, persecuted by the Russians for refusing military service and for their communal ways, migrated to Saskatchewan and then BC.
    • Hungarians fleeing an unsuccessful uprising against their Communist government in 1956–57.
  • Over 1 million refugees since 1980.
  • Refugees generally do very well after arriving in Canada.
  • The unemployment rate for refugees aged 25 to 54 is 9%.
  • Half of refugees who are working are employed in high-skilled jobs, such as doctors, dentists, architects, service managers, and software engineers.

The Experience of Immigrants in Canada

  • Many immigrants see Canada as a “promised land.”
  • Types of policies in place at the time of arrival either facilitate or complicate adaptation.
  • Getting hired can be challenging, and many immigrants do not find work in the same field as in their former country.
  • Despite generally being more highly educated and skilled, new immigrants have difficulty finding work due to:
    • Lack of Canadian experience
    • Problems in having qualifications recognized
    • Less social capital
    • Lack of fluency in English or French
    • Racial discrimination

Unemployment Rate

  • Unemployment Rates by Region of Birth
    • Total population: 2016 (7.5), 2017 (6.8), 2018 (6.1), 2019 (6.0), 2020 (10.4)
    • North America: 2016 (6.9), 2017 (5.7), 2018 (4.7), 2019 (5.5), 2020 (8.0)
    • Latin America: 2016 (10), 2017 (6.7), 2018 (6.7), 2019 (6.6), 2020 (9.5)
    • Europe: 2016 (5.2), 2017 (5.0), 2018 (4.9), 2019 (4.3), 2020 (8.3)
    • Africa: 2016 (11.1), 2017 (11.1), 2018 (8.7), 2019 (8.8), 2020 (12.2)
    • Asia: 2016 (7.3), 2017 (6.8), 2018 (6.1), 2019 (6.0), 2020 (11.2)
  • The stress of adaptation, the loss of cultural referents, and difficulties in finding employment have been found to lead to higher rates of depression, anxiety, and family conflict.
  • Immigration can also mean separation from family members.
  • Female domestic workers often leave children when they come to Canada on temporary visas to care for Canadian children or seniors.
  • Children of immigrants may have difficulty growing up in two cultures.

Providing Services to Immigrants

  • All immigrants who are accepted as permanent residents in Canada are eligible for some publicly funded services.
  • Demand is growing for service agencies to develop policies that are sensitive to the cultural traditions of their clients.
  • Many immigrants choose to go to relatives or ethnic organizations for help rather than to mainstream agencies.

Differences and the Study of the Family

  • Why is it important to be aware of differences between families?
  • Difference does not equal inferiority.
  • All individuals are shaped by family and cultural heritage, wider social context, and past experiences.
  • The Canadian population is becoming more diverse.
  • The growing visible minority population is challenging governments and communities to remove barriers to equitable participation in social and economic life.

Summary

  • Sociological Perspectives on Diversity: Structural functionalism, conflict theory, feminist theory, and symbolic interactionism
  • Difference Between Race and Ethnicity: Race refers to physical differences between groups of people, and ethnicity refers to a group of people who share a common cultural heritage.
  • Various Responses to Minority Status: Prejudice, discrimination, acculturation, assimilation, separation, and marginalization.
  • Various Groups in the Canadian Population: Indigenous, English and French Canadians; over 250 different ethnic origins.
  • Patterns of Immigration to Canada: Historically, immigration has been shaped by the need for labor, humanitarian reasons, and refugees seeking asylum.
  • Experiences of Immigrant Families in Canada: Immigrant experience varies widely; a lack of social capital may explain immigrants’ challenges.
  • Importance of Awareness of Racial and Ethnic Differences: Different does not equal inferior, and the Canadian population is becoming more diverse.