In this study an attempt was made to discover and compare some of the basic elements of the process of integration or Canadianization as expressed in the attitudes of leaders of ethnic minority groups in Vancouver. The role of leadership was emphasized because the leaders of ethnic minority groups are the mediators between their respective groups and the cultural majority. Their views represent the views of the members of their groups and they are the communicators and interpreters of the ways of living for both minority and majority groups. Personal interviews were conducted with the constituted leaders of thirty-six ethnic societies in Vancouver. In the interviews a non-directive approach was taken and the technique of open-ended questioning was employed with information being funnelled into expressed attitudes. Eleven major areas pertinent to the process of integration were investigated. These major areas were: the nature of the societies, language, marriage, district of residence, general adjustment or orientation, acceptance by Canadians, feelings toward the homeland and Canada, permanent residence in Canada, retention of ethnic customs, governing bodies in Canada, and further immigration to Canada. Conclusions relative to certain aspects of the integration process were drawn from the findings that illustrate much agreement but also a great deal of diversity in attitudes and opinions of the leaders of ethnic societies. Suggestions were made for further study. Especially recommended were similar studies to present a comparison. It was also suggested that further research concentrate on one or a few of the more important areas dealt with in this study and that similar research be carried out with non-leaders of ethnic minority groups and with members of the majority groups. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Canada actively promotes itself as a multicultural nation. Seeing that in the 2001 census, almost half of all Canadians reported an origin other than British, French, or Aboriginal, it can be said that Canada truly contains the globe within its borders. As the global economy becomes increasingly interdependent, and as linguistic and cultural diversity rapidly increase, it is as important as ever to address how Canada can fulfill its desire to become a multilingual and multicultural society. The 1971 federal policy of multiculturalism positioned the retention of heritage languages [HLs] as integral to maintaining cultural diversity. Yet, since the early nineties, HLs have been neglected by both federal and provincial governments. For many communities, language is at the core of ethnic identity. It has been Iong argued that the two are inextricably linked. Though the relationship between language and culture is a contentious issue, few deny the benefits of a multihngual society. Th~s thesis asks whether the government's laissez-faire approach to linguistic diversity has impaired cultural diversity and its maintenance. It investigates how the language policies of the Canadian government and three of its provinces, British Columbia, Ontario, and Alberta, have supported the maintenance of HLs, in talk and action, over the past thirty years. Through a critical analysis of federal and provincial discourse, it is demonstrated that government policy and action have excluded and diminished the value of languages and their role in sustaining multiculturalism. What is more, the lack of support for HLs, at both levels of government, has demonstrated an attack on culture and the core value of multiculturalism; the creation of an inclusive society that ensures all Canadians access to and participation in Canada's social, cultural and economic institutions. The goal of this study is to develop a policy framework which works to decelerate the loss of one of Canada's most valuable assets -- its hguistic and cultural mosaic.

In tracing the experience of Chinese Canadians in the 20th Century, we need to look further back into its history. Most people believe that the increasing number of immigrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China in the 1980s and 1990s played the most important roles in the social and economic changes during the latest decades of the 20th Century. The contribution of the Chinese Canadians settlement throughout the 20th Century should also be considered as it marks the beginning of the rise of their social status and identity in Canada. Although the Chinese Canadians earned their fame and status since the 1980s, they had been racially discriminated for more than a century. To probe into the situation, the social and political situations in the Chinese Canadian community will be meticulously analyzed and their contribution in difference aspects examined. In addition, other minority ethnic groups, such as the Japanese, Jewish and Indian, will be used as a comparison to demonstrate the change of policies towards the Chinese in Canada. In doing so, both English and Canadian Chinese newspapers will be used to illustrate the cultural difference between the “whites” and “non-whites”. To illustrate the changes, the 20th Century will be break into three parts. In most of the pre-Second World War period, the Chinese community was isolated from the mainstream community with their activities largely confined to Chinatowns in cities, such as Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto and so on. For the Chinese living in small townships, such as Prince Rupert, Richmond and so on, their daily life will also be examined. When Canada declared war on Japan on 7th December 1941, Canada became an ally of China during the war. A sentiment of acceptance of the Chinese in the mainstream society began to take shape. Some of the Chinese chose to contribute their efforts to Canada by joining the Canadian Armed Forces and went into battle alongside the White Canadians. After the Second World War, Canada adopted a new policy towards the minority ethnic groups and Chinese Canadians started to enjoy political equality. In May 1947, the Canadian Government repealed the Chinese Immigration Act. In 1967, after the liberalization of the Canadian immigration policy, the Chinese, once again, were allowed to immigrate freely to Canada as an individual. With granted full citizenship, the Chinese social and political status began to change. In 1957, Douglas Jung, a Canadian born Chinese, was elected a Member of the Parliament, which can be seen as the beginning of the Chinese involvement in the political arena of the Canadian community. Since then, Chinese Canadians were able to achieve equality in the society. Based on documentary accounts and oral history research, this thesis re-constructed the history of Canadian Chinese involvement in the 20th Century and the change of their identity and social status thereafter. / published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The question of how subordinated groups in democratic states set about shifting their political relationship with their encompassing societies has received little attention among political scientists in Canada. Groups which lack significant political, legal, and economic resources, and which are stigmatized by an inferior status (reinforced by law and policy) do not enjoy the level playing field predicted by pluralist interest group theory. Yet they are sometimes able to overcome these obstacles and to renegotiate their political and legal status. The question is how some groups are able to do this, and what strategies are available to or obligatory for groups wishing to initiate political bargaining. According to the theory of symbolic politics developed here, disadvantaged minorities seeking political benefits from the state will typically conduct politics at the symbolic level. That is, they tend to invoke a range of political symbols and myths: first, to build in-group solidarity by presenting an analysis of a common past and present, as well as a vision of the future society, and thereby legitimate their political aspirations. In the first stage of minority politicization, such groups must: (a) build a sense of community of interests and goals which can be said to represent the reference group as a whole; (b) reverse the stigmatic identity ascribed to them by the dominant society; and (c) find ways of competing with the dominant society, not on the latter's terms, but on alternative ideological grounds. In the second stage of politicization, minorities must: (a) create appropriate demands; (b) learn to use the mechanisms, methods and institutions of the mainstream political process; and (c) eventually routinize conflict by negotiating stable norms to guide on-going relations with government. Subordinated groups do not normally seek purely material benefits. They usually seek symbolic benefits in the form of rights, and a redefined status within society. Thus, much of their politicking is conducted in public, and is largely devoted to capturing public sympathy which can be used as a resource against government. The political myths and symbols employed are characteristically emotive and imprecise. Political goals are presented in symbolic terms, and are advanced at the level of principle rather than substance. When applied to the case of Native Indian politics in the Canadian context, the evidence confirms the accuracy of these hypotheses. Indians have pursued the symbolic strategies predicted by the model: the essence of their political aspirations has been captured in the symbols of aboriginal title/aboriginal rights, land claims, and ultimately, self-government; at the macro level, they have sought predominantly symbolic benefits, as represented by legislative and constitutional recognition of certain rights and privileges; and they have attempted to win public support to use as a bargaining chip vis-a-vis government. However, they have not been entirely successful in their use of the symbolic strategies outlined, and the evidence suggests that they have reached a public opinion impasse. Despite their efforts, public opinion on native and native issues has remained remarkably stable over the last twenty years, so that further effort in this area is likely to bring diminishing returns. In the end, symbolic politics, while necessary for subordinated groups in their fledgling stages of politicization, must eventually give way to more conventional political methodologies as groups become institutionalized in the mainstream political process. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

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This dissertation is manuscript-based. It contains an introduction, a literature review, a conclusion along with the four research papers that constitute its core. The four substantive papers reexamine the sources of earnings differences by race and immigration status in Canada. I address two major methodological issues in the relevant literature: the measurement of experience and the modeling of the relations between the factors known to influence earnings. Data from Statistics Canada's Workplace and Employee Survey (WES) was analyzed. The first two papers examine biases in the estimates of wage disparities due to error in the measurement of experience. They do so using two conventional estimation techniques: ordinary least squares (OLS) with dummy variables, and the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition. The third and fourth papers explore deficiencies in OLS-based modeling techniques. The third paper does so by separately analyzing the relationships between racial and immigrant group statuses and access to job-related training, and then the relationship between statuses and training, on one hand, and earnings on the other. The final paper uses structural equation modeling to further examine the relationship between group status and earnings, this time explicitly incorporating the mediating effects of job types, and job-related training. The papers reveal that inadequate measurement of work experience results in overestimates of the wage disadvantage of visible minority immigrants. Furthermore, some of the wage disadvantage of this group stems from limited access to job-related training.

The doctoral thesis investigates the impact of legal mobilization and judicial decisions on official minority-language education (OMLE) policy outside Quebec using a model of judicial impact derived from New Institutionalism theory. The New Institutionalism (NI) model of judicial impact synthesizes the dominant approaches to judicial impact found in the US literature, which are reviewed in Chapter Two, and transcends them by placing them within a framework based on the New Institutionalism. / The model, as developed in Chapter Three, proposes that certain factors will increase the probability of judicial decisions having a positive influence on policy, such as whether incentives are provided for implementation. The model argues that institutions---as structures and state actors---have important influences on these factors. Furthermore, the NI model recognizes that institutions play a partial and contingent role in the construction of policy preferences and discourse and in mediating the political process more generally over time. / Chapter Four demonstrates that the NI model can be applied usefully to reinterpret existing accounts of how legal mobilization and judicial decisions impacted the struggle over school desegregation in the US---a case that provides a heuristic comparison to OMLE policy as it concerns the question of how and where minorities are educated. / Chapters Five through Seven describe OMLE policy development in Canada from the latter 1970s until 2000, with case studies of Alberta and, to a lesser extent, Ontario and Saskatchewan. Chapter Eight reveals that legal mobilization by Francophone groups cannot be understood without reference to institutional factors, particularly the Charter of Rights and funding from the federal government. The policy impact of legal mobilization was influenced strongly by the Supreme Court's 1990 Mahe decision and by federal government funding to the provinces for OMLE policy development, while public opinion appeared to be a least a moderately constraining force on policy change. Chapter Eight further reveals that legal mobilization and judicial decisions helped Francophone groups gain access to the policy process and shaped the policy goals and discourse of actors within the process over time. / Chapter Nine bolsters confidence in the conclusions generated in Chapter Eight by demonstrating how the explanations provided by the NI model, which emphasize the direct or mediating influence of institutional factors, are superior to explanations generated by a Critical Legal Studies (CLS) approach, a "systems" approach, a "dispute-centered" approach, and by Gerald Rosenberg's model. The thesis concludes by suggesting avenues for future research on judicial impact, particularly research that is focused on comparative institutionalism.

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