Legitimizing Neoliberalism Rather than Equality: Canadian Multiculturalism in the Current Reality of North America

This article argues that the multiculturalism policy and its implicit link to immigration policy have been instrumental in redefining a Canadian imaginary in the 1970s and early 1980s. Criticism of multiculturalism has ranged from a conservative perspective believing that the policy is divisive and has gone too far, to a postcolonial critique emphasizing that the policy has not gone far enough to de-marginalize non-white Canadians experiences. Adding to this wide ranging criticism, this article suggests that in the last two decades, multiculturalism has abandoned its perceived inclusionary framework in favor of a commodification paradigm. Multiculturalism was championed as a competitive advantage in the discussion of North American free trade and integration. Following the events of September 11, 2001, multiculturalism has been simultaneously framed as a security risk and a casualty. In the new North American reality of economic integration and security cooperation, multiculturalism and immigration policies have been coopted into a neoliberal rationality,legitimizing security and prosperity rather than diversity and equality