Different communities, different visions : an analysis of multiculturalism as a resource in Canada

Multiculturalism eludes any simple and straightforward definition. It has come to mean different things to different people. In particular, four broad approaches have been advanced as ways in which to assess the goals and objectives of multiculturalism in Canada. These four approaches are multiculturalism as a social reality, an ideology, a policy, and as a resource. This paper examines how multiculturalism is viewed as a resource.As a resource, multiculturalism constitutes a vehicle by which various stakeholders can advance their particular goals and objectives. Since there are three primary stakeholders (the government, non-visible minorities, and visible minorities); each group seeks to employ multiculturalism to advance their respective interests. Using the 1991 Multiculturalism Attitude Survey, this paper empirically examines the hypothesis that non-visible minorities are more predisposed towards utilizing multiculturalism to address their symbolic needs, whereas visible minorities are more predisposed towards utilizing multiculturalism to advance their instrumental goals. Furthermore, this paper contends that these different visions of multiculturalism as a resource are better understood as outcomes of intrinsic differences in the very meaning of ethnicity and race to its adherents. While symbolic multiculturalism may be a suitable sociological framework to characterize the meaningfulness of ethnicity for white ethnics, this paper suggests that instrumental multiculturalism is more appropriate to characterize the meaningfulness of race for racial minorities.The results, however, demonstrate that it is inaccurate to dichotomize the expectations that non-visible and visible minorities maintain towards multiculturalism. Although non-visible minorities are more predisposed to support multiculturalism being used to service symbolic as opposed to instrumental goals, visible minorities are not exclusively preoccupied with advancing instrumental initiatives. Visible minorities demonstrate greater levels of support for resourcing multiculturalism towards symbolic and instrumental ends compared to their ethnic counterparts. This paper suggests several potential explanations for these outcomes