The notion of Interculturalism

In Canada, we've had the idea of multiculturalism behind our immigration policies. The idea was a good one in the 80s, letting the newly arrived citizens adapt to the reality of Canada while keeping their cultures and their bearings. It enriched the lives of those already here, letting them learn about different people and customs. Here, in Quebec, it has come to be disliked by a lot of people as Quebecers, fearing their own assimilation, wanted to bring those immigrants into their own cultures, with the idea of making it stronger. The recent reasonable accommodation "debate" brought the problem back in the spotlight, with provincial party leaders asking for Ottawa to exempt Quebec from the multicultural policies of Canada.

For my part, I think that the two ideas, assimilation and multiculturalism, are retrograde in the 21^st century. In an age where you can virtually meet with people from anywhere for nearly no money, you do not need physical proximity to a culture to learn from it. In an age where your influence is not restricted to your neighbors and where the whole planet is affected by your actions, assimilating immigrants is not the best way to strengthen its culture. In the 21^st century, cultures must learn from one another to spawn new, autonomous cultural groups. The strength lies in amalgamation, where the mix creates something greater than the sum of both older parts. We have access to a tremendous amount of information from anywhere in the world. This makes the notion of national identity a rather weak, leaving the ideas of group and individual identities to fill the void. With Interculturalism, where cultures are mixed together, you ensure that those identities do not clash with one another, making intergroup and interpersonal relationship smoother. With interculturalism, you do not lose your values or impose them on anyone. You simply take from others, things that will add to your own values and enhance them. This gives you a better understanding of other people's positions and this is what enables you to interact efficiently with them.