Canadian developments

Some interesting new developments in the Canadian debate on immigration and integration. Canadian Press has a piece about Kenney's visit to Calgary earlier this month. He says that the federal government's new focus is on integration:

"We don't want to create a bunch of silo communities where kids grow up in a community that more resembles their parents' country of origin than Canada."

He also talks about the dangers of immigrants developing an new identity which would somehow be at odds with their Canadian identity if they lived in such communities.

These comments are somewhat obscure, but ominously echo Bisoondath's critique of multiculturalism from back in the '90s. The real problem is how the Conservative seems to dichotomize between multiculturalism and integration, and between maitaining your cultural heritage and being Canadian. These two will only be at odds if politicized. Indeed, since integration by definition is a process that takes place between two (or more) equal partners in mutual dialogue and negotiation, it seems to me that multiculturalism is a necessity to be able to achieve ethnic integration. Anything else risks leading to assimilation, where the minorities are forced to abandon certain legacies or parts of their identity in the process of becoming Canadians.

The second piece is more recent and discusses how immigrants are hard hit by the recession. What surprised me here is that Canadian employers seem to rely on the last hired, first fired principle. Unlike in Sweden, where it is the law of the land, this rather seems to be a practice of convenience. If anyone could enlighten me further with regards to its status in Canadian working life, I'd be most grateful. But even when the news are these grim, I still have to say that Canada appears relatively succesful in comparison to my native Sweden, because over there, I doubt very much that Mr. Lobana or Mr. Muqtadir would have found any employment in jobs on their own competence level in the first place...