Friday, February 12, 2010
Heartwarming Canadian multicultualism
I'm watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics, and the speaker just told a heartwarming story of Canadian multiculturalism. Apparently, the Indian Olympic team wasn't particularly well funded, and when the Indian community of Vancouver, some 300 000 strong, heard about this, they pitched in and raised funds to provide the team with new uniforms, coaching etc. Or so the story went. I did bring a smile to my face...
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Debate on multiculturalism in Sweden
A court verdict giving a Muslim man a $ 10 000 compensation for having been subjected to discrimination is stirring up a lot of controversy in Sweden. If I understand the verdict correctly, he was given this recompensation because the Swedish Public Employment Service cancelled his Employment Insurance, EI, when he refused to great a female manager with an employer that was offering an internship for him with a handshake.
What is so disconcerning is that most commentators seem to believe that the scandal of the situation is that he was given the componsation at all by the court, seeing as he had refused to shake hand with a woman - which itself can be seen as offensive treatment of the woman in question. The problem is that, to my knowledge, that is not what the court has been discussing. Even if we accept that his refusing to shake hand with a woman is insulting to that woman, the problem was that the Public Employment Service cancelled his EI on this ground. By this rationale, the Employment Service is in its right when it cancels EI on the grounds that the client acts in a socially inacceptable manner, and that seems rather different than cancelling the EI on the grounds that the client is refusing to accept an internship position.
The kneejerk reaction of most commentators, which automatically seem to assume that the court was wrong and that it would now be acceptable to discriminate women and get paid for it, is also deeply troublesome, and often involve some hyperbole. Indeed Kjöller's editorial is one of the few more nuanced pieces so far. It bears witness to the state of the Swedish public discourse, in which "the other" is automatically the one to blame. One commentator have even used it to question multiculturalist policies in general. That's the second time in a very short span of time that such policies are coming under fire. If this continues, will we see the same renaissance for assimilationist policies that we have seen in other European countries with backlashes against multiculturalism?
What is so disconcerning is that most commentators seem to believe that the scandal of the situation is that he was given the componsation at all by the court, seeing as he had refused to shake hand with a woman - which itself can be seen as offensive treatment of the woman in question. The problem is that, to my knowledge, that is not what the court has been discussing. Even if we accept that his refusing to shake hand with a woman is insulting to that woman, the problem was that the Public Employment Service cancelled his EI on this ground. By this rationale, the Employment Service is in its right when it cancels EI on the grounds that the client acts in a socially inacceptable manner, and that seems rather different than cancelling the EI on the grounds that the client is refusing to accept an internship position.
The kneejerk reaction of most commentators, which automatically seem to assume that the court was wrong and that it would now be acceptable to discriminate women and get paid for it, is also deeply troublesome, and often involve some hyperbole. Indeed Kjöller's editorial is one of the few more nuanced pieces so far. It bears witness to the state of the Swedish public discourse, in which "the other" is automatically the one to blame. One commentator have even used it to question multiculturalist policies in general. That's the second time in a very short span of time that such policies are coming under fire. If this continues, will we see the same renaissance for assimilationist policies that we have seen in other European countries with backlashes against multiculturalism?
Monday, February 8, 2010
Been published...
On the Swedish debate site newsmilll. It's a piece summarizing the Canadian public and scholarly debate on multiculturalism for Swedish readers (so it's only available in Swedish, I'm afraid)...
Friday, February 5, 2010
The debate on collective rights continues....
Now, it is Halldorf, Ph.D. Candidate in theology at the University of Uppsala, who chimes in. He argues that the majority culture can be in the wrong and that it is important to remember that dominant points of view are not neutral just because they are dominant. This is, of course, quite correct, and a welcome reminder in the debate. It is also key to understand how ethno-centrism can shape the public discourse, and it is only when this is recognized that such phenomena can be properly taken into account.
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