What do you speak again?

Mar 28, 2012 09:06

Do you think that Canada is more multicultural than the United States? Please explain why.

What do you define as multicultural?

ETA: My opinion of course!
My Thoughts )

countries & nationalities, canadians are fucked up, americans are fucked up, canadians are awesome eh

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Comments 41

bonzifan March 28 2012, 14:28:02 UTC
Canada has a reputation for being multicultural. I generally get the impression it is a more popular destination for imigrants (in spite of it being colder) so that would be my guess as to why.

Multicultural would be a place with lots of people from different cultures in. The place I'm living now is very mono-cultural - Most people who see me are very interested - it's not often you meet a foreigner! :P

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ink_smear March 28 2012, 14:31:25 UTC
Yes, I do.

I think it's mainly because our immigration policies are MUCH more lax than those in the U.S.

Like...so much more.

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crassy March 28 2012, 14:55:27 UTC
I actually find them to be much more intense than when I applied for a green card in 2002. I am going through immigration for my husband right now and it is kinda ridiculous. Even the hoops I had to jump through to get my daughter's citizenship card was a huge pain in the ass.

The stuff to the US, that was easy peasy!

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ink_smear March 28 2012, 14:59:51 UTC
That's...really weird. I guess it depends on the exact route you're taking. After dealing with both sides I've found the complete opposite.

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crassy March 28 2012, 15:01:59 UTC
Though, neither compare to the clusterfuck that is Australia's immigration system.

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mofoburrell March 28 2012, 14:37:22 UTC
Supposedly we put more resources into preserving cultural heritages. The whole "mosaic instead of a melting pot" thing. I don't know if it makes a difference in reality, but it sounds good.

Canada does add a lot more immigrants, particularly when you consider Canada has only 1/9 the population of the US.

I've heard Toronto called the most multicultural city in the world, too. That's probably hyperbole but I wouldn't think it's too far from the truth. I'm taking "multicultural" to mean a lot of distinct cultural practices happening all in one place.

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slytherinjunkie March 28 2012, 14:45:01 UTC
I find the idea of putting more resources into preserving cultural heritages interesting as I have heard differently.

Do you personally think this to be true living in Canada? And does multicultrual to you only include how many immigrants you have in your country?

I only ask because this is the second comment that made it seem as if having more immigrants equals multicultural.

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mofoburrell March 28 2012, 15:04:51 UTC
Yeah I guess we support cultural events a lot. If you're wanting to put on a "Tamil food and music festival" or something, chances are you'll get a good amount of financial support from the governments. Or I think so. I've never tried to organize one of these cultural events myself, but that's how it looks to me.

Immigrants are the major component in multiculturalism, I'd say. Having established Canadians seek out their cultural roots is nice and all, but you can't build a cultural community around that sort of thing.

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bdoing March 28 2012, 15:44:24 UTC
Yep, pretty much all of this. I can't remember the source of the "most multicultural city in the world" thing, but at the time when I first heard it I remember looking at the reasoning behind it (and comparisons with other contenders) and going "Oh, okay, that makes sense".

There definitely seems to be a lot less "Go back to your own country!" up here, as well.

I have also never lived outside Toronto (and grew up in one of the more multicultural areas), though, so I have a rather limited viewpoint.

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vampite March 28 2012, 14:59:06 UTC
I think Canada is definitely more multicultural than the US, mainly because of the fact a higher percentage of our population is immigrants. In my part of the city, white people are probably more in the minority than being the majority! It's noticeable too, when I travel in the USA, that it's just not the same culturally as Canada.

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slytherinjunkie March 28 2012, 15:26:30 UTC
Where do you travel to the US? Or I guess a better question would be what is it about the US that just makes it seem less multicultural to you?

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vampite March 28 2012, 20:57:24 UTC
Mostly just the northern states (North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, ect). I can't pinpoint it exactly, but I think it might be partially because the only language I ever hear is English, when I walk around here I can hear people speaking in all sorts of languages that aren't English or French, and I just don't hear that in the US.

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velvetunicorn March 28 2012, 15:14:58 UTC
I can only speak on my personal experiences in this city in Canada but mulitculturalism is promoted a lot. One of our biggest festivals is two solid weeks of different pavillions around the city focusing on different parts of the world. I feel that it's not only ok to retain your heritage but it's encouraged.

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slytherinjunkie March 28 2012, 15:27:00 UTC
Is it Folkfest????

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slytherinjunkie March 28 2012, 15:32:21 UTC
LOL no Winnipeg

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