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This paper reports on one segment of a research project that was funded by the former Prairie Metropolis Centre. The research utilizes a large quantitative data set in Canada, the Ethnic Diversity Survey, to develop a specific index to measure the social, cultural, and civic integration of immigrants in Canada and then selectively applies it for some comparative analyses. The paper begins with a definition of integration and then reviews the literature on measuring immigrant integration in Europe and the United States as well as the relevant Canadian literature that foregrounds the variables that we considered for a Canadian immigrant integration index. We then explain how, using factor analysis, our immigrant integration index is developed for Canada. Finally, the paper applies this social integration index and presents some of the results where this index is applied. More specifically, this last part of the paper presents comparative social integration index scores and analysis for: 1) nativity (comparing immigrants to the Canadian-born); 2) generational status; 3) racialized (visible) minority status; and 3) nativity by generation and racialized (visible) minority status. While there are statistically significant differences in all of these comparisons, one of our major findings is that integration, as measured by our index, is not that different between immigrants and the Canadian-born. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the lived experiences of Chinese-Canadian youth in Alberta in relation to two multiculturalism debates: multiculturalism as a politics of recognition and multiculturalism as a cohesive force. It focuses on three themes of their lived experiences, which include racial discrimination and stereotypes in school; biased media representation; and the relationship between ethnic language maintenance, sense of belonging and multiculturalism policy within a bilingual framework. Two findings are highlighted in this paper. First, the racism youth experienced at school and the racist discourse against Chinese-Canadian students found in Canadian media indicate that Chinese Canadians as racialized and ethnic minorities have not been recognized and treated as equal partners in social interactions with the White dominant group. The multicultural policy focus and task of addressing racism in the 1980s has yet to be finished despite current multicultural policy having a new focus. Second, multiculturalism within a bilingual framework is more an assimilating force than a divisive one. Given the separation of language rights and cultural rights as well as the strong linguistic and cultural assimilation forces in major Canadian institutions, it is less likely for Chinese-Canadian youth to maintain their ethnic language and culture. The main factor that affects their sense of belonging to Canada is the racism in Canadian society rather than the symbolic recognition of diversity that multiculturalism encourages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a public history project conducted by the author for the Danish Canadians of Montreal in the 1990s. The Danish Canadian community expected that researching their community history would help them recover a more authentic ethnicity and shine a light on their group's unique ethnocultural practices. However, to the community's disappointment, historical research instead revealed a strong trend toward Anglo-conformity, to the point that many Danish Canadians were nearly indistinguishable in Montreal's Anglophone society. In the current climate where the concept of the ethnic mosaic is emphasized in Canada, the history project dealt a blow to their sense of identity and led them to question whether they were ever ethnic at all. In addition to examining the history of a rarely-studied group, this paper explores changing notions of what has constituted immigrant success, and looks at one group's struggle to adapt to the larger society's shifting visions and values surrounding ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Otto Hahn, a lawyer and emigration promoter from the German state of Wurttemberg, was an integral part of the German debate about emigration, colonial empire and German identity. This paper suggests that any discussion of nineteenth-century European emigration must consider its location in the context of colonial expansion. Hahn was, in many ways, typical of the emigrationist colonialist. Yet, he had ideas which deviated from what has been recognized as emigrationist colonialism. His growing fascination with Canada sheds light on how this popular ideology could be altered. Any discussion of a transnationally conceived German identity in the late nineteenth century, then, must include intellectual and spiritual communities as sources of such an identity, and must locate them in the general context of the diffusion of modernity. The last part of Otto Hahn's story, finally, allows us to get a rare glimpse of an emigrationist colonialist turned actual emigrant, thereby permitting us to conceive of emigration as a way to contest and negotiate nationalism rather than an exit from the national community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late nineteenth century the rate of ethnic intermarriage has been increasing in Canada. This paper analyzes current levels of ethnic intermarriage in Canada during the 1990s m relation to the historical trends reported in earlier analyses. Differences between husbands and wives and the native-born and foreign-born are examined for Canada as a whole using data from the 1996 Census. Intermarriage data are also presented for husbands and wives residing in five Prairie major CMAs as well as for Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Overall, husbands tend to marry exogamously to a slightly greater extent than wives, the native-born tend to exhibit higher rates of ethnic exogamy than their foreign-born counterparts, and the Prairie CMAs have higher rates of ethnic endogamy compared to Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]