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| Dr. Bikram Lamba |
The increased relevance of ethno-cultural communities in national politics actually helps to highlight a world of largely-untapped opportunity. Canada could gain a great deal by tapping more systematically into the potential that our ethno-cultural diversity offers us, and there has never been a better time to begin that process than now.
There is need to create awareness about how the connections, the experience and the insights found within our ethno-cultural communities could and should be interwoven into the way in which Canada’s foreign policy interests are identified, assessed and acted upon in order to maximize our global interests. We have to, as an integeral part of this process, to examine some of the ways in which other Western democracies involve diaspora communities in policy-making, and then compares the relative advantages of a roster of policy mechanisms that the Government of Canada might employ to increase both the quantity of policy inputs received from diaspora groups in Canada, and the quality of the resultant policy decisions.
The federal bureaucracy is already aware of the importance of this topic area. In 2010, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) announced and created its “Global Citizens Initiative”, the ambitions for which include improving the ways in which Canadians with personal, first-hand and expert knowledge about countries or regions outside of Canada would be able to enrich the content of Canada’s foreign policies and programs.
No one pretends that that integrating more ethno-cultural voices into policy-making will be an easy process. Different diasporic communities may have different, or even opposing, views on particular issues, and any policy inputs received must be carefully measured against Canada’s core values and interests. However, these challenges can – and must be overcome, if for no other reason than the fact that “public policy” should, at a very fundamental level, be representative of the Canadian public in all its diversity. Ultimately, the attempt to include Canada’s ethno-cultural voices in policy making, particularly in regards to foreign policy, will be a test of how serious we are about transforming our diversity into full-bodied pluralism.
From Paris, France, to Paris, Texas, almost all Western countries are becoming more ethnically diverse. The main reason is rising levels of immigration. The flow of people across borders can stimulate innovation, dynamism, and creativity, as well as help reduce the social and economic effects of declining birthrates.
We can easily identify three potentially critical independent variables that influence Canadian foreign policy and provide the raison d’être:
(1) changes in the ethnic mosaic in Canada;
(2) government responsiveness to demographic changes;
(3) influences derived from domestic politics.
If we have to characterize the underlying normative approach that dominates, it is that Canada must adhere to a “realist,” national interest-based foreign policy, rather than one based on idealism and values associated with particular ethnic, regional or national groups. It is an accepted fact, though often unexpressed that the growing diversity in Canada is pushing, or potentially pushing, foreign policy makers into approaches and decisions that may be contrary to the broad national interests that affect all Canadians.
The domestic influences of the diasporas are especially important because of the regional and municipal concentrations of members of these immigrant groups. Although their influence over local elections is growing, it has not yet changed the foreign policy of Canada in significant ways.
However, if we move down a level to the para-diplomacy at the provincial and metropolitan levels, the potential influence of these groups is much greater. Other factors brought into play include the unity of the diaspora groups. For example we have analyze and discusses the role of unity among Muslim Canadians and the lack of a critical approach to broad-ranging issues, including the democratization of their countries of origin. Rather than entering into serious dialog on issues such as Palestinian statehood there is a tendency to rely on uncritical polemics and unfounded assumptions.
Democratic influences on Canadian foreign policy are quite limited because of the heavy dependence on the relationship with the United States and the demands of election-focused party politics. They emphasize the emergence of a neo-pluralistic perspective, which has helped insert domestic diversity issues into foreign aid and also as an intervening variable in the Canada—US policy dialog. Coupled with the demands of increasing globalism, the constraints become almost insurmountable.
In today’s world, people might have differing views not only on how the so-called establishment should reach out to minorities, but even on whether an establishment still exists and whom it comprises multiculturalism as the primary challenge, but made a distinction between “mild” and “militant” forms of multiculturalism, noting that each held radically different consequences for the nation. I agree with the mild form, which I see as calling attention to neglected groups, themes, and viewpoints, and redressing a shameful imbalance in the treatment of minorities. Importantly, this form operates within the context of a “shared culture.
But the militant form of multiculturalism is disquieting, he said, because it dismisses the idea of a common culture, rejects the goal of assimilation, and celebrates the immutability of diverse and separate communities. I vehementaly object to multicultural education if it meant that schools teach history and literature for “therapeutic reasons,” to make students feel good about their ancestors, but at the same time celebrate hardened ethnic loyalties. This practice, will lead to a fragmented nation. While rational multi-culturalism is an intelligent response to racism, he said, “hard” multiculturalism is an imprudent response. The real problem is the racism of the white majority, which slams doors in the faces of those who wish to join the mainstream in the country.
There is an urgent need to take a comprehensive view of the issue. Any delay shall be extremely harmful.
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