The Multicultural Leader

rethinking immigration

The Globe & Mail has been doing a feature set of articles about immigration in Canada, entitled "Rethinking Immigration." The rethinking has to do with the necessity of a substantial increase in immigrants from the current 250,000/year to 400,000/year to maintain a growth economy with the kind of standard of living we presently experience. [now, there is an argument for 'why do we need a growth economy, anyway?' but that's another discussion]

So once again, the future of Canada will continue to be increasingly diverse, with more and more friends from non-Euro backgrounds. If this is the case, how will churches engage with the differences in a shalom-like manner?

Canadians divided on immigration -- surprise, surprise!

People in Canada are split when assessing immigration, and only three-in-ten believe the country should continue to be a mosaic, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.  Here are a couple quotes...

In the online survey of a representative sample of 1,005 Canadian adults, 39 per cent of respondents believe that immigration is having a positive effect in Canada, while 39 per cent think it is having a negative effect...

Three-in-five Canadians (62%) think multiculturalism has been good for the country, including 72 per cent of respondents aged 18-to-34. However, more Canadians (58%) are likely to endorse the concept of the melting pot—immigrants assimilating and blending into Canadian society—than the mosaic (30%), where cultural differences within society are valuable and should be preserved.

The problem with that last statement however is that it is not an accurate representation of multicultural social theory, or Trudeau's vision for a multicultural society. "Preservation" of cultural identity is not a goal of multicultural social theory, but respect, acceptance, and valuing, is. All societies and cultures grow, adjust and evolve over time, they are not 'preserved' -- that's what museums do.

For conversation on this blog, however, we need to ask what is a Christian ethic regarding immigration and the place of cultural identity, both in an evolving society like Canada, and in the dynamic communities we call 'churches'?

"institutional completeness"

Had a chance to listen to Ambrose University College sociology prof Dr Joel Thiessen present a paper ("Christianity in Multicultural Canada") to the Evangelical Missiological Society annual meeting in Edmonton, Feb 24, 2012.

He gave me a name for a phenomenon that we notice quite often with immigrant, "ethnic" churches -- "institutional completeness." Here is Thiessen's explanation:

Christian immigrants develop what sociologists call “institutional completeness” whereby most, if not all of their psychological, social, and spiritual needs are fulfilled through their local congregation and/or ethnic group (Bramadat and Seljak 2008; Breton 1964: 194; Ebaugh and Chafetz 2000). For instance, their social networks are concentrated with those they know in their church and practical needs such as language skills, finding a job, or prayer are met through fellow congregants. In other words, their religious community is their cultural and social community.[1] In contrast to many other Canadian Christians, immigrants, especially visible minorities, rely on institutional completeness to provide them with stability in life via a strong Christian ethnic subculture in the face of significant personal transition and upheaval and possible prejudice and discrimination upon immigrating to Canada.

As we discover, Thiessen affirms there are both positives and negatives with 'institutional completeness.'

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[1] This is also true of Christians in general, particularly conservative Christians who seek to remain “pure” apart from the “corrupt” and secular world around. However, this is uniquely true for most Christian immigrants in Canada today.

the future of Hamilton will not look more and more like me

Here are some opening thoughts from an article published in Urbanicity this month

I’m a white male, in my early fifties, living in downtown Hamilton, born and raised in Ontario with roots going back more than two centuries in Canada. But the Canada I live in will continue to become increasingly diverse, and noticeably so.

From 2001 to 2006, more than 4000 immigrants settled in Hamilton each year. One half of those newcomers to Hamilton were born in Asia or the Middle East. Only 23% were born in Europe. This pattern is true across Canada, particularly in urban areas.

This means that the complexion of “Hamiltonians” over the next decades will continue to change. And the values and worldviews of new Canadians will gradually cause changes and adjustments to what it means to be “a Canadian.”

My first “Canadian” ancestors migrated to Canada from the United States as ‘loyalists’ to the British monarch at the time of the Revolutionary War (1780s). That means they were fleeing as political refugees. The next grouping of ancestors arrived in Vaughan (“Pennsylvania Dutch” 1792) as religious and political refugees, originally from Switzerland, then from the United States.

My Irish ancestors arrived in eastern Ontario in the 1820s as part of the fallout from the Irish Rebellion of 1798, some having only been recently released from prison. Scottish settlers (1830s) seeking the promise of a more prosperous life in Lanark County arrived only to be disappointed with the story they had been sold by immigration recruiters.

Each of those sets of ancestors brought values and worldviews that have shaped Canadian society. The monarchist United Empire Loyalists, the pacifist Anabaptists who were fined for refusing to contribute to the war effort in 1812, the fighting Irish calling for representative government, and the stern Presbyterian farmers from Scotland who eked out a living on the edge of the Canadian Shield.

What can be said of how Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Ukrainian and Hungarian values and worldviews have shaped Hamilton over the last half century or more of immigration?

What will be said of how the values and worldviews of Indians, Sri Lankans, Iranians, Assyrians, Rwandans, Congolese, Chinese, Philipinos and Vietnamese will shape the Hamilton that my children and grandchildren will live in?

For the rest of the article look here... (p.4)

Beyond the Welcome -2

Had a chance to attend the Toronto version of the World Vision event,  mentioned in a previous post. Disappointment would have to be the word... I was expecting to go into the actual research data and findings. I kind of think that's what most people in the room were there for too -- some frustration was expressed. [I had brought a group of about 12 leaders from our national movement, specifically hoping to get into the content of the research]

Instead we had a nice introduction to the fact that churches need to engage more with new immigrants... I guess I was thinking that most of the people who would show up for an event like this would, in fact, be people who are already engaged and want more depth of content and reflection to help us with our ongoing work.

I always seem to get suckered into these kinds of things, offered/advertized as an all-encompassing national strategy, by some national org... then I'm always reminded of my basic modus operandi -- small is better, work with those want to be worked with, 'comprehensive' means nobody really deals with on-the-ground stuff; don't be a joiner; do your own thing, in your own place, in your own sphere of influence... see where it leads.

Thankfully the full research document, findings and suggestions (51 pages) are included on the CD takeaway from the event.  Here is the table of contents from the research report.

1. Introduction

1.1 Study Partners
1.2 Study Purpose and Main Research Questions
1.3 Research Approach
1.4 Study Scope and Sites
1.5 Research Methods and Analysis
1.6 How the Report is Organized
2. Why This Research Study
3. How Recent Immigrants Experience Church
3.1 Church Experience Depends on the Context
3.2 Church Experience and a Limited Sense of Belonging
4. How Churches are Responding to Recent Immigrants
4.1 A Positive Trend: A Growing Response
4.2 A Trend Lacking Depth: Limitations in the Response
4.3 What is Hindering the Response of Canadian Churches?
5. Suggestions for Improving How churches Respond
5.1 Promote a Vision for Change
5.2 Create Structures That Support Change
5.3 Develop Processes that Encourage Change
Appendices ....

UReach Toronto is online

UReach Toronto is a unique portal of information -- a resource centre for multicultural ministry in the GTA; with research about communities across the region, interactive maps, news about events and training opportunities. A good place to ask questions or get answers.

Beyond the Welcome

Looking forward to the final report and toolkit from the research conducted by Centre for Community Based Research and Tyndale Intercultural Centre (TIM) and coordinated/funded by World Vision.

Beyond the Welcome: How Canadian Churches are Responding to Canada’s Immigrant Reality

forums across Canada this spring to feedback the research can be found here (scroll down to 2nd event). Bill van Geest is the presenter.

welcoming the stranger

good article here, about how Canadian churches are doing at welcoming strangers:

"People are really willing to open their wallets to help, say, people in Rwanda who are experiencing trouble and trauma. But when they're here in their backyard, they're not as quick to respond," said Jack Taylor, senior pastor of Vancouver's Faith Fellowship Baptist Church. It helps provide temporary shelter and other assistance to refugees through its New Hope Community Services Society.

An online survey that World Vision Canada conducted earlier this year, of churches in 11 cities with high immigrant populations, underscores this apparent inability -- and even hesitancy -- of many churches to embrace recent immigrants.

While there's a real effort by a lot of churches to do an initial welcoming," said Hugh Brewster, World Vision's national manager for Canadian programs, "the welcome was pretty limited."

more insights on preliminary info from this research are found in the article at CanadianChristianity.org.

They highlight comments from people at City Church in Winnipeg

'interculturalism' is now p-c

Globe and Mail article "Quebec groups pushes 'interculturalism' in place of multiculturalism"

I would agree that we certainly hope the popular caricature of multicultural-ism is dead, but the social theory is still more than valid. Even Bouchard in the article states that multiculturalism and interculturalism are two separate ideas and should be understood as inter-related, not as a more currently 'p-c' synonym; interculturalism should not be seen as a slightly more palatable version of multiculturalism. Interestingly the G&M has linked a related story: "Canada near top in integrating immigrants, survey says." There is something about the Canadian experiment that is miles ahead of other civil societies. For me, Will Kymlicka's essay "Multicultural States and Intercultural Citizens" (2003) helps to articulate the pieces very well.

multiculturalism is dead?

French president Nicholas Sarkozy declared Thursday that multiculturalism had failed, joining a growing number of world leaders or ex-leaders who have condemned it.

"My answer is clearly yes, it is a failure," he said in a television interview when asked about the policy which advocates that host societies welcome and foster distinct cultural and religious immigrant groups.

"Of course we must all respect differences, but we do not want... a society where communities coexist side by side.

"If you come to France, you accept to melt into a single community, which is the national community, and if you do not want to accept that, you cannot be welcome in France," the right-wing president said.

more here...

I'm still amazed that states think they can do this as national policy without a social contract with their citizenry to actively engage as intercultural citizens. But then, this would require citizens to treat their neighbour with the same self-regard as they do themselves. Is that possible in a world of distorted psyches?