Kelly, N, and M. Trebilcock. The Making of the Mosaic: A History of Canadian Immigration Policy. University of Toronto Press, 1998.
One of the greatest initial strengths of the work by N. Kelly and M. Trebilcock called The Making of the Mosaic: A History of Canadian Immigration Policy, is the title of the book itself. Although this may sound like an attempt to damn a work with faint praise, in actuality the strength of the work is reflected in both author's choice of its title. The title stresses how a metaphorical attitude of a nation in shaping its immigration policy can formulate the way regional and ethnic diversity in the nation is viewed by the nation's population and political apparatus over historical time.
The most familiar metaphor for a multi-ethnic and a diverse country founded upon positive principles of immigration is the metaphor of the melting pot. This is the common metaphor for immigration in America, of course. The metaphor of the melting pot implies that prospective Americans come to the new nation of their citizenship and slowly shirk or melt away their cultural distinctions, forming one, unified American core identity. Of course, for America, this metaphor has proven problematic and far from perfect in explaining the diverse problems, ethnic textures, and racial divisions of the United States. Moreover, it is not the only metaphor that is useful or usable for the process of immigration and assimilation.
Another metaphor, more often used in Canada, is the metaphor of the country as a mosaic. Walk onto any street in Toronto in the Chinatown district and see street signs in Mandarin or Cantonese -- with no English characters in sight. The existence of Quebec, a French-speaking province that is one of the Canadian nation's economic and tourist powerhouses as well as a potent site of political division, is another powerful testimony to Canada's existence as a functional, or at least semi-functional mosaic of ethnic, regional, and even linguistic diversity. As noted in the "introduction"...
National Economic Effects of Government's Immigration Policies In Canada A geographically big nation that has a comparatively little population, Canada has traditionally been able to observe immigration as an important tool of population and economic development. Over its history, nevertheless, immigration significances and approaches have changed meaningfully, from an open border tactic in Canada's initial history, to strategy that could be branded as openly discriminatory, to an economically absorbed style. This
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