Dilemmas of Multiculturalism (original) (raw)

Multiculturalism in a Global Society Minority Rights and Justice

Multiculturalism ensures that all citizens can keep their identities, can take pride in their ancestry and have a sense of belonging. Multiculturalism is a social doctrine that distinguishes itself as a positive alternative for policies of assimilation, connoting a politics of recognition of the citizenship rights and cultural identities of ethnic minority groups and an affirmation of the value of cultural diversity. The extent of culture maintenance by ethnic minority groups and their adaptation to majority group culture are two issues central to everyday thinking about multiculturalism. Much of the recent debate about multiculturalism and minority rights in western political theory has conceptualized the issues in terms of two alternatives -states could either adopt procedural liberalism and equal rights or a politics of difference. In every society the state plays a vital role in fostering a sense of justice and common belonging.

11.Multiculturalism in a Global Society Minority Rights and Justice

Multiculturalism ensures that all citizens can keep their identities, can take pride in their ancestry and have a sense of belonging. Multiculturalism is a social doctrine that distinguishes itself as a positive alternative for policies of assimilation, connoting a politics of recognition of the citizenship rights and cultural identities of ethnic minority groups and an affirmation of the value of cultural diversity. The extent of culture maintenance by ethnic minority groups and their adaptation to majority group culture are two issues central to everyday thinking about multiculturalism. Much of the recent debate about multiculturalism and minority rights in western political theory has conceptualized the issues in terms of two alternatives -states could either adopt procedural liberalism and equal rights or a politics of difference. In every society the state plays a vital role in fostering a sense of justice and common belonging.

MINORITY RIGHTS FOR IMMIGRANTS: FROM MULTICULTURALISM TO CIVIC PARTICIPATION

Mexican Law Review, 2017

Abstract: This article asserts that according to international law, immigrants do have rights as a minority, and in abiding by their international obligations, States are obligated to implement policies that safeguard these rights and, in this way, facilitate the integration of immigrants into the host society. However , there are a number of elements that make the practical enforcement of these rights and the implementation of such policies rather complex. Thus, a series of international law provisions are first reviewed so as to be able to establish the foundations of our views. Secondly, we summarize and analyze the main trends of integration policies in three of the main Western immigration countries: Canada, the United States and the Netherlands, in order to broadly present the actions and results. Lastly, we conclude that immigrant integration projects fail to respect immigrants' rights as a minority and that more effort should be made to comply with the international obligations States have assumed Resumen: Este artículo sostiene que, de acuerdo con el derecho internacional, los inmigrantes tienen derechos como minoría, y que los Estados, de conformi-dad con sus obligaciones internacionales, están obligados a implementar políti-cas que aseguren estos derechos y, en este sentido, faciliten su integración en las sociedades de acogida. Sin embargo, hay un número de elementos que hacen que el cumplimiento práctico de estos derechos y la aplicación de dichas políticas sea compleja. Entonces, primero, se revisa una serie de disposiciones de derecho internacional con el fin de establecer las bases para apoyar nuestras posturas. Segundo, resumimos y analizamos las principales tendencias en las políticas de integración de tres de los países occidentales más importantes de inmigración: Canadá, Estados Unidos y Países Bajos, con el fin de presentar grosso modo las acciones y los resultados. Finalmente, concluimos que los proyectos de in-tegración de los inmigrantes fallan en respetar los derechos de los inmigrantes como minoría y que se deben realizar mayores esfuerzos con el fin de cumplir con las obligaciones internacionales que los Estados han adquirido.

Ethnicized citizenship as illegitimate citizenship

2017

This thesis tackles the commonly overlooked issue of ethnic groups that have suffered a delegetimization of their citizenship. They are not considered as the ideal citizens of a nation-state because they do not conform ethnically to the definition of the nation. Citizenship emerges with the formation of the nation-state in a modern world system characterized by a still operating coloniality. The legitimacy of this global colonial idea of nation-state was based on the cultural concept of a nation; an illusion of a homogenous shared past, customs and language where differences were suppressed. This is the common pattern of nation-state formation and the rise of the idea of a legitimate citizen. Illegitimate citizenship is another way of naming a colonial citizenship inserted in a Eurocentric patriarchal/white and Christian-centered world-system. Citizenship is a concept referring to individuals, however, and when it is racialized or ethnicized, the individuality of the person is taken away. The racialized citizen, the illegitimate citizen is always described as part of a group; the "immigrants", the "Muslims", the "indigenous", the "northeastern Indians". They are never described as an autonomous individual subject. This individuality is reserved for white European or Europeandescendant people and has been coined as "white privilege". This research describes how illegitimate citizenship empirically operates in a very similar way in two ethnic groups within two different countries that have in common a colonial subordinated position in the world system. Therefore, Mapuches in Chile and Northeastern Indians suffer a double colonization in two different scales; one regarding the position of Chile and India in the world-system and one regarding their own position within the nation-state.

Liberal Multiculturalism as a Political Theory of State-Minority Relations (2018)

Political Theory Vol. 46/1: 81-91., 2018

Alan Patten and I both defend a liberal egalitarian form of multiculturalism, and so we share a number of premises. As multiculturalists, we share a belief that individuals have legitimate interests in their culture, language, and identity and that public institutions must fairly take those interests into account. As liberal egalitarians, we share a belief that when specifying those interests, and fairly taking them into account, we must do so in a way that respects individual autonomy and responsibility. Individuals must be free to form and revise their conception of the good, and are responsible for those choices. This in turn means that liberal multiculturalism rests on a moral division of labour. The state is responsible for ensuring fair background conditions, including institutional conditions relating to the public recognition of language and culture, but individuals are free to make choices from that background, and are responsible for considering the prospective costs and benefits of their choices. Liberal multiculturalism is, therefore, focused on the provision of fair opportunities to freely pursue culture-related interests rather than the imposition of duties to maintain any particular identity or way of life.