Final Essay/Take Home Exam: Question 1

Steven McCullough

301162176

Decembre 10th 2015

Introduction

This paper will address the question as to what policies different countries enact in order to address, be it to increase multiculturalism, or combat it, in the increasingly diverse nature of their populace. This paper will therefore examine the countries of Canada and Germany and how they have differed on their policy selection concerning the diversification of their populace, and as well as how they have enacted similar policies on the subject.

This paper is choosing to examine Germany in comparison to Canada because of the vast historical and cultural differences the two nations have from one another. Germany, until very recently, was reluctant to offer citizenship to those who were not born in Germany, and strived to maintain a German hegemony within its borders. Because of this, and because of Germany’s “status” as a nation representing a nationality, in the traditional sense of the word, i.e. Germans, it is not considered to be an immigrant nation. In comparison, this paper will also examine Canada’s policies, which is in many ways the counter-part to Germany on this topic. Canada came into existence because of immigration, primarily from the British Isles and France, before accepting increasingly varied nationalities and people. To this day, Canada is one of the worlds largest immigrant accepting nations, with approximately 20% of all Canadians being “foreign born”, or having been born elsewhere before immigrating to Canada as of 2011 (Canada, 2015). Following an analysis of each nations respective policies, the paper will conclude by briefly outlying the direct comparisons between the two countries. This paper will first examine the German case, and its relevant policies.

German Policies on Cultural and Ethnic Diversity

Germany, until 2005, did not consider itself an “immigrant nation”. While it has been a target for asylum seekers and economic migrants alike throughout the 20th century, and into the 21st, Germany maintained that it was a primarily German nation. Germany did, however, allow thousands of temporary workers to work in the country in the 1950s and 1960s, as Germany attempted to rebuild itself following the devastations of the Second World War. These workers were expected to leave when their time was allotted, however many chose to stay, and many of their descendants today are naturalized German citizens. While Germany may have been reluctant to accept too many new immigrants in decades past, the reversal of the German immigration system has lead to Germany having 16.3 million people with some degree of an immigrant background, comprising roughly 20% of the overall population. Furthermore, Germany has become one of the world’s largest immigrant nations, which has lead to it having to rebrand itself as an “official” immigrant nation(United Nations, 2006). However, this number can be interpreted to be slightly inflated, as Germany counts repatriated Germans from territory lost in the World Wars as immigration, despite many of them being ethnic Germans returning to the Fatherland.

Despite Germany’s relatively strict stance on immigration throughout the 20th century, it has always been a magnet for asylum seekers and economic migrants, undoubtedly because of its relative political stability, especially following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and its economic strength, which had remained a force to be reckoned with even during the Cold War, when the nation was divided in two by the allies and the Russians. During the 1990s, the wars in Yugoslavia forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee from their homeland, many of whom would go on to settle in Germany. Economic migrants also found Germany to be a great destination to work in. Some 1.9 million Turks lived in Germany as of 1994, comprising by far the largest foreign-born contingent in Germany at the time (Congress, 1995). Many of these ethnic Turks, particularly at this time, were the descendants of the original workers who moved to Germany following World War II. These foreigners, as they were referred to despite many of them being born in Germany, were not given citizenship until Germany retooled their entire immigration policy in 2005, and began to pursue a path of acceptance, and easing on the previously held ideals of German hegemony, even in Germany.

Germany, in drastically changing its attitude and policies on immigration, opened the door for millions more people to immigrate to Germany. That, coupled with the overarching policies of the European Union, which allows for free movement throughout most of the Union, and the right to work and live wherever a citizen of Europe wishes to, has meant that Germany, along with its economically strong neighbour France, has experienced a massive increase in the number of people immigrating. With the number of people immigrating increasing year to year, Germany, particularly under Chancellor Angela Merkel, has begun to promote integration policies as well (Germany, 2014). Because Germany has such a distinct language and culture, allowing immigrants access to tools to familiarize themselves with it has become a top priority. Unlike many traditional immigrant nations, such as the United States or Australia, or former colonial powers like Spain and France, Germany has few historical ties to the nations that it is receiving the most immigrants from. They come to Germany simply because of the safety and stability it offers, as well as the aforementioned strong and reliable economy. Because of this, however, the newly arrived immigrants often have little no to working knowledge of the German language, and have a vague at best knowledge of German customs and culture, which makes integrating them into the society at large a difficult and time consuming process. In fact, a large component of the citizenship process in Germany is attending courses on the German language and cultural norms, along with living in the country for 8 years(Landed, 2015). Even so, new citizens (unless they are also EU citizens) are required to surrender their previous citizenship and become truly German, an approach that guarantees the continuation of the German culture moving forward in an increasingly multicultural demographic. Thus, we see a clear example of how German policy has been designed to both accept the multicultural reality of its demographics, and yet also maintain its culturally Germanic heritage.

Canadian Policies on Cultural and Ethnic Diversity

The second country we will examine will be Canada, one of the traditional immigration countries in the world, along with the United States and Australia. While Canadian history is short, relative to world standards, as it only became a country in 1867, and did not truly become independent until 1931. However, throughout its entire history, because it is a “new world” country, Canada has been an immigrant country. Although its policies have changed drastically in terms of who was allowed to immigrate, or more specifically, who was not allowed-namely Chinese, Japanese, black Americans, black Africans, and other non-Europeans-the underlying goal has always been to improve Canada and grow through immigration. In the 1970s, under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Canada officially adopted a policy of multiculturalism, going so far as to have it entrenched in the constitution, making Canada, to this day, the only country with the ideals of multiculturalism a constitutional mandate. From 2002 onwards, Canada has averaged around 250,000 immigrants per year, which is almost 1% of Canada’s total population (Canada G. o., 2013). In fact, immigration has historically almost always exceeded the birth rate in Canada, making it the clear driving force for population increase in the country. With these high levels of immigration becoming a simple cultural norm, it has also become expected, and to this day Canada relies on high levels of immigration to continually grow its economy. Perhaps because of this, in the 1990s and beyond, and especially under the tenure of Prime Minster Stephen Harper, Canada has embraced an incredibly selective immigration policy. Preferring to only accept those individuals who are well educated, fluent in either French or English, and importantly, able to become employed shortly after arriving, Canada uses immigration as a well-sharpened economic tool, attempting to ensure it will always bring a net benefit to the country first, and the immigrants second. In many ways, Canada is able to use its relative geographical isolation to its advantage when it comes to accepting immigrants and refugees. Because Canada borders three oceans, and its only land border is with the United States, a country that continuously toughens its border security, Canada is able to quite literally select who is able to become citizens from a pool of applicants. Therefore it is not that surprising that Canada, following a period of support for idealistic multicultural policies, has decided to change course in some ways and take only those that benefit the country as a whole, and benefit the country immediately. Canada also benefits from its history in terms of its national languages. Because both English and French, two of the most widely spoken languages in the world, are Canada’s two national languages, the vast majority of potential immigrants are in some way competent in one or the other before they ever arrive. Canada furthers its stringent immigration policy by accepting mainly post-secondary educated individuals, from accepted universities from around the world.

What this allows Canada to do is “weed out” those that the immigration officials deem as undesirable. What this means has changed drastically over the years, however. In the late 19th and early 20th century, “undesirable” referred to anyone of Asian descent, and unquestionably racist immigration laws took hold for many decades. Following this, and with the fears that accompanied the Cold War, Communists, or indeed anyone seen as a threat to the democratic nature of Canada was deemed an “undesirable”, and explicitly, many immigrants from the Eastern block were met with a great deal of suspicion, for they represented the enemy in the eyes of many Canadians. In the modern era, the undesirables are potential terrorists, and to a lesser degree anyone who might compromise the Canadian economy, as perceived by the government (Economist, 2015). Currently, due to the influence the United States has over Canadian foreign policy, we fear the dangers posed by terrorist groups, mainly located in the Middle East. However, with the election of Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister in October of this year, there are clear signs that the winds of change are blowing, especially concerning Canada’s immigration and refugee policies. Trudeau immediately shifted Canada’s policies on Syrian refugees, pledging to accept some 25,000 by the end of 2016, a drastic increase over the number the former Prime Minister Stephen Harper had conceded to allow, which was 10,000 over a number of years. With this drastic change it would not be a far cry to assume that Canada can expect to see a number of legal changed in the standing immigration policies as well, perhaps harkening back to the days of Justin Trudeau’s father, Pierre, the architect of Canadian multiculturalism.

On the subject of integrating the immigrants into Canadian culture, Canadian immigrants enjoy a relatively easy time of things, because of the current highly selective process. Immigrants arriving usually have a firm grasp of the language, are highly educated and can be expected to have a relatively firm grasp on Canadian culture and norms, and will have the financial backing to not have to rely upon the State to survive. While Canada does utilize a test that all potential immigrants must pass, it is in no way strenuous, and is in many ways a simple final way of ensuring that all new citizens have the same cultural awareness that long time Canadians have as a virtue of cultural immersion. Lastly, because Canada has embraced a culture of multiculturalism for so long, accepting a continually changing ethnic demographic is in many ways a simple part of being Canadian. That is to say, Canadian culture is a meshwork of hundreds of different cultural norms that make up the overarching Canadian identity, something that is found in few other countries around the world.

A Comparison Between Germany and Canada

To summarize and conclude this paper, we return to the question at hand, namely how do Canada and Germany compare when dealing with the reality of a demographic that is continually becoming more multicultural, and diverse? In terms of immigration policy specifically, we must look at it both historically and contemporarily. Historically, Canada has, for the most part, always accepted a large amount of immigrants. While the ethnicities of the immigrants allowed to enter have changed drastically, Canada has embraced its status as an immigrant nation. Germany, comparatively, has been reluctant to become an immigrant nation. Germany was founded with the ideals of German hegemony, creating one nation for the German people, and for most of the 20th century it honoured those ideals. Following the conclusion of the Cold War, however, and into the contemporary comparison, we see that Germany has become radically different, and officially announced its status as an immigrant nation in 2005, and now accepts more immigrants per year than Canada, a nation built entirely by immigrants and their descendants. However, looking into the future, and perhaps as a direct result of the ongoing Syrian refugee crises, Canadian policies are becoming more liberal, and may very well begin to accept more refugees once more, whereas Germany has been inundated with almost a million desperate refugees in just the last two years, driving many of its citizens to embrace a much more conservative stance, and in many ways mirroring its neighbour France, who has seen a rise in ultra-conservative political rhetoric, creating a sentiment of xenophobia. Chancellor Angela Merkel, formerly a stalwart champion of allowing as many refugees as possible, has backed down recently, admitting that Germany is struggling under the strain of so many people in need of assistance. Canada, on the other hand, which has just begun the process of accepting refugees, has thus far maintained a high level of acceptance towards the newly arrived potential Canadians, although we may see this change in the coming years should Canada take in thousands more refugees than is currently forecasted.

Lastly, when comparing the two differing policies on integration, we see a much bigger difference. Due to a number of factors, Germany has a much more stringent and involved integration process than does Canada. However, as mentioned earlier, this is likely due to Germany not being a colonial power, thus meaning that German is not widely spoken in typically emigrating nations. By contrast, Canada, as a former colony of France and Great Britain, is able to enjoy two national languages that are widely spoken around the world, and make integration into the Canadian culture significantly easier than into a relatively foreign German culture. Germany also requires that potential immigrants stay and live in Germany far longer than Canada requires immigrants to stay in Canada, meaning that the perception is that it is simply easier to adapt to Canadian norms than its German counterpart.

To conclude, this paper has established that while both nations are relatively progressive in their immigration and integration policies concerning a shifting demographic, Canada remains a more traditionally “immigrant nation”, while Germany is still adapting to this new status.

Bibliography

Canada, G. o. (2013). Immigration: Facts and Figures.

Canada, S. (2015). Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity in Canada.

Congress, U. L. (1995). Immigration and Germany.

Economist, T. (2015). No Country for Old Men. The Economist .

Germany. (2014). Facts About Germany. Retrieved from

Landed, J. (2015). Retrieved 12 5, 2015, from

United Nations. (2006). International Migration 2006.