Multiculturalism In Canada Essay

According to the OECD (2006, as cited in Kymlicka, 2008), children of immigrants perform better in schools than children of non-immigrants. Moreover, in 2006, 17% of the total university graduates were members of a visible minority group (Dib & Turcotte, 2008). This fact also contributes to the Canadian economy, since more international students are choosing Canada as a destination for their studies. There were more than 153,000 international students in 2004, spending $25,000 per person only in school-related expenses, making the total of $3.8 billion a year (Dib & Turcotte, 2008). The multiculturalism policy has contributed to the growing intermarriage rates. There has been a growth in the trend of marriages among different ethnicities, races, and religions. Statistics Canada 2001 census reported that there was an increase of 35% of mixed unions from 1991 to 2001 and this number represents 3.1% of the total unions in Canada. This trend is more common in
Compared to any other Western country citizens, Canadians are more likely to view immigrants as essential to their identity. Most Canadians are proud of the diversity in the country and proof of this is the increased support for multiculturalism from 74% in 1997 to 85% in 2003 (Kymlicka, 2008). As a result of this acceptance, Canadians respect other religions more than people in other countries. For example, surveys of Focus Canada in 2006 showed that 83% of Canadians agree that Muslims do not represent a threat for the safety of the general population, but that they contribute positively to the Canadian society (Kymlicka, 2008). In addition, there are more interactions between visible minorities and native-born Canadians through activities, such as sports, music, and dance. In 2001, there were 11,700 artists from minority backgrounds, this number increased by 74% from 1991 (Dib & Turcotte,