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Canada became the first country in the world to adopt multiculturalism as official state policy in 1971. Since then, Canada has been looked upon with admiration by leaders in many parts of the world for being one of the most successful pluralist societies in the world. In grappling with the growing ethnic diversity in South Korea, government officials and scholars alike have looked to Canada as a potential model for the country to emulate. This is how the concept of multiculturalism naturally became a keyword of contemporary Korean society. The problem is, however, the term has often been misused and misunderstood. The biggest problem has been the failure to distinguish between multicultural society as a fact, i.e., ethnic diversity in Korean society, and multiculturalism as a policy and ideology. In particular, the latter has been used without an adequate understanding of the multiplicity of its meanings, complexity and implications. This paper aims to redress this problem by attempting to better understand multiculturalism by examining its philosophy and policy in Canada. The paper analyzes Canadian multiculturalism from multidimensional approaches and discusses the applicability of the concept in the Korean context.
Key Words: Canada, Korea, Canadian Multiculturalism, Ethnic Diversity, Multicultural Society, Multicultural Policy, Immigration
I. Introduction
Most contemporary nation states are multiethnic. Fieras and Elliott (2007) point out that nearly half of the worlds' nation states contain five or more ethnic groups in significant numbers. Moreover, in 30 of these states, the dominant group does not make up the majority of the population. As such, these multiethnic states have had to deal with challenges about governance, power sharing and sovereignty. For Canada, the recent demograpriic shift has intensified pressures to rethink how to live together with differences. As such, Canada's commitment to diversity has profoundly impacted the society-building process in Canada over the past 40 years. This commitment has forced Canada in creating a culturally plural yet socially inclusive society without compromising national interests (Ibid.).
South Korea (henceforth Korea) is not as ethnically diverse as Canada but is rapidly becoming one (Kim, 2009). The number of foreigners in Korea this year reached 1.2 million, accounting for about 2.4 percent of the total population. The proportion of foreign-born residents in Korea is not as high as...