Du multiculturalisme à la « crise de l’intégration »: regards croisés entre le Canada et la Grande-Bretagne

From the late 1970s and early 1980s onwards, the notion of multiculturalism, born as a public policy guideline in Canada in 1971, was imported in Great Britain and adapted to the British social and political context. Since this initial transfer, ideas and notions on immigrant integration have continued to flow between the two countries. This article explores aspects of these exchanges. The first criticisms of multiculturalism also extended to Britain after appearing first in Canada, focusing in each country on the excessively simplifying vision of individual identities, reduced to schematic and archaic group identities. Similarly, the concepts of social cohesion, social capital, or “civic multiculturalism” based on citizenship and shared values have deeply influenced British policies in the last decade after having first shaped federal policies in 1990s Canada. Despite these repeated Canadian influences, Great Britain has remained on a specific political trajectory, reflecting its European dimension. Beyond the criticisms and evolutions of multiculturalism imported from Canada, Britain has also undergone what can be termed a “crisis” of multiculturalism, with multiculturalist policies being viewed as having contributed directly to residential and school segregation, ethnic separatism and Islamic radicalism. Although the Canadian situation continues to contrast with this crisis, some Canadian commentators fear a “contagion” of European-style crises towards their shores.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC

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