Which of the following statements is true Ethnic diversity is starting to level off in Canada

Which of the following statements is true Ethnic diversity is starting to level off in Canada

More innovative, more profitable ... greater diversity isn't just a moral imperative. Image: REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi

Stay up to date:

Workforce and Employment

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

More on Workforce and EmploymentSee all

Abstract

In recent years, Canadian schools have developed new policies and practices in their approaches to both diversity policy and curriculum development. Public schools once intended to homogenize a diverse population have been transformed to institutions designed to foster tolerance and respect for diversity. Curricula previously organized around subject content are now framed as standards for student achievement. This article traces the development of contemporary curriculum standards with regard to diversity and examines those standards in the context of a study of grade 7 students' understanding of diversity in New Brunswick. It presents evidence to suggest students are falling far short of expectations outlined in standards documents. While the sparse and fragmentary nature of student understanding should be of concern, this article also identifies key areas of concern about the development and implementation of the standards themselves. We argue that expecting teachers to teach toward, and students to attain, the standards might be unreasonable in light of these concerns.

Journal Information

Curriculum Inquiry is dedicated to the study of educational research, development, evaluation, and theory. This leading international journal brings together influential academics and researchers from a variety of disciplines around the world to provide expert commentary and lively debate. Articles explore important ideas, issues, trends, and problems in education, and each issue also includes provocative and critically analytical editorials covering topics such as curriculum development, educational policy, and teacher education.

Publisher Information

Building on two centuries' experience, Taylor & Francis has grown rapidlyover the last two decades to become a leading international academic publisher.The Group publishes over 800 journals and over 1,800 new books each year, coveringa wide variety of subject areas and incorporating the journal imprints of Routledge,Carfax, Spon Press, Psychology Press, Martin Dunitz, and Taylor & Francis.Taylor & Francis is fully committed to the publication and dissemination of scholarly information of the highest quality, and today this remains the primary goal.

Rights & Usage

This item is part of a JSTOR Collection.
For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions
Curriculum Inquiry © 2008 Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Request Permissions

Which of the following statements is true Ethnic diversity is starting to level off in Canada
View the most recent version.

Archived Content

Information identified as archived is provided for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It is not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards and has not been altered or updated since it was archived. Please "contact us" to request a format other than those available.

Archived

This page has been archived on the Web.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]11-402-x[an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive]

According to demographic projections, the ethnocultural diversity of Canada's population will increase greatly by 2031. The vast majority (96%) of Canadians belonging to a visible minority group will likely live in one of the 33 census metropolitan areas, and visible minority groups could comprise 63% of the population of Toronto, 59% of Vancouver and 31% of Montréal.

Canada's increasing visible minority population is not the only aspect of diversity projected to change. Other aspects of diversity include foreign-born, generation status, mother tongue and religious denomination.

Diversity growing

According to demographic projections, the proportion of foreign-born people in the population could increase from 20% in 2006 to between 25% and 28% by 2031. Just over half (55%) could be born in Asia.

The proportion of foreign-born in the population could increase together with immigration levels. From 1991 to 2006, the average annual number of immigrants to Canada was 229,000, making the years 1991 to 2006 one of the longest uninterrupted periods of strong immigration since 1871. Over the same period, the proportion of foreign-born in the population increased from 16.1% to 19.8%. In contrast, over a 40-year period from 1951 to 1991, the proportion of foreign-born in the population rose from 14.7% to 16.1%.

From 2006 to 2031, the foreign-born population of Canada could increase four times faster than the rest of the population. The number of foreign-born Canadians could total between 9.8 and 12.5 million, depending on immigration levels. By 2031, nearly half (46%) of Canadians aged 15 and older could be foreign-born, or could have at least one foreign-born parent, up from 39% in 2006.

Diversity will grow among the Canadian-born population in coming generations regardless of future immigration, since the children and grandchildren of immigrants will add to Canada's diversity.

Doubling of visible minority population

By 2031, if current demographic trends continue, 47% of the second generation (the Canadian-born children of immigrants) will belong to a visible minority group, nearly double the proportion of 24% in 2006. The proportion of the third generation (the Canadian-born children of the Canadian-born children of immigrants) or later generations belonging to a visible minority group, although low, will triple from 1% to 3%.

By 2031, 29% to 32% of Canada's population—between 11.4 and 14.4 million people—could belong to a visible minority group, which is nearly double the proportion (16%) and more than double the number (5.3 million) reported in 2006. In contrast, the rest of the population is projected to increase by up to 12%. Sustained immigration, slightly higher fertility and a young population will bolster the visible minority population's growth.

South Asians—the largest visible minority group—could represent 28% of the visible minority population by 2031, up from 25% in 2006, whereas the share of Chinese could decline from 24% to 21%. Chinese women have one of the lowest fertility rates in Canada, unlike South Asian women. Also, people born in China are more likely than South Asians to emigrate from Canada.

Canada's Black and Filipino populations, which were the third- and fourth-largest visible minority groups in 2006, could double in size by 2031. The Arab and West Asian groups could more than triple—the fastest population growth among all groups.

More allophones, increasing religious diversity

Allophones (people whose mother tongue is neither English nor French) accounted for less than 10% of Canada's population in 1981. By 2006, that proportion had risen to 20%; augmented by immigration, it could reach 29% to 32% by 2031. In other words, the number of allophones could rise 7 to 11 times faster than the rest of the population, to total between 11.4 and 14.3 million people.

Diversity is also increasing in terms of religious denomination. The number of people having a non-Christian religion is expected to almost double from 8% of the population in 2006 to 14% by 2031; about half of the non-Christian population would be Muslim, up from 35% in 2006. The proportion of the population with a Christian religion could decline from 75% to about 65%. The share with no religion could rise from 17% to 21%.

Which of the following statements is true Ethnic diversity is starting to level off in Canada

View data source for chart 13.1

What is Canada known for diversity?

Canada is a multicultural country. Canadians come from a vast range of nations, races, religions and heritage. This multicultural diversity comes from centuries of immigration. As a result, a diverse population is now one of the distinctive features of Canadian society.

How is diversity shown in Canada?

Canada's demographic composition is ethnically heterogeneous, in the sense that its citizens have come from many countries of origin and cultural backgrounds. One customary way to depict cultural diversity in Canada is describe it in terms of the population size of those not belonging to the two charter groups.