Chapter 16: Ethnic and Race Relations

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Chapter 16Ethnic and Race Relations

• Identities, diversity, and
• group relations

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Reminders

• Course/instructor evaluation next week
• Require student volunteer.
• Next week Chapter 18 Population.
• Last class review, return essays.

REVENGE !
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Ethnicity, race, etc

• History of human kind constant blending and
• at same time
• conflict between different groups.

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Serbs lash out at Ottawa March 19, 2008

• OTTAWACanada's decision to recognize Kosovo's
  independence will set a dangerous precedent
  should Quebec sovereignists ever win a
  referendum, Serbia's ambassador to Canada warns.
• Dusan Batakovic, expressing his anger over
  Ottawa's controversial decision, said Canada has
  shown disrespect for Serbia's constitution, for
  United Nations resolutions and international law
  with its decision to back the breakaway republic,
  which unilaterally declared its independence from
  Serbia a month ago.
• By the end of the week, Batakovic will return to
  Belgrade as a sign of Serbia's displeasure with
  Ottawa.
• Batakovic said yesterday the Kosovo decision
  could come back to haunt Canada.
• "Imagine that Quebec, for instance, proclaims
  independence in the same way that Kosovo did,
  unilaterally. Would Ottawa then recognize Quebec
  as an independent country?" he asked. "How would
  it react if other countries, without notifying
  Ottawa, recognize an independent Quebec?"
• Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier,
  announcing Canada's position yesterday, said the
  strife that preceded Kosovo's separation from
  Serbia makes it a "unique case" with which Quebec
  sovereignists can draw no parallels..

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Current Issues of Ethnicity in Canada and the
World

• Canada
• Influence of immigration on economy, politics,
  and lifestyles
• Equal participation of all groups in the life of
  the country (?)
• Perpetuation of diversity or a new consensus?

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• Global upsurge of ethnic identification and
  conflict
• Contrary to the supposition that racial and
  ethnic distinctions would decline with
  modernization
• Marxism class would supercede ethnicity
• Industrial theorists occupational, professional,
  or educational status would replace ethnicity

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Defining Ethnicity

• Ethnicity the sets of social distinctions by
  which groups differentiate themselves from one
  another on the basis of presumed biological ties
• Common biological origin need not be real, but
  often is believed real.
• In general . ethnicityshared cultural heritage.

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• Although the symbolic markers that differentiate
  ethnic groups are usually cultural, and seldom
  biological (except for race), cultural
  distinctiveness is not sufficient to characterize
  a group as ethnic
• Symbolic markers language, religion, attachment
  to homeland, common history, ceremonies,
  traditions, etc.

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An ethnic group may be defined

• objectively (by group language, culture,
  customs, national origin, and ancestry), or
• subjectively (by the self-identification of
  group members).

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Defining Race

• Race is a group defined on the basis of perceived
  physical differences
• Biological markers are perceived as more
  important than symbolic markers

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• The classification of humans into races is now
  widely regarded as arbitrary from a biological
  viewpoint because actual genetic differences
  between racial groups are trivial.
• However, racial groups are real in a sociological
  sense insofar as people with different skin
  colour, etc., are commonly treated differently.

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• Race has social, not biological, significance
• Distinct and definite biological races do not
  exist
• Canada term visible minority is used, to avoid
  negative connotations of race

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Ethnic Communities, Groups, and Categories

• People differ in the degree of relevance that
  they attach to ethnicity
• Ethnic community
• Ethnic group
• Ethnic category

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• Ethnic community a set of ethnic institutions
  based on common interest and identity
• Ethnic group minor relevance, but members still
  act on ethnic interests
• Ethnic category an objective measure of ethnic
  origin, regardless of identification

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-compared to a majority group

• Minority group category of people distinguished
  by physical /or cultural differences,
• That a society sets apart and subordinates.

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Pluralistic Theories of Ethnicity

• Ethnic differences are natural and/or inevitable
• Sociobiology
• Primordialism
• Barth ethnic differences are caused by patterns
  of social interaction that generate ethnic group
  boundaries

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• Symbolic markers evolve over time they are not
  natural
• Membership implies shared criteria of evaluation
• Communication with non-members is restricted to
  areas of assumed common understanding
• Similar to emergent identity approach

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Remedial Theories of Ethnicity

• Ethnic differences are not inevitable
• Caused by class or cultural factors that inhibit
  economic rationality
• Split labour market (Bonacic) employers use
  ethnic distinctions to pay workers differentially
• Ethnic groups then fight over jobs

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What is this?

• Internal colonialism a dominant core and an
  ethnically defined periphery
• State policies influence ethnic relations and
  identification, and control ethnic group
  activities (Panitch)

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• Symbolic ethnicity (Gans) a resurgence in
  personal ethnic identification since the late
  1960s does not interfere with the similarity of
  peoples lives
• Assumption symbolic ethnicity does not produce
  social divisions

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• Popular in the US
• Canadian critique
• It does not reflect corporate character of many
  ethnic groups
• It neglects links between ethnicity and
  inequality

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• Pluralism
• A state in which racial ethnic minorities are
  distinct but have social parity.
• Assimilation
• Process by which minorities gradually adopt
  patterns of the dominant culture, become more
  similar to the dominant group.
• Segregation
• Physical social separation of categories of
  people.

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SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION TYPES OF ETHNIC AND
RACIAL GROUP RELATIONS
INTOLERANCE TOLERANCE
2. Expulsion The forcible removal of a
population from a territory claimed by another.
3. SlaveryOwnership of population by another.
4. Segregation Spatial and institutional
separation of races or ethnic groups.
5. Pluralism The retention of distinct racial
and ethnic cultures combined with equal access to
basic social resources.
6. AssimilationThe process by which a minority
group blends into the majority population and
eventually disappears as a distinct people in the
larger society.
1. GenocideThe intentional extermination of a
population defined as a race or a people.

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Canadian Research on Ethnicity

• Porter Canada is a vertical mosaic
• Immigrants retain their entrance status, which
  promotes ethnic community organization
• Guindon the self-segregation of the charter
  groups results in parallel societies
• Other ethnic groups also engage in institutional
  self-segregation
• Differences are preserved and fostered

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THE VERTICAL MOSAIC I

• In 1965, John Porter termed the stratification of
  ethnic and racial groups in Canada a vertical
  mosaic.
• Porter argued that the two charter groups
  English and French predominated in various
  Canadian elites.
• According to Porter, later arrivals faced limited
  upward mobility. They were caught in an ethnic
  mobility trap due to prejudice and
  discrimination, and because they lacked the
  cultural values and practices needed for success.

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THE VERTICAL MOSAIC REVISITED II
Canadian sociologists have debated the relevance
of the vertical mosaic today. Their research
shows

• Upward mobility is now the norm for
  once-underprivileged European-origin groups.
• Earnings and occupational distributions of
  visible-minority men and women born in Canada are
  comparable to those of the charter and
  European-origin groups.
• The vertical mosaic DOES exist for non-European
  immigrants.

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Quote from text, Pg 411

• An Italian coming to the US became an American,
  but an Italian coming to Canada became an Italian
  Canadian

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Patterns of Immigration to Canada and the US

• The US is seen as a nation of immigrants
• Large numbers of immigrants had an acknowledged
  crucial role in industrialization and
  modernization of the US
• The melting pot ideology
• Immigrants will discard old identities and become
  Americans
• Myth? More now?

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• In Canada, immigrants were seen as fulfilling an
  economic function
• They were not expected to alter the political
  balance, predetermined by the relationship
  between the charter groups

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Traditional Immigration to Canada

• Originally, immigration from Britain and Northern
  Europe was favoured
• After 1880, immigrants from Eastern Europe
  settled in farming regions in the West
• After 1900, Southern Europeans started
  immigrating as manual labourers

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• About 50 of immigrants who arrived from 190030
  returned home or moved to the US
• Why?
• After WWII, economic prosperity led to a
  significant demand for immigrant labour

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The New Immigration

• Since the late 1960s, the increasing number of
  immigrants are non-European, particularly Asian
• This results in the increased proportion of
  visible minorities in Canadian population
• Concentration of immigrants in urban centres

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• The size of immigration and concentration of
  immigrants perpetuate problems of integration
• Contribution to regionalization of Canada
• Difficulties for immigrants themselves in work
  and housing markets
• Probability of prejudice and racism

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Bilingualism

• Goal promotion of national unity
• Problem the issue of FrenchEnglish relations is
  defined as an issue of language
• Guindon official bilingualism has divided
  Canadians (!)
• Quebecois and Anglophones outside Quebec did not
  benefit from bilingualism
• Francophones outside Quebec and Anglophones in
  Quebec benefited

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• Breton bilingualism has raised the status of
  francophones outside Quebec
• This has unintentionally lowered the relative
  status of other groups

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Multiculturalism

• Goals tolerance among cultural groups and
  preservation of their values and traditions
• Unintended consequences divisions between
  Canadians and politicization of ethnic groups

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• Multiculturalism is inherently limited, because
  it is culturally defined
• The policy may be outdated
• 40 of population in the 2001 census identified
  themselves as Canadian
• Intermarriages are increasingly common

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Prejudice

• Prejudice is attitude
• Prejudice is prejudgment of an individual on the
  basis of a stereotype about group
  characteristics.
• Many Canadians hold positive prejudice toward
  charter groups and negative prejudice toward
  Native people, Blacks, and East Indians.

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Discrimination

• Discrimination a differential, usually unfair,
  treatment of an individual because of his/her
  membership in a group or category
• Institutional (structural) discrimination a part
  of an institutional structure which is not
  intended to be discriminatory
• Difficult to eliminate

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• Self-segregation may be seen as a form of
  systemic discrimination
• Self-segregation makes institutional
  discrimination both common and acceptable to
  Canadians

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Racism

• A belief that one racial group is superior to
  others
• Considers physical differences an index to
  psychic and social differences
• Overt racism
• e.g., white supremacy
• Racists can take advantage of institutional
  discrimination

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• Scientific racism an attempt to categorize
  groups along a evolutionary, intellectual, and
  moral continuum
• Races are caused by a differential rate of
  evolution
• Canadian racism northern climate makes people
  hard-working, self-reliant, and honest

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Does RACE affect intelligence?

• Phillipe Rushton, UWO, 1989 study
• In terms of intelligence, conformity, sexual
  restraint
• Asians Whites Blacks
• Re-examination
• Most differences attributed to race not the
  results of biology but rather social environment
  / history

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Discrimination in Canadian Society

• Immigrant face structural disadvantages upon
  entry into a new country
• They often lack knowledge of the language,
  customs and expectations, social networks, etc.
• Discrimination exists if these disadvantages are
  unevenly distributed or unevenly persistent
  across groups

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• Evidence of discrimination in Canada is
  inconsistent
• De Silva immigrants from East Asian and the
  Caribbean do not achieve income equality with the
  Canadian-born, as other immigrants do
• Li immigrant women and immigrant
  visible-minority men are at an income disadvantage

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• Income inequality of immigrants seems to result
  from recent time of arrival (i.e., structural
  disadvantages), rather than from overt
  discrimination

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• Immigrants with university degrees had income
  advantage over the Canadian average in 1981, but
  had a disadvantage by 1992
• Henry and Ginzbergs 1984 study showed
  discrimination against blacks in the job
  application process
• A replication in 1989 did not show this result

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• Occupational dissimilarity between most major
  ethnic groups and the rest of the labour force
  has been declining

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Brym book _ Chapter 4

• Hurricane Katrina the Myth of a Natural
  Disaster

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Two main points

• (1) for years, powerful/well-to-do made
  political/economic decisions that placed poor,
  black citizens at risk.
• (2) for equally long period of time,
  powerful/well-to-do resisted charging the
  American government with responsibility for
  ensuring the welfare of the citizenry as a whole.
• Neither God nor one man should be held
  responsible for the decisions neglect of entire
  social class.

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Source Sociology as a life or death issue.
Robert Brym (2008), pg 65.
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• Poplns some countries higher exposure to
  threat hurricanes,
• At same level of exposure, some countries
  experience relatively few deaths, others much
  higher,
• Countries with fewer deaths, take extensive
  precautions.
• See trend line

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• Collective will
• the circumstances surrounding Hurricane
  Katrina demonstrates that the government of the
  US has broken its contract with its citizens.
  Michael Ignatieff (2005)
• Note attacks on big government.