You might be interested to know how Canada views it's immigration and multicultural issues. Canadians, especially Torontonians, like to think of themselves as a cultural mosaic instead of their souther neighbor's cultural melting pot. To be fair, this really is limited to Toronto and a few other places in Canada, the prairies for instance are predominately white and native, and for some reason the cultural influence of native populations is talked about in very different terms then the cultural influence of immigrants.
Anyway, in opposition to the American theory of a "melting pot" where different cultures mix and assimilate to create an all American whole, in a mosaic all of the different cultures retain the individuality upon immigration and have their own immigrant community, all the while living in harmony with each other and the white Canadians who came up with the term.
In reality what this means is that, from the apartment where I'm writing this: little Korea is to the west of me, Little Italy to the south, Chinatown to the East, and the rich Jews live to the north. Me, I'm surrounded by poor students and well-to-do professors (don't know how this fits into the immigrant mosaic).
But really, all of this talk to a cultural mosaic is largely a code for "the ethnic food here is really good and varied." Just think, without going 3 blocks, I can get delicious sushi (made by Koreans), great Vietnamese (made by Chinese) and even Ethiopian (I think the owners might actually be from Ethiopia too!)
As for how the different pieces of the mosaic fit together, I can tell you a story*. The various cleaning and food services at my university are as expected performed by immigrants (to be fair, they are uninionized, so it's only bad for the students that work there and are not allowed in their union). The people that work there love it when students speak their language, the Russian speaking lady who cleaned the dorm I lived in still remembered my name and what I was studying when I visited the dorm 2 years after I moved out.
A friend of mine had immigrated to Canada from Serbia, and he would always chat with the Serbian lady who would serve food at the student cafeteria. By some fluke (jobs like these are often given through word of mouth), everyone who worked at this cafeteria besides her was Albanian (or a non-unionized student working part-time). So what did my friend and her chat about? Mostly she complained. The constant insults, the practical jokes played on her, the bad hours she would always get stiffed with. She'd often go home in tears. It seems that the Serbian and Albanian chinks in the cultural mosaic didn't want to fit together nicely. Who would have thought?
*A friend of mine was taking some fluffy humanities course, and he had to do a class presentation on Toronto's cultural mosaic and what it means. I convinced him to try to bring in this lady to talk interview her in front of the class about her work experiences, but unfortunately the professor was not as keen on this idea as my friend was.
Mosaic
Anyway, in opposition to the American theory of a "melting pot" where different cultures mix and assimilate to create an all American whole, in a mosaic all of the different cultures retain the individuality upon immigration and have their own immigrant community, all the while living in harmony with each other and the white Canadians who came up with the term.
In reality what this means is that, from the apartment where I'm writing this: little Korea is to the west of me, Little Italy to the south, Chinatown to the East, and the rich Jews live to the north. Me, I'm surrounded by poor students and well-to-do professors (don't know how this fits into the immigrant mosaic).
But really, all of this talk to a cultural mosaic is largely a code for "the ethnic food here is really good and varied." Just think, without going 3 blocks, I can get delicious sushi (made by Koreans), great Vietnamese (made by Chinese) and even Ethiopian (I think the owners might actually be from Ethiopia too!)
As for how the different pieces of the mosaic fit together, I can tell you a story*. The various cleaning and food services at my university are as expected performed by immigrants (to be fair, they are uninionized, so it's only bad for the students that work there and are not allowed in their union). The people that work there love it when students speak their language, the Russian speaking lady who cleaned the dorm I lived in still remembered my name and what I was studying when I visited the dorm 2 years after I moved out.
A friend of mine had immigrated to Canada from Serbia, and he would always chat with the Serbian lady who would serve food at the student cafeteria. By some fluke (jobs like these are often given through word of mouth), everyone who worked at this cafeteria besides her was Albanian (or a non-unionized student working part-time). So what did my friend and her chat about? Mostly she complained. The constant insults, the practical jokes played on her, the bad hours she would always get stiffed with. She'd often go home in tears. It seems that the Serbian and Albanian chinks in the cultural mosaic didn't want to fit together nicely. Who would have thought?
*A friend of mine was taking some fluffy humanities course, and he had to do a class presentation on Toronto's cultural mosaic and what it means. I convinced him to try to bring in this lady to talk interview her in front of the class about her work experiences, but unfortunately the professor was not as keen on this idea as my friend was.