A Multicultural Landscape and Multiculturalism of Canada: Implications for Korea

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.