Mobilities and Capacities for Living Cosmopolitan Identifications beyond Multiculturalism

1. Mobilities and Capacities for Living Cosmopolitan Identifications beyond Multiculturalism Voices of Youth and Francophone Migrants in Minority Contexts

2. An event of the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre (ACLRC), U Calgary, and partners: European Academy (EURAC), Bolzano-Bozen, Italy & Consortium for Peace Studies (CPS), U Calgary • Multiculturalism or Interculturalism?What are the Implications for Albertans and Canadians? • November 10-11, 2011, Calgary • Presentation by Dr. Yvonne Hébert, Professor, U Calgary

3. Presentation Plan • Policy Contexts • Theoretical Framework • Deeper analysis of several data sets • Results • Implications for Social Policy

4. Policy Contexts • Four types of multiculturalism: • Multi as ideology (prescriptive) • Multi as sociological fact (description) • Multi as set of intergroup dynamics (process) • Multi as policy (political perspective) • Canadian Multiculturalism: policy, law

5. Multicultural Rights • Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: Clause 27 on multicultural heritage: “This Charter shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with thepreservation and enhancementof the multicultural heritage of Canadians.” • Critique: Static clause, little support for variability, fluidity, productivity, viability • Need to rethink policies for far more complex realities…

6. Multiplicities • Instant global communication & ease of travel • Multiple attachments & extensive knowledge of the world • Students learn to accept & respect one another • Challenges remain: credentialing issue; academic achievement and integration of children of immigrant origins • Canada is not keeping pace…

7. Challenges of Lived Experiences • Racial gap in labour market: racialized Canadians • Experience higher levels of unemployment, • Earn less that non-racialized Canadian, • More likely to live in poverty, • More willing to work. • Comparisons between immigrants vs. native-born Canadians, in media and studies, create unfairly negative portraits • Human rights insufficient guarantees against exclusions in daily life

8. Theoretical Framework

9. Exploration of Four Concepts • Transculturalism • Glocal Spaces • Mobility of Mind, Body & Boundary • Cosmopolitanism

10. Defining Transculturation and GlocalSpaces • Transculturation= phenomena of converging & merging cultures, creating something new, thus in its new uses, takes on an emphasis on creativity & performativity that links past & present • Glocal Spaces = a local micro-space comprising spatial expressions and contextual symbols of globalisation

11. Defining Three Mobilities • Mobility of MIND =ability to imagine oneself as an other, as living in another place or time, being comfortable with multiple identifications; able to recognize, in their local surroundings, symbols which have international, transcultural and or global reference • Mobility of BODY for youth, especially second generation youth = an awareness of parents’ journeys as well as their own journey of moving across cultural and other spaces of interaction, developing complex attachment and identification in youth specific and friendly places • Mobility of BOUNDARIES for youth = recognizes moving across and beyond linguistic, cultural, religious, ethnic, racial spaces of interaction and boundaries, to take up new belongings in transcultural modes.

12. Cosmopolitanism: Four major theoretical approaches • Global ethical theory • Global political theory • Cultural theory of global community • Sociological theory

13. Defining Cosmopolitan Approaches • Conceptualising cosmopolitan subjectivities as capacities rests upon • complex understandings of all humans as being of equal moral standing, • with responsibilities extended to all the peoples of the world, and • commitments to express these through political action in the context of institutions with a global reach aligned towards equality, respect and recognition

14. Deeper Analyses for Greater Understanding

15. Three Data Sets • G2 Youth: Toronto, Winnipeg & Calgary • Graduates of Francophone Secondary Schools in a Minority Context, enrolled in an Anglophone University • Francophone Migrants in a Minority Context, an Anglophone City in Western Canada • Creating broad & detailed portraits of new realities for greater understanding

16. Mobility of Mind, Body & Boundaries

17. Locality & Youth: Example 1 • When I visit my family in Ontario, I feel like I’m ‘home’ again. (Life Story, Chiquita, F, Mexican-Mennonite, Christian, C) • This is the place where I might be graduating and the love I have for some people that work for the school community... I wanted to make sure that you can see the cross and I kinda feel that that’s the prettiest part of our school that we have ’cause everything else is just either mangled, full of people or ugly itself because of spray paint or markers and crap like that. (Interview, Blue Flag Baron, M, Spanish, RC, T) • I like my house. There are a lot of memories in my house, like family gatherings there – and friends come over. It is a good place for me because I like it. Good times, yeah, like having a bbq with my family there. I also like being with friends in my school and going to class. (Interview, 4Lyfe, M, Portuguese, Christian, T)

18. Locality & Youth: Example 2 This is my room at my Grand mom’s house. It is where I sleep at my grandma’s house, very pink, welcoming. I do my homework and study here. My grand mom teaches me life lessons or wisdom (Photoscape, Unicorn, F, Jamaican/Antiguan/Canadian, RC, W)

19. Youth’s Mobility of MindExample 1 A multi-coloured floral lei is “the best way to express myself as a cultural individual living with so many different ethnicities in Canada” (Cultural Collage in shape of shoebox, Rubber Duckie, F, Filipina, RC, W)

20. Youth Mobility of MindExample 2 • This place, I just do nothing and just think of the problems of the worlds (Photo of front of school, Photoscape, Capt Crack, M, White/Redneck/Blackfoot, & sometimes Romanian)

21. Mobility of Mind: Example 3 “This place is important to me because it is one of the first popular Filipino restaurants in my neighbourhood. I have a lot of good memories here. This photo represents good friends and my culture.” Image 11: Photoscape (Rubber Duckie, F, Filipina, RC, W)

22. Mobility of Body, Examples 1 & 2 • “I have traveled to the Desert… I love it and feel relaxed. I could hope for knowledge or enlightenment, but I don’t really expect anything” (Urban mapping, Gonzo, M, Canadian, C) • “Where I live, I am very relaxed and the places that I have traveled (to), I am filled with energy and ready to go exploring” (My life story, Unicorn, F, Jamaican/Antiguan/ Canadian, RC, W)

23. Mobility of Body, Example 3 • “I like the fact that I am Portuguese and I like to watch and play soccer. At 17, I am more mature and responsible in Portugal. I love listening and dancing to Portuguese music. I spend time and have fun.” (4Lyfe, M, Christian, To)

24. Mobility of Boundaries: Example 1 • I am proud to be Canadian because it accepts me in its country, especially since I am not from here. It accepted me for being Lebanese(LueRue, F, Syrian, Christian, C)

25. Mobility of Boundaries:Example 2 • “My computer in my bedroom is important ‘cause internet makes everything accessible… • Referring to Lebanon/Syria/Middle East: “I think that the whole area is one and it will always be one, no matter whatever is going on… we will always be one language, same culture, same people, like I can say, I am Lebanese, I am Syrian, I am Jordanian, because they are all my people, they are all one” (LueRue, F, Syrian, Christian, C)

26. Mobility of Boundaries Example 3 “I found it interesting, the old culture clashing with the new culture” in referring to petroglyphs in US national park juxtaposed with modern media images (Capt Crack, M, White/ Redneck/ Blackfoot/+Romanian, no religion, C)

27. Mobility of Boundaries: Example 4 • I’m in favour of multiculturalism because we are all multiculturals. My parents were immigrants and I wouldn’t be here if they didn’t immigrate and I like how we are all difference – something interesting”(Gelato, M,Italian,RC,T)

28. Mobility of Boundaries: Example 5 “yeah, well, my Indian friend showed me there, and just, I don’t usually get anything from there, it’s just ‘cuzhe goes there and it showed like – it just goes to show – and then beside it there are different cultures. There’s like an Italian store down the street and a Portuguese store and it just shows all the different cultures”(Gelato, M, RC, To)

29. Mobility of Boundaries:Example 6 • “At my school, no one cares what colour skin you are, or what religion you are. When I met my friends, that’s not the question I asked them or they asked me. If you’re going for a job, I don’t think people look at skin colour here ’cause everyone’s from a different culture, a different country, no one here is original Canadian, so no one is original Canadian, very few people, so... (Mina, F, Sri Lankan, RC, T)

30. Façade of Globalisation: Beneath is Uneasiness… • Shy and uncertain, Malcolm X is uncomfortable, quiet and lonely in new places... • His friends provide him with a level of comfort and acceptance as they engage in many activities. Full of self-doubt, he shops infrequently, centers his activities on his home area, where he lives, where his friends live, where he attends school… • He writes of Canada’s role in environmental issues as needing to protect its own environment and to act as role model for the rest of the world (Interviews & Written Responses, Malcolm X, M, Filipino, RC, W)

31. Façade of Globalisation: Racism & Media “…multiculturalism is great, but even if you educate them, there will always be someone who will teach their children to fear and hate. And it will be forever, we will never be a non-racist world…” “There is no culture, it is all media and corporations vying for business. Religions don’t really contribute to culture anymore. Everybody is following the same culture which is advertisements…. Jewellery is hip hop’s hold on culture… and you are defined by what kind of car you drive… • (Interviews, Capt Crack, M, White/Redneck/Blackfoot, no religion, C)

32. “I feel glamour and happy, sophisticated clothing shop, I consider it to be ‘my’ store.” When I shop for jewellery, “I feel like I am on clouds, a breathless scene” (In her Photoscape, she lists 11 different stores; Educ 07, F Filipina, RC, W) Façade of Globalisation: The Shoppers

33. Unicorn shops for clothes five times a month. Her cultural collage shows three computers, two cell phones, nine items of jewellery, six games, chocolate bars, as well as fashionable women and men. (Unicorn, F, Jamaican/Antiguan/Canadian, RC, W) Façade of Globalisation: The Shoppers

34. Façade of Globalisation:Angst of Second Generation… • Uncertainty about which country is hers, Canada or Vietnam which she has never visited (Interview, Barbie, F, C) • “When I visit my family in Ontario, I feel like I’m home again. Well, I went to Mexico and felt shy because I did not know my cousins. When I went to France, I was so happy because I love it there. When I first moved to Calgary, I felt scared and nervous (Life Story, Chiquita, F, C) • Others feel like tourists and foreigners in other countries despite extensive travel and prefer places close to home • Some do not revel in adventure or change, do not know what to expect in new situations and feel uncomfortable…

35. Interpretations • Second generation youth… • Have strong attachments to home & schools • Can for the most part, imagine themselves as Canadians and see themselves on a journey of life, moving within youth-specific and youth-friendly places • Are able to think, imagine and try out cultural identifications as part of integration process; • Mobility of body and boundaries, more difficult • Take up the role of shopper with gusto • May be critical of globalisation and multiculturalism

36. Cosmopolitan Capacities

37. Capacity of openness, of moral obligation towards an Other • Obligation to family members in countries of origin • Provision of support to new arrivals, community members and identified needs • Awareness of positioning of self within Francophonie as full-fledged citizen, meritorious of linguistic, cultural, socio-educational rights • Awareness of need to better understand one another in order to live well together

38. Capacity for relational attachment to locality of origin or another • Gradual nature of localisation • Learning stories of places, locations & processes of community life in new environments • Getting to know & attaching to local institutions, events, places • Developing social networks locally and maintaining global connections • Integrative processes continue over generation • Developing positive relational attachments to markers of localisation

39. Capacity of recognition of the relativity of one’s milieu, culture or identity • Processes of negotiating transcultural worlds brings realisation that one could live elsewhere • Search for broader horizons, new ideas & ways of becoming • Need for strong leadership for political change for attention to linguistic policy and practices in cities and regions other than Québec • For migrants, cultural maintenance in diaspora • Blending of local, former & new cultures • Open to other practices & positionings for greater meaning of lives

40. Capacity to integrate into a new milieu • Acceptance of different cultures and values, feeling good in strange circumstances • Learning how to live comfortably with multiple attachments, how to be effective, to be well grounded in local/global environments • Process of transcultural creativity sits at heart of process of integration in new society • Exquisitely difficult barriers : lg fluency; non-recognition of credentials; racial wage gap

41. Capacity to interconnect, establish & maintain mutual relationships • Sentiments of belonging to origins & as new Canadians: • Love & knowledge of one’s origins • Openness, adaptation & independence with a panoply of belongings • Public valuing of good image & values of one’s good image of country or region of origin • Resistance to negative images and discourses • Will to retain cultural & linguistic events, to weave transcultural identifications in transparent process of creativity • Possibilities of being better understood All this articulated through cultural markers...

42. Capacity of living between two entities or in multiplicity • Developing relational & positional agility • Requirement for considerable flexibility of mind • Positive benefits of societal diversity, favourable to intercommunity, international relations • Opening to living in diasporas, in duality, in multiplicity • Interactive relations involving de-ethnicisation, de-localisation, de-colonialisation in society and in politics of daily life

43. Strengths of Cosmopolitanism • Capable of representing complex repertoires of allegiance, identity and interest • Capable of interpreting interactive processes of • de-nationalisation & re-nationalisation, • de-ethnicisation & re-ethnicisation, • de-localisation & re-localisation in societies and policies • Capable of conceptualising ideas & data of intertwined transnational constellations as multiplicity of global phenomena

44. Social Policy Implications

45. Social Policy Implications: Second Generation • Political and national identifications secure • Multiple cultural identifications may be difficult to manage and balance • Travel to other cities & countries not sufficient to reflect upon the experience and to develop a balanced view of life • Many see Canadian identity as that of a prolific & frequent consumer which becomes their core identification • Even with adult support, this is a larger problem than second generation youth

46. Advantages of Cosmopolitan Approach • Rest upon complex understandings of equal moral standings, of civic, political, economic, geographical, social and political commitments to all humans in the world • Given situated analysis, necessary to consider real space, connections, imaginaries inherent in cosmopolitan experiences • Perspectives go well beyond boundaries & bondages of nation-state & of permissive multiculturalism • Subtle, sophisticated understandings of our era’s key question: How shall we live together?

47. Moving Beyond Multiculturalism Policy: Four Criteria • Interactivity • Fluidity/variability • Productivity • Viability

48. Interactivity • Relational & positional subtleties merge well with awareness of living in duality & multiplicity • Feeling of belonging to a larger world better represents & analyzes the experiences & views of the participants • Appreciation of cultural markers part of establishment & maintenance of mutual relationships, of interconnections with similar persons

49. Fluidity and Variability • Travels of youth not the same as migration of people from many countries, from city to city • Reconstitution of everyday life & its profound meanings far from easy • Establishment of local ties while maintaining international networks of connections & exchanges • Uncertainties of integrative processes within a multicultural bilingual society

50. Productivity • ‘Art of living in multiplicity’ possible for those in minority contexts and those who migrate there • Importance of localisation • Necessity of a critical cosmopolitanism, raising relativity of choices for a subsequent life • Necessity of collaborative horizontal governance at all levels, given world-wide uncertainty, highly interdependent states • Important to weave new universal motifs with local issues, finely etched in detailed human experiences, needs and hopes