Naturalization Policies, Education and Citizenship, Edited by Dina Kiwan 96 Redefining Citizenship in Canada of Transnationalism
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5 Descent, Territory and Common Values: Redefining Citizenship in Canada Elke Winter Introduction1 Integrating the expression of ethnic diversity within the homogenizing logic of the nation state is a complex process. For many years, Canadian multicultural citizenship was portrayed as a role model for other coun- tries in this regard (Runnymede Trust: Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain, 2000; Kymlicka and Opalski, 2001). Recently, how- ever, earlier steps towards the liberalization and multiculturalization of immigrant integration policies have been abandoned in many coun- tries (Vertovec and Wessendorf, 2009). Several European states have introduced new citizenship tests that measure immigrants’ adequate skill of a national language, civic knowledge and value compatibility. Canada, too, has recently redressed the boundaries of its citizenship with respect to both legal status and identity. While, comparatively speaking, multiculturalism remains a staple of Canadian citizenship, ‘multicultiphobia’ (Ryan, 2010) – which had been superseded by fears of Québécois separatism in the second half of the 1990s (Winter, 2011) – has an increasing impact on what it means to be a Canadian citizen in the new century. This chapter traces changes in Canadian citizenship from the incep- Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to University of Ottawa - PalgraveConnect - 2013-10-10 - PalgraveConnect of Ottawa - licensed to University www.palgraveconnect.com material from Copyright tion of the first Citizenship Act in 1947 until the present day. Its focus is two-fold. First, it places Canadian citizenship legislation in the context of the country’s complex ethnocultural heritage and compo- sition: its position as a British outpost in North America, its multi- national composition and – increasingly – its pioneering but highly ambivalent experimentation with renationalizing citizenship in the age 95 10.1057/9781137315519 - Naturalization Policies, Education and Citizenship, Edited by Dina Kiwan 96 Redefining Citizenship in Canada of transnationalism. Second, in a slightly subordinate argumentation stream, it shows how Canada’s citizenship legislation is accompanied by changes in citizenship education in preparation for the naturalization process. Specifically, the chapter argues that four phases of citizenship legisla- tion and naturalization process can be identified. The first is character- ized by the wish to create a Canadian citizenship that is distinct from its British predecessor. This phase was initiated by the enactment of Canada’s first Citizenship Act in 1947 and by programmes of citizenship education for three target groups: immigrants, youth and Aborigi- nal peoples. A second phase – starting in the mid-1960s – witnesses the de-ethnicization of citizenship through a number of institutional changes, including a revised Citizenship Act in 1977, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982 and the Multiculturalism Act in 1988. A third phase starts in the late 1980s, when Canadian poli- tics became increasingly influenced by both economic neo-liberalization and increasing concerns about national unity. While economic neo- liberalization led to the ‘cheapening’ of both nationalization procedures and citizenship education, the fear for national unity reinforced a ‘shal- low’ definition of citizenship and brought citizenship legislation to a halt for more than 20 years. A fourth phase of citizenship legislation was introduced by the Con- servative Party in 2006. It started after a wave of multinational conflict ebbed away. The question whether Canada was originally constituted by the British and French ‘founding nations’ and Aboriginal peoples or the confederation of ten equal provinces (with considerable powers such as health care, education and natural resources) and territories has been the object of heated debates, including a (failed) referendum on the independence of the French-speaking province of Québec in 1995. In 2008, amendments to the Citizenship Act were passed in parliament. A new citizenship study guide and test were introduced shortly after- wards (in 2009 and 2010, respectively). These new legislations, so it will be argued, are circumventing – or even overcoming – multinational conflict and renationalizing pan-Canadian citizenship by redressing the boundaries of what it means to be Canadian. They achieve this by giv- Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to University of Ottawa - PalgraveConnect - 2013-10-10 - PalgraveConnect of Ottawa - licensed to University www.palgraveconnect.com material from Copyright ing new meaning to the typical markers of citizenship, such as territory, descent and shared history/values. Mid-1940s to mid-1960s: nationalizing citizenship Although Canada became an autonomous nation state through the British North America Act in 1867, it continued to maintain close ties 10.1057/9781137315519 - Naturalization Policies, Education and Citizenship, Edited by Dina Kiwan Elke Winter 97 to Great Britain both legally and with respect to identity and culture. Its founding document, the British North America Act, remained an act of the British Parliament until it was ‘patriated’ in 1982, and the British monarch continues to be Canada’s head of state. With the passing of the Canadian Citizenship Act, S.C. 1946, c.15 and its implementation on 1 January 1947, Canada was the first Commonwealth country to obtain separate citizenship status (Kaplan, 1993, p.7). With respect to citizenship as a legal status, the Citizenship Act 1947 was a clear break from past legislation. It involved two major changes, namely ‘the con- version of Canada from a British Dominion to an independent nation’ (Garcea, 2003, p.2), which was a change in the status of the country, and a change in the status of the Canadian people, which ‘relates to the transformation of Canadians from British subjects ...to full fledged Canadian citizens’ (Garcea, 2003, p.2). As such, ‘the 1947 Citizenship Act was not merely a naturalization statute; it was also a nation-building and identity-building ...statute designed to alter the legal status of the state and its people’ (Garcea, 2003, p.2). Prior to 1947, Canadians were considered ‘British subjects’ (Natu- ralisation Act, S.C. 1914, c.44) and ‘Canadian nationals’ (Canadian Nationals Act, S.C. 1921, c.4). Emigrants from the UK and other Com- monwealth countries were able to enter and settle in Canada at their leisure. Newcomers to Canada from outside the Commonwealth, by contrast, were subject to the Naturalisation Act 1914. This required them to reside in Canada for at least five years and to demonstrate that they could exhibit qualities associated with ‘good citizenship’ (Kelley and Trebilcock, 2010, p.161). One of the goals of the Citizenship Act 1947 was to place ‘Canadians by birth’ and ‘Canadians by choice’ on an equal legal footing – that is, from then on, both natural born and naturalized citizens held equal sta- tus, were entitled to identical privileges, and were subjected to the same duties and obligations (Canada, 1987, p.6; see also Knowles, 2000, p.65). The act was also designed to give equal citizenship status to men and women, insofar as women were treated individually, in their own right and not as the legal dependants of their husbands. As a consequence, the Citizenship Act established criteria for citizenship acquisition, including Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to University of Ottawa - PalgraveConnect - 2013-10-10 - PalgraveConnect of Ottawa - licensed to University www.palgraveconnect.com material from Copyright a minimum age of 21, minimum residence of five years, ‘possession of good character’ (Canada, 1987, p.7), adequate knowledge of either the French or the English language, adequate knowledge of the responsibil- ities and privileges of Canadian citizenship, and the intention to reside in Canada. It also provided for automatic loss of Canadian citizenship on grounds of voluntary acquisition, other than by marriage, of the cit- izenship of another country or, in some cases, services in the armed 10.1057/9781137315519 - Naturalization Policies, Education and Citizenship, Edited by Dina Kiwan 98 Redefining Citizenship in Canada forces of another country (Canada, 1987, p.7). Finally, the act intro- duced hearings with citizenship judges and the Canadian citizenship ceremony. The Second World War played a distinct role in the emergence of Canadian citizenship policy. In particular, the Canadian government came to realize that the war effort required not only invoking a shared national identity among the members of the French and British ‘found- ing nations’ but also actively mobilizing the 20 percent of the country’s population who were not of British or French origins. As a consequence, by the end of World War Two, the dominant political discourse adopted the idea that, regardless of the pluralist character of the population, the unification and harmonisation of the national fab- ric was possible by means of Canadian citizenship. All that is needed, the promoters of this national policy [such as parliamentarian Paul Martin Sr.] have argued ever since, is vigorous public education to make old and new Canadians alike appreciate the importance of ‘being Canadian’ as the defining element of their identity. (Caccia, 2010, p.213) This progressive outlook, which seems to be underpinned by democratic notions of nation-building and citizenship education, must not obscure its underlying ethnocentrism, which remained