Interrogating the

Hyphen-Nation:

Canadian

Multicultural Policy

and “Mixed Race”

Identities

By Minelle Mahtani

Issue

“Mixed Race” Women,

Identity, and Canada’s

Multicultural Policy

Background

Since the implementation of

Canada’s multicultural policy in

1971, the use of the hyphen to

indicate the marriage of ethnic and

national identity (for example,

Japanese-Canadian or Italian-

Canadian) has taken on both a

particular political and a

paradoxical importance in Canada.

For some, the hyphen results from

a multicultural policy that

acknowledges every Canadian’s

right to identify with their cultural

tradition, while retaining Canadian

citizenship. For others, though, the

hyphen represents a union of

contradictions. Each word

symbolizes the inversion of the

“other” (Hanchard, 1990) and

indicates places that are both

ambiguous and diverse.

Canadian multicultural policy

guides government policy and

serves as a framework for the

national discourse on building

Canadian society. Canada has

often been described as a bilingual

nation with “deux nations” –

English Canada and Quebec

(Makropoulos, 2000). But the two

nation concept obscures the idea of

nationhood for those who are not

seen to be members of either of

these two groups.

This study explores how women of

“mixed race” identity look at

Canadian identity and illuminates

the ways some “mixed race”

women search out national and

ethnic belonging.

Following a literature and policy

review, the research drew from 24

qualitative, open-ended interviews

with women who identified as

“mixed race” and lived in Toronto.

The phrase “mixed race” describes

women who saw themselves as

“mixed race” – or as multiracial,

bicultural, biracial, multiethnic,

racially mixed, or of mixed ethnic

origin or ancestry.

Canadian Multicultural Policy

Canadian multicultural policy

emerged, in part, because of

perceived challenges presented by

the arrival of ethnically-diverse

immigrants into Canada (Elliott &

Fleras, 1992). In response, the

Canadian government established

the Royal Commission on

Bilingualism and Biculturalism in

S U M M A R Y

This paper examines how “mixed

race” women in Canada look at

their relationship to national

identity. The research reveals how

some of these women challenge

the concept of nation as

represented through Canada’s

multicultural policy. Some “mixed

race” women develop nuanced

models of cultural citizenship. This

illustrates that national identities

are formed and transformed in

relation to representation.

Refusing to be located outside of

the nation, “mixed race” women

effectively produce their own

meaning of identity. By working

through their self-identity as “mixed

race” and the ideas of nation,

some of these women see

themselves as inherently

“multicultural.”

This paper addresses the

contradictions of multicultural

policy. The policy produces

hierarchical spaces against which

some “mixed race” women

imaginatively negotiate and

challenge perceptions of race and

gender.

To link to the original report CERIS

Working Paper Series # 20

http://ceris.metropolis.net/Virtual%20Lib

rary/Demographics/WP20_Mahtani.pdf

Policy Matters is a series of

reports focusing on key policy

issues affecting immigration and

settlement in Canada. The goal is

to provide accessible, concise

information on current immigration

research and its implications for

policy development. Policy

Matters is produced by the Joint

Centre of Excellence for Research

on Immigration and Settlement –

Toronto (CERIS).

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1962 to examine the issue of

identity among Canadians.

The Commission recommended

extending bilingualism to ease the

tensions in English/French

relations. In 1971, Prime Minister

Trudeau laid the cornerstone of the

multicultural policy. The key

tenets are to:

Assist all Canadian cultural

groups that had demonstrated

a desire and effort to develop

a capacity to grow and

contribute to Canada, and a

clear need for assistance.

Assist members of all cultural

groups to overcome cultural

barriers to full participation in

Canadian society.

Promote creative encounters

and interchange among all

Canadian cultural groups in

the interest of national unity.

Continue assistance to

immigrants to acquire at least

one of Canada’s official

languages in order to become

full participants in Canadian

society (Canada, House of

Commons Debates, statement

of Pierre Trudeau, October 8,

1971).

____________________________

It [multiculturalism] doesn’t do

anything in terms of racial biases

or prejudices. It doesn’t break any

stereotypes or barriers. Like if

anything it just perpetuates them

because it sort of minimalizes

entire cultures into the dance, and

the food. Shima (Japanese and

European descent)

____________________________

Programs were established to

support the development of various

cultures and languages. Ethnic

differences were to be forged into

a national framework of “unity

within diversity.” This “difference

as unity” was an extraordinary

divergence from the normal

strategies of nation building.

Comparatively little research has

been conducted on the Canadian

public’s perceptions of

multicultural policy (Kalbach &

Kalbach, 1999). Some studies have

explored the multiple meanings of

multicultural policy among

particular ethnic groups. However,

no one has examined the meanings

of multiculturalism among “mixed

race” women. This research is a

response to that gap.

The study asked several questions:

How has multiculturalism

affected the lives of “mixed-

race” women?

What did they think of the

policy?

What was their relationship to

race, place, and nation?

Research Findings

Interviews with “mixed race”

women did not elicit positive

remarks on multicultural policy. If

it was discussed at all, it was

described as a project that funded

and promoted staged ethnic events

and cultural expression through

food, family, personal, and

religious practices.

The women voiced frustration

around the difficulty in identifying

as Canadian. This is partly due, it

is argued, to the emphasis placed

on ethnic allegiances. The research

identified the following issues:

Issue 1: Ethnic Identity Is

Complex, Not Static

Multicultural policy focuses on

ethnicity as a primary

identification. But among “mixed

race” women ethnic identity is

complex. It incorporates such

elements as heritage, racial and

cultural affiliations, and religion,

among other factors (Root, 1996).

In fact, “ethnic identity” is linked

to a politics of location, with the

women’s racialization shifting in

different contexts (Bondi, 1993).

____________________________

For me, it depends on the time of

year, where I am, how long my hair

is, whether I’m wearing makeup,

whether I’m not. What kinds of

clothes I’m wearing. I run the

gamut of possible ethnicities –

people identify me as all sorts of

different things. Makeda (British

and Japanese descent)

____________________________

Facial features, hair length, and the

colour and complexion of

participants play a role in the ways

these women are racialized in

various places. These readings

influence both their perceptions of

themselves and their responses to

others. To point out how their

affiliation to culture and ethnicity

shifts, many “mixed race” women

explained that where they live

plays a role in how they experience

their ethnicity.

Multicultural policy tends to

privilege ethnicity over other

social identities such as gender and

class. This obscures the

opportunity to see these women’s

lives in more complex ways. The

experience of occupying space in

two ethnic cultures complicates

any simplistic reading of ethnicity

within multicultural policy.

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“Mixed race” women have

multiple ethnic allegiances. At the

same time, multicultural policy’s

emphasis on the past defines

“mixed race” women by their

parents’ origin, rather than by their

own current set of ethnic

allegiances.

____________________________

I was born in Montreal; therefore,

I’m a Montrealer. That’s how I look

at it. You know, my parents …

they’re 20

generations of

Norwegian and Sri Lankan … But

that doesn’t make a difference

because … that’s not who I am.

Zenia (Sri Lankan and Norwegian

descent)

____________________________

Many factors contribute to an

individual’s sense of ethnic

identity. These factors may change

over a lifetime and in different

geographical spaces (Parker &

Song, 2001; Root, 1996). These

identifications are rarely static –

but multicultural policy would

have us believe they are.

Issue 2: “Mixed race” Women

Positioned as Outsiders

Multicultural policy states that

every ethnic group has the right to

preserve and develop its own

culture within the Canadian

context. But how do we define

“Canadian context?” It is

suggested that the policy creates

socio-spatial boundaries between

the identification of “Canadian”

and “not-Canadian.”

On the one hand, Canadians have

the right to preserve their ethnic

heritage. On the other hand, this

idea tends to veil the assumption

that there is a “Canadian” society

towards whose development ethnic

groups make a multicultural

contribution (Gwyn, 1996).

This concept was highlighted

around the issue of who is

considered a “real” Canadian.

Questions about multiculturalism

lead to discussions about the

difficulties others have in

identifying the women as simply

“Canadian.”

The women interviewed stated that

an “authentic” Canadian is seen as

being of either French or British

background. Both these identities

read as white or European. To be a

real Canadian, it is assumed that

one must be white (Hill, 2001).

____________________________

… that’s why people question me

when I say I’m Canadian and they

don’t see me as white. If they don’t

accept that as an answer then

they’re not seeing me as white and

I guess the Canadian definition is

very much a white one. Julia

(Hong Kong and German descent)

____________________________

“Mixed race” women continue to

be positioned as outsiders, despite

the goals of multiculturalism.

Racism and sexism subtly

penetrate the national discourse.

Those who are positioned as

“ethnic,” as designated by official

multicultural policy, are placed

“outside” of Canadianness.

Those categorized as “visible

minorities” are excluded from the

dominant discourse of

Canadianness. The question

“Where are you from?” assumes

foreignness. To say “I’m

Canadian” results in an

interrogation.

To identify as Canadian seems

unacceptable because “at some

point, buried in the idea of nation

is the idea that there is only one

identity that has the legitimate

claim” (Appadurai, 1997).

Issue 3: The Hyphen as

Exclusion from National Identity

Ethnic and national positionings in

Canada are entangled further

through the hyphen, which

produces spaces of distance. This

“distance-difference” (Rose, 1997)

complicates questions of national

identity.

Ethnicity is positioned outside

Canadianness – as an addition to it,

but also as an exclusion from it. It

becomes impossible to identify as

solely Canadian without

announcing one’s ethnic identity.

The burden of hyphenization is

particularly heavy for “mixed

race” women. By intermingling

two or more ethnicities in their

identities, they further encumber

the hyphen, for example, African-

____________________________

Like you can’t just say you’re

Canadian and have people

understand oh you’re Canadian, or

whatever. I always have to go into

this lengthy explanation about

Chinese, Polynesian, and then

British. Then there’s the whole

thing about oh well where were

your parents born? … Well I was

born in Canada, so I am Canadian,

but what is Canadian? It drives me

crazy! … I’m not just one simple

thing. Faith (Chinese, Polynesian,

and British descent)

____________________________

Persian-Cherokee-European-

Canadian. They resist the

occupation of a single ethnic

space. Self-definition becomes

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lengthy and exhausting, requiring a

whole geography and history of

explanation.

It becomes impossible to identify

as Canadian within Canada, in

spite of the country’s diversity,

given that when one questions

national borders, one also

questions the boundaries of race

and ethnicity. Participants explored

how the different circumstances of

ethnic allegiances are formed and

transformed over time, where

racial and national meanings do

not reflect their interpretations of

their ethnicities.

Racist ideologies underlying

dominant discourses about the

nation further confuse ideas about

the nature of Canadian identity.

The question in many interviews

was “Who is a “real” Canadian?”

The multicultural policy’s idea of

citizenship demands a model of

homogeneous people, which is not

representative of the complex and

diverse ethnicity of the country.

Issue 4: Is “Mixed race”

Compatible with Canadian

Identity?

How do “mixed race” women in

this study imagine themselves as

part of the nation? It is proposed

that “mixed race” women construct

new kinds of citizenship outside of

the “two solitudes” model, which

take into consideration and

____________________________

To me, for me, being Canadian

and being mixed race and the

issues around identity there, are

not at odds with each other. They

are related. Darius (Japanese

Canadian, French Canadian,

Ojibway First Nation, and Irish

descent)

____________________________

transcend racialized elements. The

research illustrates how different

subject-positions are produced by

different conceptions of

nationalism.

Some “mixed race” women

challenge the ways they are

“othered” by the unitary notions of

national identity. They assert that

being different does not equate

with being un-Canadian. This

version of national identity

displaces and shifts the terms of

British/French linked nationalism.

____________________________

We’re an immigrant country with

an immigrant culture. [In Canada]

you can define yourself however

you want in a way that isn’t

necessarily associated with a

certain set of cultural values. So

my [national] identity has been just

a mixture of all those factors.

Emma (Malaysian and British

descent)

____________________________

Claiming a Canadian identity

would mean the occupation of a

contradictory space – embracing a

sense of country but revealing

histories of oppression and

resistance. This transformation of

“Canadian” would unpack the

racist history of the country. This

past would become part of the

present. In doing so, the voices of

the marginalized would become

part of a re-imagined citizenship.

“Mixed race” women experience

ethnicity as overlapping layers.

This position allows them to

consider the challenges of

developing real “multicultural”

identity compatible with

Canadianness by confronting

assumptions about racial and

ethnic purity.

In this study participants

emphasised the impossibility of

being divided along lines of ethnic

origins. “Mixed race” women are

used to labels being imposed on

them by others. To counteract this,

many women take on the

identification of Canadian as an

empowering label.

____________________________

I was such a mix that truly I had to

ask: Who was I? And the answer

came: I am Canadian, this is

where I am born, this the culture

that I know … Kiirti (Irish, English,

French, Caribbean-Indian, and

African descent)

____________________________

Their use of “Canadian” reflects

their real experience of growing up

in Canada. Participants exercised

their right to choose their own

ethnic allegiances, and did not feel

any particular kinship to the

ethnicity of their parents.

To be Canadian, for many “mixed

race” women in Canada is to

question any notion of coherent,

stable, and autonomous identity –

either national or ethnic.

Identifying with nationalism does

not necessarily mean the adherence

to ethnic stereotypes as dictated by

multiculturalism policy.

These women’s interpretations of

what makes up difference were

constantly shifting, socially

constructed, and geographically

diverse. By recognizing the

complexity of national and ethnic

allegiances, they point out the

misconception that to be Canadian

means to be either British or

French descent and acknowledge

the wide variance within ethnic

groups.

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Some women developed a sense of

home in Canada and their own

identity was closely linked to

questions of national identity,

marking the connection between

geography and culture. This

connection between home and

identity was not just an attachment

to the abstract concept of nation.

Choosing to identify as Canadian

reflected these womens’ desires to

develop a new vision of Canadian

identity. They continually

renegotiate the phrases that assert

nationhood as a static entity.

Women of “mixed race” challenge

not only the social construction of

race, but also of Canadian

citizenship. They do so by

proposing a connection between

their own “mixed race” status and

their sense of nationalism. They

were articulating for themselves

something that exceeds categories

of race and nation, thereby writing

themselves into existence.

Policy Implications

Multicultural policy both impedes

and facilitates the sense of

belonging for “mixed race” women

in this study. While many see

____________________________

[Multicultural policy] entertain[s]

and encourage[s] … cultural

diversity, [while correspondingly]

containing it. A transparent norm is

constituted, a norm given by the

host society or dominant culture,

which says that these other

cultures are fine, but we must be

able to locate them within our own

grid (Bhabha, 1990: 208).

____________________________

multiculturalism as an inclusive

vision, the narratives of Canadian

“mixed race” women suggest a