Irene Bloemraad: Debate Over Multiculturalism: Philosophy, Politics, and Policy

Social scientists have only recently begun to evaluate multiculturalism as public policy. Keith Banting and Will Kymlicka of Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, have constructed a multiculturalism policy index (MCP Index) that measures the extent to which eight types of policies appear in 21 Western nations...This typology is similar to those of scholars who use alternative measures, such as that created by Ruud Koopmans and colleagues in 2005 or constructed by the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX)...
The evidence from these indices indicates that, despite Chancellor Merkel's reproach of multiculturalism, Germany is not a country of strong multicultural policies. In fact, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, and Switzerland are among the least multicultural of all countries measured, though Germany has adopted more multicultural policies over time. Belgium, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States all rank as moderate multicultural countries, while Canada and Australia rank highest as having adopted the broadest range of multicultural policies.
In many of the countries analyzed, we find an increase in the number of multicultural policies over time – a perhaps surprising development given current political rhetoric. Sweden's multicultural policies in 1980 and 2000 could be categorized as modest, for instance, but by 2010 they were widespread and strong. Spain and Portugal, countries with very little international migration in 1980 and correspondingly weak multicultural policies, had moved to a moderate level of multicultural policy development by 2010.
This suggests that actual policy in many countries is slowly inching toward greater accommodation of pluralism, despite the political rhetoric around the perceived problems of diversity...
Read more