Sustaining Canada's multicultural cities

Synopsis The end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century has been called The Age Of Migration. [...] Fears, on the part of the host society, of loss of identity, of a familiar way of life: fear of outsiders as a threat to a cherished way of life and traditions. [...] A final aspect of this ideal of urban citizenship is the willingness of host society and immigrant groups and individuals to work together across cultural divides without the fear of losing their own identity, and the willingness of hosts as well as newcomers to make adaptations to their ways of life. [...] I’d like to draw from examples and approaches in Vancouver and Montreal to illustrate a key point, what I think of as a paradox in public policy in relation to multiculturalism, and I’ll call this ‘the paradox of the inconsequential’, by which I mean the paradox of the importance of small things.3 Research in Vancouver and Toronto has shown that local urban policies have lagged behind the rapidly [...] The funding agencies backing Collingwood Neighborhood House (City of Vancouver and United Way) mandated a culturally diverse organization, and this is reflected in the staff, in the design of the building, and in the mission statement.