Multicultural Citizenship

"Well, I think the first thing to say about the book is that multiculturalism as a political theory began in the late 1980s and we are actually indebted to Canadian theorists. Canada was the first country to declare itself a multicultural state and Will Kymlicka, with this book in particular, is really pioneering this theory. This is one of the first major statements of a political theory of multiculturalism and Will Kymlicka is really the leading liberal exponent of multiculturalism; meaning that he thinks individual freedom is the highest good. For him multicultural citizenship is about extending our politics to accommodate minority groups. But he says the reason we should do this is because individuals will lead more fulfilling lives. They will be more themselves if we do this. So unlike others he actually says the highest good is not accommodating groups but allowing individuals the maximum amount of freedom and opportunity to develop themselves. Yes, exactly so. His example is that we offer these exemptions so that people are able to be fully citizens. It is a form of integration which will come as a surprise to some people, because some people think multiculturalism is the enemy of integration. I think what a lot of people mean by integration is actually what I think of as assimilation because they think it means you should be like the majority of the population. “Liberalism is all about the rights of individuals and multiculturalism balances the rights of individuals with the right of people to belong to cultures which may be minority cultures” One other thing about the book is that he combines in his multicultural citizenship three different groups of people from Canada. These are indigenous people – for example, the Inuits as well as the Native Americans; he is thinking of national or sub-national groups like the French speakers of Quebec, and he is thinking about migrant groups, but he gives the migrant groups the least political status. So you asked me what does he mean by multicultural citizenship and I think in some ways the book would have been better titled ‘Multinational Citizenship’ because the political status that he gives to Native Americans and the Québécois, who he conceives of as nations, is quite considerable compared to the opportunities for accommodation given to the immigrants."