Chapter 10
Immigration and multiculturalism
undermine culture and security
in Canada
Salim Mansur
An immigrant society is generally reluctant to pose the question and exam-
ine how immigration over several generations might be changing its core
identity. This reluctance might be even greater in an immigrant society
whose future growth and prosperity are viewed as irreversibly tied to the
flow of new immigrants, while efforts required to keep secure its core
identity are considered to be of secondary importance. In such a situation,
the core identity of an immigrant society is flexible and changing without
any clear vision of what it will be in the future.
Canada is one of these immigrant societies. Over the past few gen-
erations, since the middle of the last century, Canadians in general have
gradually come to the view their country’s future growth and prosperity as
being increasingly tied to keeping an open-door immigration policy and
accepting of immigrants from around the world. It is a delicate question
if Canada has reached a tipping point of dependency on immigration but
the social indicators suggest that Canada is headed in that direction.
Given this fact, one question concerns the implications of such
dependency in the light of the current demographic trend of an aging pop-
ulation and declining fertility rate among Canadians. A second question is
www.fraserinstitute.org d Fraser Institute d 197
198 d The effects of mass immigration on Canadian living standards and society
how immigration that alters the ethnic profile of Canada might also alter
the country’s cultural identity as a unit of the West as a civilization distinct
from other civilizations. In this paper, I offer a few propositions for consid-
eration in weighing the pros and cons of an open-door immigration policy
in the context of the current demographic trends in Canada and the poli-
tics of multiculturalism that came into vogue since the nineteen-sixties.
The West, immigration, and multiculturalism
Migration in the contemporary world is largely a unidirectional movement
of people from non-Western societies and cultures to the West, which
consists of advanced industrial democracies with shared values of politics
and culture shaped by Christianity and the revolutions in science and
philosophy of the Enlightenment, and resting on the inheritance of the
ancient Greek and Roman civilizations: the countries of Europe, North
America (excluding Mexico), Australia, and New Zealand. These countries
have been the cradle of modern politics identified with democracy based
on the notion of popular sovereignty; secularism as separation of church
and state; liberalism as the idea of individual rights and freedom; equal-
ity as the principle of each individual, irrespective of gender or religion,
being equal to another under the rule of law; and government deriving its
legitimacy from, and accountable to, the people. These ideas emanating
from the Western revolution in politics have travelled around the world
and penetrated into other cultures in varying degrees but it is the sum
total of these ideas and their further refinement over time that has defined
the West as a civilization separate and apart from the Chinese, Indian, or
the Islamic civilizations.
The important point to note in regard to the West as a distinct
cultural unit or civilization is that the most effective contemporary assault
upon this idea comes from within, through the politics of multicultural-
ism, as in Canada. The West is not monolithic in ethnolinguistic terms
or, in religion, since the one universal church of Christianity splintered in
the Middle Ages; and, moreover, the West divided into nation-states has
meant modern politics spread unevenly within its civilizational boundar-
ies. Yet, the distinctiveness of the West as a civilization has stood out since
the early nineteenth century. Over this period, a large and growing gap
Fraser Institute d www.fraserinstitute.org
Immigration and multiculturalism undermine culture and security d 199
in scientific and technological achievements and the level of income and
wealth has developed between the West and the non-Western civilizations.
Unfortunately, the politics of Canadian multiculturalism is based on
the notion that all cultures represented within an immigrant society are
more or less equal, and deserve equal respect and treatment in politics and
law. The idea of equality among individuals, a distinctly Western notion,
has been changed to embrace equality among cultural groups. This change
can be viewed as implying that the culture of the West is not distinctly
better or more advanced than other cultures. The politics of multicultural-
ism in Canada discourages (if “prohibit” is too harsh a word) the majority
population from demanding assimilation of minorities originating from a
variety of non-Western cultures. Multiculturalism promotes and requires
accommodation of ethnocultural minorities by the host society, a policy
that has led in Canada to the encouragement and growth of identity politics.
Consequently, multiculturalism together with an open-door immigration
policy loosens the host society from its inherited culture.
Such a loosening is seen by some as a positive development. For
example, John Ibbitson writes:
Canada is the world’s most successful country because it is profiting
from the explosive creative forces that are unleashed when people
of different races, cultures, and lifestyles live together and bond.
Just as English has emerged as the world’s most robust language
by virtue of its being a mongrel tongue, so too are Canadians a
mongrel people, a mélange. (2005: 3–4)
Similarly, Michael Adams sees Canada evolving as an “unlikely utopia” of
ethnic diversity and multicultural harmony where there “is ample empiri-
cal evidence to suggest Canada is special, both in its social conditions and
in the way its people (Canadians new and old) respond to those condi-
tions” (2007: x).
However, some Canadians have found that multiculturalism and
immigration have had negative effects by forcing them to change their
own culture. Thus, recently the town of Herouxville in Quebec produced a
charter in which its citizens declared that cultural accommodation is not a
one-way street and that it is for immigrants to learn how to accommodate
www.fraserinstitute.org d Fraser Institute
200 d The effects of mass immigration on Canadian living standards and society
to the settled ways and lifestyle of the town. The existence of the Herouxville
Charter was responsible in part for the creation of the Bouchard-Taylor
Commission by the Quebec government to examine the public discontent
concerning the concept of “reasonable accommodation.” The Commission’s
report, Building the Future: A Time for Reconciliation (Bouchard-Taylor,
2008), acknowledged the existence of tensions within Quebec society
between the majority Quebecois and the ethnic minorities and recom-
mended that civil society and government make more efforts to ease ten-
sions and to work towards reconciliation among cultures in the province.
A majority of Canadians appear to have accepted the notion that
multiculturalism has positive effects on Canada, which in turn has allowed
federal governments to commit the country permanently to an open-door
immigration policy and no federal political party can afford to change it
in the foreseeable future. Canadians sensitive to the negative impact of
multiculturalism, like the proponents of the Herouxville Charter (Drouin
and Thompson, 2007), tend to be viewed by politicians and the media as
being at the margin of Canadian society. However, the critics of multicul-
turalism may well influence Canadian politics in the future. The debate
over “reasonable accommodation” could be characterized as the prologue
of the sort of public discussion waiting in the wings of Canadian politics,
especially if there were more incidents of global terrorism like 9/11 in the
United States, the subway bombings in London and Madrid, and others.
Huntington (1996) in his seminal work had suggested that there would
be a “clash of civilizations” that would lead to growing incidents of global
terrorism and identity politics.
The West’s vulnerability
During the seven years since 9/11, Canada has been spared terrorist
attacks on her soil like those executed in the United States, Spain, and
Britain. This could be due to luck and successful intelligence gathering by
Canadian security forces; but it is no reason for complacency. The record
shows that many terrorists reside in Canada and have exported terrorism
abroad from Canadian soil (Bell, 2005).
In Canada, it has become very difficult to engage in open discus-
sion of the impact on culture resulting from the open-door immigration
Fraser Institute d www.fraserinstitute.org
Immigration and multiculturalism undermine culture and security d 201
and multiculturalism policies. It is similarly difficult to discuss critically
whether these policies and the view of the equality of all cultures have
made the country vulnerable to destructive forces within. Such difficul-
ties are likely to increase as Canada becomes ever more dependent on
immigration to sustain economic growth while the population is ageing
and fertility declines even further.
The public discussion in Canada needs to come to terms with the
threat to the country’s cultural and civilizational character as secular, liberal-
democratic, and predominantly Christian in origin is threatened by open
immigration and multiculturalism. This discussion must consider the exis-
tence of attacks on the United States and other Western countries by Arab-
Muslim1 terrorists in the context of a global “clash of civilizations” while at
the same time it must recognize that the contemporary process of globaliza-
tion demands openness of society to an unprecedented pace of change and
that multiculturalism can help Canada accommodate this change.
The West’s demographic shift
The historic shift in the demography of the West, ageing population and
declining fertility, which began around the second half of the last century,
suggests that the populations of Western countries will decline severely
and bring far reaching consequences for their civilization. Demographers
estimate the “total fertility rate” (TFR)—or the average number of chil-
dren born to women of childbearing age—needs to be 2.1 for a society to
maintain a stable population over time. A TFR of less than 2.1 indicates
declining population and a TFR of 1.3 or lower indicates that population
will decline by half in 45 years. The recent compilation of TFR rankings
by the United Nations places Niger with the world’s highest TFR at 7.2
and Hong Kong with the lowest at 1.0. Among the Western countries,
the United States scores 2.04; France, 1.88; the United Kingdom, 1.70;
Germany, 1.35; and Italy, 1.29. Canada’s TFR stands at present in the mid-
dle of the Western countries at 1.52 (United Nations, 2007) but Statistics
1 d My use of the term “Arab-Muslim” refers to the ethnically diverse world of Islam.
“Arab” in this usage indicates ethnicity by language since there are Christian Arabs,
while “Muslim” signifies people of Islamic faith that include Afghans, Bengalis, Berbers,
Javanese, Kurds, Punjabis, Malays, Turks, and so on.
www.fraserinstitute.org d Fraser Institute
202 d The effects of mass immigration on Canadian living standards and society
Canada reported in 2004 that the age of mothers giving births has been
steadily increasing over the past 20 years and that the fertility rate is likely
to fall further (Statistics Canada, 2004, April 19). The case for immigration
in Canada is based in part on the existence of these demographic facts
and on the desire to maintain economic growth and to assure the financial
viability of public pensions and health-care programs.
If fertility does in fact continue to decline and Canada’s population
falls dramatically, it will be an interesting question for historians in the
future to understand why people in Canada and other Western countries
made the decisions that brought them to these conditions. They will have
to consider that, while technologically primitive cultures in the past have
perished or been severely weakened when brought into contact with tech-
nologically superior cultures, Western countries went into demographic
decline while they were at their civilizational apex, materially, culturally
and technologically unthreatened by other cultures.
The paradox of liberal democracy
Liberal democracy, based on the notion of unalienable rights of the indi-
vidual and the rule of law, is a product of the Western civilization. The basic
idea and understanding of the workings of liberal democracy have spread
throughout the world but its adoption has been very limited and where
it has taken root it remains weak, needs protection, and can easily wither
or be uprooted by people attached to their illiberal cultural values. For
example, the rise and spread of Islamic fundamentalism or radical and mili-
tant Islam across the Arab-Muslim world have undermined any promise of
liberal democracy. In its place, we find “illiberal” democracy and the rule
of the majority based on cultural and religious values of traditional Islam.
Liberal democracy is the most beneficent and desirable political
arrangement for the world and holds the promise of ending wars among
nation-states that have marred Western history. However, liberal democ-
racy is deeply vulnerable from the outside given its preoccupation with
filling the needs of citizens through the improvement of living conditions
and by upholding freedoms even in the face of those seeking to subvert
them. As a result, reversals or defeats are due less to the superior power
of external foes than to internal weaknesses. In How Democracies Perish,
Jean-Francois Revel (1983) observed:
Fraser Institute d www.fraserinstitute.org
Immigration and multiculturalism undermine culture and security d 203
Democratic civilization is the first in history to blame itself because
another power is working to destroy it … What distinguishes it is
its eagerness to believe in its own guilt and its inevitable result.
Democracy’s predecessors hid such beliefs as shameful even when
they thought, or knew, they were doomed. But democracy is zealous
in devising arguments to prove the justice of its adversary’s case and
to lengthen the already overwhelming list of its own inadequacies.
(1983: 7–8)
Revel belonged to the European generation that saw liberal democracies
weaken themselves with mistaken guilt, and through the false choice of
appeasement delude themselves with the expectation that hostile powers
raging against democracies could be persuaded to opt for peace. His words
have a powerful resonance in the post-9/11 world if we give credence
to Huntington’s thesis and acknowledge the Islamist-directed terrorism
against the West is a civilizational war, and civilizational wars tend to be
wars of religions and cultures.
Loss of traditional faith in the West
Religious or cultural wars are won and lost on the grounds of how confi-
dently and tenaciously antagonists hold to their respective religious and
cultural values. The Cold War was fought out between two ideological
camps, and one reason the West won it is that it held more confidently
and tenaciously to its principles of liberal democracy and capitalist market
economy while the Soviet Union and its allies were less firmly committed
to their socialist principles. It is undeniable that Christianity played a vital
role in buttressing the liberal-democratic West in this war against Soviet
Communism since the West, by acknowledging the place of religion in
an open democratic society, stood in marked contrast to a Communist
system based on militant atheism. It is uncertain how confidently the
West holds its civilizational values in the post-9/11 world compared to the
tenacity with which Islamists hold theirs while they pursue their declared
war against the West. My sense is that this balance favors the Islamists.
The West’s demographic decline is accompanied by a loss of tra-
ditional faith in Christianity. A 2002 survey by the Pew Research Center
on the attitude of wealthy nations towards religion found that affluence
www.fraserinstitute.org d Fraser Institute
204 d The effects of mass immigration on Canadian living standards and society
is correlated with declining belief. The United States again was an excep-
tion. Nearly 60% of Americans reported religion being important in their
lives. The comparative figures for Britain, Italy, Germany, and France were
33%, 27%, 21%, and 11%. The figure for Canada was 30% (Pew, 2002).
If the downward trend over the past couple of generations continues,
Christianity in Europe and Canada will cease to be a significant social
institution. This decline of the role of Christianity in the West is likely to be
accompanied by a decreased willingness to defend it and a greater open-
ness to accommodate other faiths. This trend will be strengthened by the
Western tradition of tolerance and freedom to pursue religious practices.
However, since all major religions, including Christianity, have an in-built
capacity for renewal, the declining trend is not certain to continue.
It is also important to note that in Europe the decline of Christianity
will almost certainly be accompanied by the rise of other religions prac-
ticed by the many immigrants settling there. This process has already
become quite pronounced and visible through the growth of Muslim com-
munities in Britain, France, Italy, the Netherland, Denmark and other
member states of the European Union.
The demographic bulge in the Arab-Muslim world and jihad
The “total fertility rate” in the Arab-Muslim world is the highest in the
world and is only exceeded by that of sub-Saharan Africa. The TFRs of a few
select countries from the Arab-Muslim world are as follows: Afghanistan,
7.48; Mali, 6.70; Somalia, 6.43; Yemen, 6.02; Palestine territories, 5.63;
Iraq, 4.86; Sudan, 4.82; Pakistan, 3.99; Saudi Arabia, 3.81; Jordan, 3.53;
Syria, 3.48; Egypt, 3.17; and Bangladesh, 3.22 (United Nations, 2007). This
high fertility rate in the Arab-Muslim world has produced a demographic
bulge of young people under the age of 25. A high proportion of young
men in this age group are unemployed, under-employed, and unemploy-
able due to lack of education and training for the modern economy.
This reservoir of young males has been estimated to number 25
million by 2010 (Spengler, 2005) and is the source of warriors for the
Islamist cause. Many of these young men will migrate to Western coun-
tries and there some will join the already existing warriors of Islamist
jihad (war) against the citizens and institutions of countries in Europe
Fraser Institute d www.fraserinstitute.org
Immigration and multiculturalism undermine culture and security d 205
and North America. Interestingly, the large number of young men in the
Arab-Muslim world has also fuelled conflict among countries in the region.
These conflicts may well spill over into Europe and led Spengler (2005) to
speculate that “[b]ecause of mass migration to Western Europe, the worst
of the war might be fought on European soil.”
Jihadist wars in Western countries involve not only terrorism but
importantly also attacks on existing cultural institutions. For example,
Islamists have demanded the creation of a parallel legal system based on
Sharia law and changes in existing laws and traditions that interfere with
Islamic practices such as unequal relationships between men and women,
gender exclusion through dress codes, Islamic tradition of divorce and
child custody, non-Western inheritance rules, Sharia financing, polygamy,
and limits on free speech in discussing Islam. These demands are pushed
by Islamist organizations in the West such as the Muslim Council of Britain
(MCB), the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the United
States and its counterpart or subsidiary in Canada (CAIR-Can), the Islamic
Society of North America (ISNA), the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC),
the Muslim Student Associations (MSA), and a host of others that Daniel
Pipes and Steven Emerson have documented (Pipes, 2002; Emerson, 2006).
Politics of identity and intercultural accommodation
In a world of accelerating change and mass movements of people, exist-
ing national identities are threatened and are replaced by new ones. In
traditional society, identity has been developed over many generations
and is mostly inherited. In a transient society, the search for new identi-
ties is deliberately crafted and formed on the basis of nostalgia, myths,
and political demands. In the search for new national identities, Western
countries have favored individuals over collectivities in the spirit of
modernity. This quest threatens the continued existence of the values
that are the base of Western identities. Replacement of these values by
those of many ethnic groups fostered by the policy of multiculturalism
leads to a “mongrel culture” (Ibbitson, 2005: 3–4) without strong and
coherent values, except those used in Canada to justify multicultural-
ism itself. The rise of this “mongrel culture” threatens the existence of
Canada’s unique Anglo-French identity, history. and culture. This threat
www.fraserinstitute.org d Fraser Institute
206 d The effects of mass immigration on Canadian living standards and society
has been felt strongly by the residents of Herouxville and has driven them
to develop a charter in an effort to combat this threat.
The recommendations by the Bouchard-Taylor Commission pro-
duced in response to the Herouxville initiatives and charter are that “rea-
sonable accommodation” should allow immigrants from non-Western
cultures to practice traditional customs like Sikhs wearing kirpan (dagger)
and Muslim women wearing hijab (headscarf ) in public. The acceptance
of these recommendations is justified on the grounds that Canada has a
tradition of tolerating minority cultures that is consistent with the broader
policies stemming from the principles of multiculturalism.
The accommodation of non-Western cultures in Canada is based on
domestic values and politics. The danger is that in the future, demands from
foreign countries and religious organizations will also lead to the demand
for, and granting of, accommodations to non-Western cultural values or
norms. An example of such a development is found in the effort by member
states of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) to restrict free speech
on Islamic issues in Canada and other Western countries. The instinctive
response of Canadian society and governments to such responses is con-
ditioned by real, imagined, or exaggerated guilt about the role of the West
in the past development of Islamic countries. Concessions are made and
foreign powers are appeased rather than opposed, encouraging them to
increase their demands in the future knowing how weak liberal democracies
are in their unwillingness and inability to protect their national identities.
In Canada, assimilation is not demanded of immigrants and there is no
required test of their loyalty, which encourages them to remain attached
to their native cultures or faiths. These conditions can foster the making
of homegrown terrorists, as occurred in Britain with the London suicide-
bombers of Pakistani descent, bringing the risk that terrorism along the lines
of the 9/11 events could be repeated in Canada and other Western countries.
Conclusion
The main proposition of this paper has been that open-door immigration
from non-Western countries under Canada’s multicultural policies and
liberal-democratic values has resulted in a growing threat to the country’s
national identity and security. This threat has confronted the country with
Fraser Institute d www.fraserinstitute.org
Immigration and multiculturalism undermine culture and security d 207
the difficult task of reconciling its desire to conserve the national identity
and diffuse the threat of terrorism with the policy of multiculturalism and
liberal desires for inclusion and individualism.
Unfortunately, these issues are getting very little attention from
the public, media, or politicians, who prefer to treat the threats of global
terrorism as questionable and treat open-door immigration policy and
multiculturalism as “untouchable” pillars of the modern Canada that
for demographic reasons is believed to require a steady influx of immi-
grants. Politicians as opinion makers and leaders are to be blamed for this
absence of any serious discussion of these issues in Canada. Yet, given the
nature of Canadian democracy, this behavior is understandable consider-
ing the voting power of the immigrant population. As is noted by David
Harris, formerly Chief of the Strategic Planning of the Canadian Security
Intelligence Service (CSIS): “Canada’s immigration and refugee system has
become largely a vote-importing mechanism designed to play on identity
politics. It gives no consideration to the kinds and scale of terrorist threats,
subversion, and disruption that such massive population movements can
facilitate, even at the best of times” (2008: 139).
It would be good for Canada if politicians changed their behavior
and encouraged a public discussion of the issues and possible changes to
policies, rather than rushing into such a discussion after possible future
terrorist acts in Canada or other Western countries or after there have
been more militant domestic actions by Canadians bent on protecting
their national identity in the spirit of the relatively restrained policies
enacted by the citizens of Herouxville.
References
Adams, Michael (2007). Unlikely Utopia: The Surprising Triumph of
Canadian Pluralism. Viking.
Bell, Stewart (2005). Cold Terror: How Canada Nurtures and Exports
Terrorism around the World. John Wiley & Sons.
Bergesen, Albert J., ed. (2008). The Sayyid Qutb Reader: Selected
Writings on Politics, Religion, and Society. Routledge.
www.fraserinstitute.org d Fraser Institute
208 d The effects of mass immigration on Canadian living standards and society
Bouchard, Gerard, and Charles Taylor (2008). Building the Future: A
Time for Reconciliation. Gouvernement du Quebec.
Drouin, Andre, and Bernard Thompson (2007). Report Presented
to Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related
to Cultural Differences. <http://municipalite.herouxville.qc.ca/
bouchardtaylorenglish.pdf>.
Emerson, Steven (2006). Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam
in the US. Prometheus Books.
Habeck, Mary R. (2006). Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the
War on Terror. Yale University Press.
Harris, David B. (2008). Is Canada Losing the Balance between
Liberty and Security? In Martin Collacott and Alexander Moens, eds.,
Immigration Policy and the Terrorist Threat in Canada and the United
States (Fraser Institute): 129–59.
Huntington, Samuel P. (1996). The Clash of Civilizations and the
Remaking of World Order. Simon & Schuster.
Huntington, Samuel P. (2004). Who Are We? The Challenges to
America’s National’s Identity. Simon & Schuster.
Ibbitson, John (2005). The Polite Revolution: Reflecting the Canadian
Dream. McClelland & Stewart.
Lawrence, Bruce (2005). Messages to the West: The Statements of
Osama Bin Laden. Verso.
Mansur, Salim (2008). Immigration and Muslim Extremists in the
Post-9/11 World. In Martin Collacott and Alexander Moens, eds.,
Immigration Policy and the Terrorist Threat in Canada and the United
States (Fraser Institute): 21–35.
Fraser Institute d www.fraserinstitute.org
Immigration and multiculturalism undermine culture and security d 209
Pew Research Center (2002). Among Wealthy Nations … U.S. Stands
Alone in Its Embrace of Religion. Washington, D.C.
Pipes, Daniel (2002). Militant Islam Reaches America. W.W. Norton.
Revel, Jean-Francois (1983). How Democracies Perish. Doubleday.
Statistics Canada (2004, April 19). Births, 2002. The Daily. <http://www.
statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/040419/dq040419b-eng.htm>.
Spengler (2005, August 23). The Demographics of Radical Islam. Asia
Times. <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GH23Aa01.html>.
United Nations (2007). World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision.
New York.
Wright, Lawrence (2006). The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road
to 9/11. Random House.
www.fraserinstitute.org d Fraser Institute
Fraser Institute d www.fraserinstitute.org
