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CONFLICT AND DIVERSITY: CANADA / QUÉBEC 451

Many strands of diversity might be the which may be the empirical referents of
best way to portray Canada/Québec, charac- ethnicity, along with the dynamic (and even
terized, depending on the players being fluid) nature of these referents. Theoretical
examined, by often simultaneous conflict approaches which focus on majority/minor-
and competition, as well as relations of coop- ity or dominant/subordinate social relations
eration. That various processes of social are especially useful. Moreover, by the early
differentiation are involved is attested by the 1980s, a number of feminist sociologists,
many issues addressed through Canadian working independently, started to develop
(and Québec) policies and laws which regu- what has now become intersectional analy-
late power relations between majority and sis, incorporating concurrent consideration
minority groups (e.g., multicultural policy, lin- of ethnicity/race, gender and class (and
guistic policies, Aboriginal policies, immigra- sometimes other social locations as well).
tion policies, cultural policies, etc.). When These pioneers included Danielle Juteau
made explicit, the various bases of diversity (Juteau and Roberts, 1981) in Canada, Bell
can tell a great deal about histories of both hooks (1981) in the United States, and Floya
individuals and collectivities, which are Anthias and Nira Yuval-Davis (1983) in
marked not only by ethnicity, language and Great Britain. Analyses which emphasize
immigration status, but also by such other fluidity and multiple identities related to
social locations as gender. Clearly, the impact ethnicity have, to date, been more widely
of the paradigm of diversity on the imagined adopted than those focussing on intersec-
nation or national boundaries remains to be tionality (of sex, race, ethnicity), but both
analyzed. It would, perhaps, be more realistic challenge us to incorporate the complexi-
to speak of the diversity of diversity than of ties of concurrently occupying the multiple
a stabilized meaning of the term. social locations, while recognizing that their
We can identify at least five axes cross- meanings are not necessarily remaining
cutting the social and sociological usages of static.
the term: diversity as social discourse; diver- At the same time, to take up our second
sity as a narrative of institutional policies; point, about the heuristic value of diversity,
diversity as a social fact; diversity as a political there has been a tendency, since the end of
rhetoric; and diversity as a concept, a tool to the 1980s, to homogenize all migrants of
study and understand social realities. The European descent when studying their migra-
sometimes blurred boundaries between those tion and integration in Canada/ Québec. This
axes call out for an epistemology of diversity. is no doubt a result of a substantial increase
More modestly we will suggest the following in the source countries of migration,
as points to consider in tackling diversity in reflected in the much greater immigration
sociological research: (1) the complexities it from non-European regions, notably Asia,
challenges us to incorporate into our analysis, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.
(2) its heuristic value, (3) the impact on our As noted in this chapter, immigrants from
analysis of what is perceived as diversity by these regions and their descendants are often
institutions, and finally (4) the limits to our referred to collectively in Canada as ‘visible
sociological application of ‘diversity’. minorities’, although the acceptability of this
First let us consider the complexities we are concept is contested as ethnocentric by some
challenged to incorporate. Since the 1970s of those to whom it is applied. Like the
conceptualizations of ethnicity have become ‘non-visible minorities’, they, too, have often
less essentialized and less static (see, e.g., in been homogenized in recent analyses (e.g.,
quite different ways, Appadurai, 1996, 2001; Li, 2000). This is a tendency which we con-
Guillaumin, 1995; Hall, 1992; Schermerhorn, sider just as problematic as the homogeniz-
1970). These conceptualizations allow us to ing of those of European origin, given the
consider a wider range of social statuses differences among their respective social