PowerPoint Presentation
prepared by
Terri Petkau, Mohawk College
CHAPTER EIGHT
Race and Ethnic Relations
Vic Satzewich
INTRODUCTION
• Will examine:
 Ethnicity and race as social constructions
 Prejudice and discrimination
 Individual and institutional racism
 Theories of race and ethnic relations
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
 Aboriginal peoples and explanations for
conditions
 Nationalism and identity in Quebec
 Factors that shape Canadian immigration
 Inequality in Canada based on race and
ethnicity*
8-3
THE FIELD DEFINED
• Sociology of race and ethnic relations: Concerns
primarily study of how power and resources are
unequally distributed among racial and ethnic
groups
• Questions raised in field include:
 What are conditions under which ethnic and racial
groups come into contact?
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 Which ethnic and racial groups hold power in
society? How do they exercise power?
 What are social consequences of unequal
distribution of power and resources?*
8-4
ETHNICITY: THE SOCIAL
CONSTRUCTION OF
DIFFERENCE
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•
Misguided assumption that race and ethnicity are
ascribed statuses rather than achieved statuses
(i.e., statuses acquired by virtue of social
definition)
•
Ethnicity may be defined in two ways:
i.
Objectively (by group language, culture,
customs, national origin, and ancestry)
ii.
Subjectively (by self-identification of group
members)*
8-5
TOP 25 ETHNIC ORIGINS IN
CANADA, 2006
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8-6
PREJUDICE AND
DISCRIMINATION
• Prejudice  Unfavourable,
generalized and rigid belief applied
to all members of a group
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• Discrimination  Practices that deny
members of particular groups equal
access to societal rewards*
8-7
RACE: THE SOCIAL
CONSTRUCTION OF DIFFERENCE
• Race: Socially constructed label used to describe
certain kinds of physical differences between
people
• Genetic differences between racial groups are
arbitrary, small, and behaviourally insignificant
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• Despite social construction, race and ethnicity are
important parts of our social reality
• Many continue to believe in existence of race and
ethnicity and organize their relationships with
others based on those beliefs*
8-8
RACISM
• Racism  Biological versions refer to
belief that:
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 Humans are subdivided into distinct
hereditary groups that are innately different
in social behaviour and mental capacities,
and
 Can be ranked as superior or inferior
But claims for inherent superiority or
inferiority discredited*
8-9
THE NEW RACISM
• New racism Theory of human
nature that suggests it is natural for
groups to form bounded
communities
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One group neither better nor worse
than the other, but feelings of
antagonism will be aroused if
outsiders admitted*
8-10
PERCEPTIONS OF DISCRIMINATION BY
GENERATION AND VISIBLE MINORITY
STATUS, CANADA, 2002
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8-11
INSTITUTIONAL RACISM
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•
Institutional racism  Discriminatory
racial practices built into the structure of
politics, economic life, and education
•
Are three forms:
i.
Institutional practices based on explicitly
racist ideas (e.g., Chinese people
excluded from certain jobs and denied
right to vote until 1947)…*
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INSTITUTIONAL RACISM
ii.
Institutional practices that arose from - but are no
longer sustained by - racist ideas (e.g., in 1960s,
black workers from Caribbean admitted to work
on southern Ontario farms)
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iii. Institutional practices that sometimes
unintentionally exclude certain groups through
seemingly neutral rules, regulations, and
procedures
 Examples: Systemic discrimination found in racial
profiling in policing, and height and weight
requirements for police officers and firefighters*
8-13
THEORIES OF RACE AND
ETHNIC RELATIONS
• Four main approaches that seek to
explain various forms of ethnic and
racial hostility:
1. Social psychological approaches
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2. Primordialism
3. Normative theories
4. Power-conflict theories*
8-14
1. SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGICAL
APPROACHES
• Focus on how prejudice and racism satisfy psychic
needs of certain people
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• Example: Frustration-aggression theory 
Explains prejudice and racism as forms of hostility
that arise from people frustrated in efforts to
achieve goals
 Racial and ethnic groups become safe targets (i.e.,
scapegoats) of displaced aggression
 Limitation: Does not specify circumstances that
lead to aggression, or why some groups rather
than others are chosen as scapegoats*
8-15
2. PRIMORDIALISM
• Suggests ethnic attachments reflect innate
tendency of people to seek out and
associate with their “own kind”
• Example: Sociobiology  Prejudice and
discrimination stem from our innate
tendency to be nepotistic
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 Ethnic prejudice and racism are ways of
maintaining social boundaries
Limitation: Cannot explain intragroup
conflict or intergroup harmony*
8-16
3. NORMATIVE THEORIES
• Focus on how prejudices are transmitted through
socialization and social circumstances that compel
discriminatory behaviour
• Example: Socialization approach  Focuses on
how we are taught ethnic and racial stereotypes ,
prejudices, and attitudes by families, peer groups,
and mass media
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 Argue that prejudice and attitudes are learned
through social interaction
 Limitation: Unable to explain how prejudicial ideas,
attitudes, and practices first arise*
8-17
4. POWER-CONFLICT
THEORIES
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•
Stress how ethnic and racial conflict derives from
distribution of power in society
i.
Orthodox Marxism  Argues racism is ideology
used by capitalists to mystify social reality and
justify intense exploitation of minority and
immigrant workers

Racist ideas used to create artificial divisions in
working class, thereby quelling formation of class
consciousness (threat to social/economic order)

Limitation: Racism is not confined to capitalist
class…*
8-18
4. POWER-CONFLICT
THEORIES
2. Split labour market theory  Racial and ethnic
conflict rooted in differences in price of labour
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 Argues employers try to replace high-paid white
workers with low –paid nonwhite workers
 High-paid workers try to protect own interests
by limiting capitalists’ access to cheaper
nonwhite workers
 Suggests individual racism, ethnic prejudice,
and institutional racism emerge from intergroup
conflict …*
8-19
4. POWER-CONFLICT
THEORIES
(Split labour market theory)
 Maintains prejudicial ideas and discriminatory
behaviour are ways of socially marginalizing
minority groups that dominant group views as
threats to their position of power and privilege
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 Recommends looking beyond individual
personalities and sociobiological processes and
analyze processes of economic, social, and
political competition among groups*
8-20
ABORIGINAL PEOPLES
• Aboriginal peoples in Canada: Group comprised
of Indians, Inuit, and Métis
• Indian (or status or registered Indians): Refers to
those recognized as “Indians” according to
federal government’s Indian Act
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• Métis: Either descendants of historic Métis, or
anyone of mixed European-Indian ancestry who
self-defines as Métis, and whose self-definition
is accepted by other Métis
• Inuit: Diverse group of people who have lived for
centuries north of the tree line*
8-21
EXPLANATIONS OF
ABORIGINAL CONDITIONS
•
Aboriginal peoples are the most socially and
economically disadvantaged groups in Canada
•
Three explanations for social and economic
disadvantage:
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1. The government’s view
2. The culture of poverty thesis
3. Conflict theory*
8-22
ABORIGINAL PEOPLES:
1. THE GOVERNMENT’S
VIEW
• Poverty linked to state efforts to forcibly
Europeanize and Christianize Aboriginal peoples
and culture:
 Premised on belief that Indian culture was inferior
to European culture
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 Government’s legislative, regulatory, and
educational approach reflected view that
inequality, poverty, and poor social conditions were
rooted in Aboriginal cultural and racial inferiority*
8-23
ABORIGINAL PEOPLES:
2. THE CULTURE OF
POVERTY THESIS
• Poverty linked to Aboriginal culture that does not
value capitalist work ethic, economic success,
materialism, and achievement
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• Argument criticized for confusing effect with
cause:
 Aboriginal people born into certain situations in life
and adopt values and attitudes consistent with
their life-chances*
8-24
ABORIGINAL PEOPLES:
3. CONFLICT THEORY
• Internal colonial model:
 Analyzes problem of inequality in terms of power
imbalances and exploitation of Aboriginal peoples
by white society
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 Argues misuse of state power (e.g. land-claim
disputes) and paternalistic federal laws (e.g., Indian
Act) have disempowered Aboriginal peoples by
fostering social marginality and dependence
• Model criticized for tendency to overgeneralize
about conditions of Aboriginal peoples in Canada*
8-25
ABORIGINAL PEOPLES:
CLASS AND GENDER
DIVERSITY
• Aboriginal peoples not homogeneous
socioeconomic group but divided by both gender
and class privilege
• Feminist theorists note lack of gender equality is
concern of many Aboriginal women
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• Conflict theorists note political and economic
implications of socioeconomic differentiation within
Aboriginal communities (e.g., control of land-claim
settlements by small ruling elites)
 Argue for existence of two-class structure among
Aboriginal peoples*
8-26
QUEBEC: NATIONALISM
AND IDENTITY
• Following 1763 conquest of New France by Britain,
anglophone elite became new colonizing power of
what is now Quebec
 Gradually took over economic and political affairs
of Quebec
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• French Canadians in Quebec (who formed
numerical majority) were more disadvantaged
materially than anglophone minority*
8-27
QUEBEC: NATIONALISM
AND IDENTITY
• Mid 20th century witnessed rise of new francophone
middle class of technical workers and professionals
 Facing blocked mobility due to English control of
economic institutions, members pushed for
expansion and modernization of Quebec state
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 Found expression in the “Quiet Revolution” of
1960s:
 Social, political, and cultural changes that occurred
in Quebec in the 1960s, in part because of the
initiatives of this new middle class*
8-28
QUEBEC: NATIONALISM
AND IDENTITY
• Support for contemporary sovereignty movement
comes from variety of groups who identify
Québécois as a colonized and exploited people
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 Groups also have differing views of how best to
maintain their language and culture:
 Moderates want to strengthen Quebec’s position
within the federal system, while radicals are for
own state*
8-29
WHO IS QUÉBÉCOIS?
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•
Population of Quebec is ethnically heterogeneous
•
Nations comprised of “imaginary communities” in
terms of physical and social boundaries that
define group membership
•
Symbolic boundaries of what defines Québécois
are articulated differently:
i.
Civic nationalists  All those who now reside in
Quebec
ii. Ethnic nationalists  Only those who share a
common history, culture, ancestry, or language
(are known as pure laine – pure wool –
Québécois)*
8-30
IMMIGRATION: STATE
FORMATION AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
• In 2001, immigrants represented 18.4% of
Canada’s population (percentage greater in large
cities)
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• Migration has been feature of Canadian history for
over 300 years
 Immigrants contributed to formation of capitalist
state
 Immigrants continue to make important
contributions to social reproduction of Canadian
society
• Without new immigrants, Canada’s population will
begin to decline by 2015*
8-31
SIX FACTORS THAT SHAPE
CANADIAN IMMIGRATION
1. Social class: Most immigrants are
admitted to Canada because of
Canada’s economic needs and interests
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2. Ethnic and racial stereotypes:
Exaggerated, oversimplified images of
characteristics of certain groups
 Prior to 1962, Canadian immigration
policy had racialized hierarchy of
desirability…*
8-32
SIX FACTORS THAT SHAPE
CANADIAN IMMIGRATION
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3. Variety of geopolitical considerations
(stemming from Canada’s relationships
with other countries)
 Racist selection criteria removed from
immigration regulations in 1960s, partly
because they interfered with Canadian
diplomacy
4. Humanitarianism: Immigrants and
refugees accepted partly on
humanitarian and compassionate
grounds…*
8-33
SIX FACTORS THAT SHAPE
CANADIAN IMMIGRATION
5. Public opinion: Difficult to determine
though given no “one voice” of
Canadians regarding immigration
6. Security considerations: Since Sep.
11/01, has become more important factor
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 Introduction of Permanent Resident Card and
number of measures to increase border security
 Move towards Canada and USA harmonizing
immigration policies (criticized by some as move
towards a “Fortress North America”)*
8-34
TOP 10 SOURCE COUNTRIES OF
IMMIGRANTS (PRINCIPAL
APPLICANTS AND DEPENDENTS)
TO CANADA, 1968, 2007
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8-35
CONTEMPORARY
IMMIGRATION
CATEGORIES
•
Immigrants fit one of three main
categories:
1. Refugees (includes three subcategories):
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i. Convention refugees (those who
because of fear of persecution are
unable or unwilling to return to their
country of origin…*
8-36
CONTEMPORARY
IMMIGRATION
CATEGORIES
( Refugees:)
ii.
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Country of asylum class refugees (those outside
country of citizenship or residence who are
seriously and personally affected by civil war,
armed conflict, or massive violation of human
rights
iii. Source country class refugees (those who meet
definition of Convention refugee but are still in
country of citizenship or residence)…*
8-37
CONTEMPORARY
IMMIGRATION CATEGORIES
2.
Family class immigrants: Have close family
members already living in Canada who are willing
and able to support them
3.
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Economic/independent immigrants: Are four
subcategories 
i. Skilled workers (merit is based on points system)
ii. Immigrant entrepreneurs (own and manage
business that will contribute to economy and create
jobs)
iii. Immigrant investors (capitalists who plan to invest
minimum $400,000 in business in Canada)
iv. Self-employed immigrants*
8-38
THE POINTS SYSTEM FOR THE
SELECTION OF INDEPENDENT
IMMIGRANTS, CANADA, 2008
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8-39
ETHNIC INEQUALITY AND
THE CANADIAN LABOUR
MARKET
• Porter: Canada as a vertical mosaic:
 Society in which ethnic groups tend to occupy
different and unequal positions in stratification
system
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• Two “charter groups” – English and French –
predominated in various Canadian elites
 Although two groups unequal, they still set
discriminatory immigration policies and reserved
for themselves top positions in occupational
hierarchy*
8-40
EARNINGS OF VISIBLE AND
NON-VISIBLE ETHNORACIAL GROUPS, 1986–2001
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8-41
NET DIFFERENCE IN OCCUPATIONAL STATUS (1971)
AND OCCUPATIONAL SKILL GROUP (2001)
BETWEEN SELECTED ETHNIC GROUPS AND THE
REST OF THE LABOUR FORCE, BY SEX, CANADA
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8-42
DECLINING SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE VERTICAL MOSAIC
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• Debates over past two decades about whether
race and ethnicity continue to shape stratification
system:
 Some claim vertical mosaic has been recast along
racial lines
 Yet research fails to support race as fundamental
socioeconomic dividing line in Canadian society
• Is support though for vertical mosaic in terms of
male immigrants in Canada:
 Explanation  Devaluation of education
credentials (regarded by some as reflection of
racism)**
8-43