Articulating minority nationhood: cultural and political dimensions in Québec's reasonable accommodation debate

Abstract

Given their precarious position within larger states, national minorities cannot rely on federal governments to affirm their nationhood. Moreover, insofar as nationhood is predicated on a shared history, language and culture, immigrants place additional strains on the maintenance of national distinctiveness and the political claims that derive from it. In 2006-2007, following a series of confrontations over religious practices in the public sphere, Québec's provincial government appointed the Bouchard-Taylor Commission to investigate avenues for the accommodation of immigrant-related cultural and religious differences. While it failed to generate policy, the commission did provide a discursive space for the (re)assertion of Québécois nationhood. Analysing the production of national identity in newspaper debates of the Bouchard-Taylor report, we offer an alternative to the ethnic-civic paradigm in nationalism theory. Rather than treat ethnic and civic as two separate ends of a single continuum, we conceptualise a relationship between two dimensions: one of culture and one of politics. We show that in contemporary articulations of Québec national identity, the prerequisites of political membership derive their meaning from a productive tension between blood-based and adoptive conceptions of national culture.

Is the Parti Québécois Bound to Disappear? A Study of the Current Generational Dynamics of Electoral Behaviour in Quebec

“…However, opponents presented this project as an anti-immigration bill that privileged Quebec's Catholic heritage and discriminated against newcomers, especially Muslim immigrants (Melançon, 2015). In this sense, the charter continues the discussion about diversity within the province, after the 2006-2007 debate over reasonable accommodations (Laxer et al, 2014). As the younger generations are more ethnically diverse and have grown up in a more diverse and globalized world, we expect that they will be more open to diversity and immigration (Mendelsohn et al, 2007), and thus less supportive of the charter.…”

Religious Symbols, Multiculturalism and Policy Attitudes

“…5 There is one notable exception; see Wright and colleagues (2016). 6 For a more archetypal accommodation-oriented policy, consider the Reasonable Accommodation hearings in Quebec in 2007 or the Charter of Values debate that animated the 2014 Quebec election (Laxer et al, 2014). 7 Sikhism, the second least favoured, was seen in a generally negative light by 40 per cent of Canadians.…”

“… 6 For a more archetypal accommodation-oriented policy, consider the Reasonable Accommodation hearings in Quebec in 2007 or the Charter of Values debate that animated the 2014 Quebec election (Laxer et al, 2014). …”

Friends or foes? Migrants and sub-state nationalists in Europe

“…While some SNRPs embrace multiculturalism and extensive citizenship rights for newcomers, others are pushing for limits to migration and stricter citizenship obligations in order to shape the cultural 'core' of the nation. In most cases, both inclusive and exclusive understandings of the nation can be found in the policy and discursive responses of SNRPs to ethnic diversity (Laxer, Carson, and Korteweg 2014).…”