“The ‘language of race’, identity options
and ‘belonging’ in the Quebec context.” [1]

In Fional Devine and Mary Waters (eds), Social Inequalities in Comparative Perspective, pp. 39-64. Madden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2004, 330 pp.

Introduction

1. Diversity and racism in the Canadian and Quebec contexts

2. Minority identities

The process of racialization

Flux and identity constructs

3. The identities of the « second generation »: A Quebec field study

Haitian and Jamaican identities.

Hyphenated identity.

The Canadian identity.

The racialized identity.

The weakness of the racialized identity.

The predominance of hyphenated identity.

The politicization of the Quebec identity.

Conclusions and perspectives

References

INTRODUCTION

The racial discrimination experienced by certain minorities in the Americas constitutes a structural obstacle to the full exercise of citizenship in its broadest sociopolitical sense (rights and obligations, membership, participation and belonging). Racism contradicts the most basic human rights. It represents a blatant disregard for the principles of justice, dignity and equality upon which rest a number of these rights. Racism weakens the sense of belonging individuals are expected to feel toward a given political community, denies diversity, demeans the conditions of social and political membership, and leads the way to the expression of antagonistic and socially divisive identity claims. Racism is largely responsible for the resentment felt by many racialized social groups in North America (Aboriginal Peoples, historical minorities created by the slave trade, new minorities emerging in the wake of post-colonial migrations). Any normative discourse on citizenship must take this resentment into account and address it.

Canada, like most western, liberal-democratic societies, has been taken to task on issues of exclusion and discrimination (Li, 1999 ; Frideres and Pizanias, 1995 ; Driedger and Halli, 2000 ; Satzewich, 1994, 1998 ; Abu Laban and Gabriel, 2002).The Canadian state has responded with a Charter of Rights and Freedoms which celebrates and protects difference and diversity, as well as with laws and policies that actually extend the benefits and privileges of membership in the Canadian political community to all, without distinction of origin, culture, race or creed. Over the past decade, the Canadian state has been particularly active in promoting the seamless integration of immigrants and members of racialized minorities through a number of policy initiatives, clearly expecting in return, indeed demanding, that they develop in return a strong Canadian civic identity.

Yet, in a controversial and polemical book, Neil Bissoondath (1994), argues that Canadian multiculturalism policies are based on the cult of ethnicity and do not encourage immigrants to consider themselves as wholly Canadian. More recently, philosopher Will Kymlicka adopted the counter-position (1998). He argues that one of the key explanations of the Canadian success story lies in its multiculturalism policy, and in the fact that immigrants are encouraged to keep their own cultural identities. Among the ‘visible minorities’, the conditions for ‘Blacks’ are better than in the United States because Canada does not have the same historical relationship with slavery as its neighbour to the South, and the obstacles with which they are confronted today are comparable to the experiences of certain other immigrant groups in the past. However, Kymlicka admits that ‘Blacks’ risk developing “an oppositional stance toward the mainstream society”, if certain measures are not taken (Kymlicka, 1998, p.80-89).

For its part, the Quebec state (which, despite its legal status as one of the ten provincial sub-units of the Canadian state, is laying claim to a self-contained, autonomous and Quebec-based citizenship) has stood increasingly firmer to ensure that all who reside on the territory upon which it is allowed to legislate embrace Quebec as their primary home of civic attachment, and not Canada.

To understand contemporary Quebec, we have to look at the period preceding the creation of Canada in 1867. In 1663, the first permanent French European settlement was established in Quebec city. Mohawks, Cree, Algonquin, Huron/Wendats, Innus, Abénaquis, Naskapis, Micmacs and Malecites nations were living at the site of present day Quebec. In 1663, the Louis XIV proclaimed the French colony ‘la Nouvelle France’. In 1763, la Nouvelle France became a British possession by conquest, forming the « Province of Quebec ». At this time, the native French (more than 55 000) already identified themselves as Canadiens, ‘collective identity firmly established during the French regime’ (McRoberts, 1997, p.2). They had a sense of distinct nationality constructed from ‘the merging of various French regional identities that colonists brought to New France’ (McRoberts, 1997, p.3). By contrast, the English-speakers saw themselves very differently. Most adopted a British colonial identity until the Confederation of 1867. This identity was gradually displaced by a Canadian identity. Consequently, the anciens Canadiens have been forced to define themselves as Canadiens français. Today the term Québécois that has expanded after the 1960s refer to Quebecers of various origins.

In 1774, the colony’s French subjects ‘who had lived entirely under the system of English laws since the conquest, obtained from London the right to live under the rule of their French laws and customs with respect to property and civil law’ (Chevrier, 1996, p.3). The colony was later divided in Lower Canada (French) and Upper Canada (English). Each had a local parliament overseen by a governor appointed by London.

In the 1830s, the elected officials of Upper and Lower Canada (Canadiens, Irish and English democrats) called for a responsible government. This movement led to a violent rebellion in 1837-1838 repressed by the British colonial army as a political response. The Act of Union of 1841 merged Upper and Lower Canada in one Province of Canada, aiming to force assimilation of the French-speaking population (650 000) to the English-speaking one (450 000). In 1848, French recovered some of its rights in institutions.

During the following decades, constitutional demands emerged in both language groups because the Act of Union created tensions between the two communities. In 1867, Westminster approved the British North American Act establishing the Dominion of Canada. It comprised one central government and four provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Provinces of Canada that became Ontario and Quebec. The 847 000 French Canadians represented barely one-third of the population of the new federation. Today, the population of Quebec of various origins represent around 23% of the Canadian population.

The federation itself remained a colony, a constitutional monarchy. As Chevrier puts it: ‘The federal parliament had broad general powers such as the power to legislate on peace, order and good government and to make laws on trade and commerce. Few jurisdictions were shared, except immigration and agriculture, subject to the preponderance of federal laws. The federal government that emerged from the Constitution of 1867 resembled a unitary government, in no way hindered by the action of provinces and their participation in its choices. In short, it was a narrow and frail autonomy that the Constitution of 1867 recognized for the unsettled community that was once again called Québec’ (Chevrier, 1996, p.4). The federation gave the province of Quebec control over issues like education, language and culture. Nevertheless, the Confederation was seen among certain politicians as ‘a pact between two nations, a bilateral agreement between two founding peoples who, recognized by right as equal, chose federalism so they might live better together’ (idem). But this was a false perspective and since the Confederation, Quebec’s demands focused mainly on defending provincial autonomy facing a unitarian and centralized concept of federalism (McRoberts, 1997, p.11 ; Chevrier 1997, p.6 ; Rocher, 2002).

During the 1960s, what was called a ‘Quiet Revolution’ took place in Quebec with the creation of sovereignist parties. Discontents of French Canadians towards their socio-economic subordination and their lack of power within federal institutions brought them to see the Quebec state as the only political institution that they could fully control. The ‘Quiet Revolution’ brought huge transformations: the democratization of society, a greater equality in the access to education and to health, the control of major economic structures, the modernization of Quebec public service, the emergence of a sovereignist political movement and the adoption of a Charte québécoise de la langue française, which made French as the official language of Quebec (Rocher, 2002).

The process of nation building in the last forty years have made Quebec a ‘world leader’ in the knowledge-based economy (Gagnon, 2001, p.38). The construction of a true national space has been accompanied by the erasure of disparities between Anglophones and Francophones in terms of social mobility. Dieckhoff notes a strong convergence of values and behavioural patterns with the rest of Canada (consumerism, birth rates, divorce rates, civil liberties, ethics) (2001, p. 31). Yet, within this national space, two citizenship systems face off and compete with one another.

The Quebec state proposes a vision of citizenship based on values of justice, equality, democracy and pluralism, using international norms as guidelines on these issues (Quebec, 2000, p.17). The Quebec discourse on citizenship focuses on countering the ethnicization of Quebec’s social dynamics, on breaking down community isolationism, and on promoting new relationships ‘between citizens’ rather than between linguistic or cultural communities (Labelle and Rocher, 2001).

Beyond the inevitable political tug-of-war between the federal and the provincial governments – a tug-of-war in which the loyalty of immigrants and racialized minorities to either the Canadian or the Quebec state appears as the ultimate prize – beyond their institutional and administrative divergence over issues of membership and belonging, the Canadian and the Quebec states address the problem of racial discrimination and minority exclusion in very similar fashion. Both genuinely encourage immigrants and racialized minorities to become full and free participants in a civic and institutional framework that, theoretically, includes them unconditionally. Both are driven by a strong will to inclusiveness, which has become a major plank in their citizenship-focused nation-building project. Although the Canadian state emphasizes multiculturalism, and the Quebec state insists on the convergence of the various ethnocultural groups that make up the social fabric of contemporary Quebec society around a common public culture, both are intent on achieving the social unity and the political primacy of their respective jurisdiction.

Some among immigrant and racialized communities fully endorse either Quebec’s or Canada’s aspiration – or even both – to stand as a civic nation. Others, however, are rather leery. They distrust the pluralist and civic discourses of the (Quebec and Canadian) state, they denounce the unfulfilled promises of inclusion of both Canadian and Quebec citizenship, and they resentfully point to the significant distance that separates the state rhetoric from the actual economic and political marginalization that important segments of immigrant and racialized populations continue to experience on a regular basis.

The main purpose of this chapter is to explore the basis of this distrust and, in the process, examine how the complex intersection of race, identity claims and belonging bring out the inherent limits of the state’s conception citizenship in Quebec. The analysis proceeds first by contextualizing the issues of diversity and racism in Canada and Quebec. A critical reflection on the racialization process that affects certain socials groups follows. This reflection will bring light on empirical data presented in the third section about the identity choices of second-generation Caribbean immigrants in Montreal. Finally, the factors that influence civic incorporation will be discussed in the fourth and last section.

1. Diversity and racism
in the Canadian and Quebec contexts

Canada has a national francophone minority concentrated in Quebec. The mother tongue of more than 81% of Quebecers is French and more than 85% of all Canadians whose mother tongue is French are residents of Quebec. The Aboriginal peoples, who are more dispersed across the Canadian territory, represented approximately 4% in the nineties (1,3 million of the total population estimated at 31,110.6 in 2002). Ethnocultural diversity in Canada results in large part from the decline of European immigration in the 1960s and 1970s, a period during which Canada was, among all developed countries, the one that welcomed the highest proportion of Third-World immigrants (Frideres, 1992, p.50). Social and political tensions, the end of the colonial era, the ensuing restructuring of the global migratory system, the increasing role played by Canada within the Third World, and international pressures aimed at ending racial discrimination through legislation and immigration rules are generally mentioned as the main causes of this situation. In 2001, the number of Canadians born abroad represented 18, 4% of the total population. In 1881, groups other than those of British or French origin only represented 10% of the population. Over a century later, by 1991, the same groups represented 42% of the Canadian population. The so-called ‘visible minorities’ represented 13,4% in 2001. It is estimated that this proportion will exceed 19% in 2016 (Samuel, 2001, p. 23 ; Kalbach, 2001).

‘Visible minority’ is a term first proposed by the federal government in order to designate groups that are victims of discrimination. The Employment Equity Act defines ‘visible minorities’ as persons, ‘other than aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour’. Under this definition, the following groups are identified as visible minorities: Chinese, South Asians, Blacks, Arabs and West Asians, Filipinos, Southeast Asians, Latin Americans, Japanese, Koreans and Pacific Islanders (Statistics Canada, 1998). The term has been widely criticized because of its racializing connotations and its globalizing and imprecise nature. It echoes the notions of ‘race’ and ‘racial group’ found in classical sociology, which are still widely used in the scientific community and among Canadian public policy-makers (Kobayashi, 1992). I prefer to use the expression ‘racialized minorities’ as a replacement. In this essay, I refer to the terms ‘race’, ‘Blacks’ and ‘Whites’ in quotation marks in order to clearly delineate my position, which is opposed to the racializing ideology that still imbues current academic discourses.

All the elementary forms of colonial or classical racism (prejudices, discrimination, segregation, violence) have been a part of the nation building process in Canada and they have reached the level of state racism (supremacist movements, discrimination entrenched in laws and policies -- specifically immigration policies up until the 1960s). This racism based itself openly on theories rooted in a presumed genetic inferiority of certain minority groups. This type of racism operated concurrently in North-American societies along the lines of an un-egalitarian logic of domination and exploitation, and a difference-driven logic of distancing and exclusion.

Racism has undergone transformations. Neo-racism (also referred to as symbolic, modern or differentialistic racism), brings in a new dimension. It postulates that certain national or migrant groups are incompatible with mainstream society. We find evidence of this in opinion polls and in public policies (Satzewitch, 1998).

In the 1960’s, Canada, like many other countries, began to apply in earnest the principles of ‘equality’ and ‘respect for diversity’ to its policies. The Canadian Declaration of Rights marked the first time that a federal law prohibited discrimination on the basis of ‘race’, country of origin, religion or sex and spurred the first wave of immigration policy reform and employment equity, culminating in the Multiculturalism policy. Despite these measures, Aboriginal peoples and racialized minorities still face significant disadvantageous socioeconomic conditions (Harvey, Siu and Reil, 1999). This is true, for example, of many members of the ‘Black community’. Although their level of educational attainment is comparable to that of the general population, they are still more likely to be more often unemployed and for longer periods than most Canadians, their average income is lower, they are poorer, and suffer from income disparities attributable to discrimination in hiring policies and promotion within the workplace (Torcyner, 1997 ; Fleras, 1999 ; Driedger and Halli, 2000). In addition, this group is under-represented in the public service, in the media and in the political sphere. Along with Aboriginal Peoples and Arabs, the minorities categorized as ‘Blacks’ remain preferred targets of discrimination based on racism in the Canadian social space.

As far as Quebec is concerned, at the time of the 2001 census, the immigrant population accounted for 10% of the total population (7,417.7 millions). Racialized minorities represent 7% of the Quebec population. 90% live in the Montreal Metropolitan region and comprise 13,6% of the area’s residents. Persons defined as ‘Black’ represent 2,1% of the total population in Quebec, Arabs and West Asians 1,2%, Latin Americans 0,8%, Southeast Asians (0,8%) and Chinese (0,8%).

Like its federal counterpart, Quebec has initiated over the past 30 years a number of legislation against discrimination, several job-creation and ethnic community funding programs geared meant to eradicate racism. But despite this string of policy measures, studies continue to reveal the persistence of disproportionate poverty levels and economic disadvantages among racialized minorities, much like those found in the rest of Canadian society (Quebec, 1996 ; 1999 ; 2001 ; Torcyner, 2001). The Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse has circulated several reports on discrimination and racial harassment in the workplace, in housing, in the judicial system, etc. The studies concluded that racialized minorities were under-represented, subject to inequalities in remuneration, and professionally segregated (Quebec, 1999).

2. Minority identities

The process of racialization

Racism and, in general, obstacles to the egalitarian incorporation of racialized minorities into North American societies, have had discernible consequences on identity. Researchers have not given as much attention to these consequences as might be hoped. Yet, categories of ethnicity and ‘social race’ are central to contemporary identity politics and narratives of belonging. Like other major forms of social division, they are social and political constructs and they take on different meanings depending on their historical or national contexts.

Minority status has two dimensions: “the self-definition of a group is based on its members’ perception of shared language, traditions, religion, history and experiences ; the other-definition results from the dominant group’s use of its power to impose social definitions on subordinate groups” (Castles, Davidson, 2000, p. 62). Negative other-definition of a minority leads to the racialization or the ethnicization of social relations. Differences are interpreted and attributed to ‘race’, culture or religion, rather than to a process of social differentiation resulting from socioeconomic positions, or historical, unequal relations of power (idem, p. 63). The overpowering action of dominant regimes of representation, and the ‘epistemic violence’ of their underlying narratives on the ‘other’ -- the colonised, orientalism, the exotic, the primitive, the anthropological, the folkloric (Hall, in Donald and Rattansi, 1992, p.255) – are largely responsible for this outcome.

However, as Anthony Appiah points out, there are differences among differences. It is harder to resist racial identification rather than ethnic identification for two reasons: 1) racial ascription is more socially salient ; 2) ‘race’ is taken to be the basis for treating people differentially (Appiah and Gutman, 1996, p.81). Conversely, racialized and subaltern groups can re-appropriate attributed identity, subvert it, and use it as an oppositional stance. Diverse forms of identity consciousness (diasporic, separatist, transcultural, etc) can result. This new ‘identity of resistance’ explains the emergence of ‘identity politics’ (Castells, 1997). But as Stuart Hall and Anthony Appiah have noted, it also often signals the ‘end of innocence’ as minorities who attempt to unite around a unique and illusory category are faced with the inevitable acknowledgement of their differences and specificities.

Racialization stems from a historical and ideological process. It imparts racial meaning to social relations, social practices or groups which had originally no particular, a priori racial grounding (Omi, Winant, 1986, p.69). Thus, at the end of the 17^th century, Africa’s Ibos, Yorubas, Fulanis, etc., were reduced, within the Americas, to the category of ‘Negroes’, a term which at first designated a social condition rather than a skin color (Labelle, 1987). In the case of the United States, the American term ‘Negro’ would be replaced by the following categories: ‘colored race’, ‘Black’, ‘Afro-American’, ‘African-American’ (Appiah and Gutman, op.cit, p. 76). In the Canadian context, the census attests to the innate racialism of public policies geared toward the management of diversity in the last two centuries. The terms ‘Negro’, ‘mulatto’, ‘coloured people’, ‘Indian’, appear as early as 1851. The expression ‘visible minorities’, which today defines people who are not of the ‘Caucasian race or of the White race’ or who do not have ‘white skin’ perpetuates the ‘language of race’ and rests on the following assumptions [2] : “1) races of people exist ; 2) theses races have social relations ; 3) these relations are, or have the potential to become, conflictive” (Satzewich, 1994, p. 39 ; Kobayashi, 1992).

Contemporary immigrants who come from the segmented societies of the Caribbean, of Brazil and Latin America live through a particular type of experience. In these societies, the infinitely varied and nuanced lexicon of identity is expressed in complex forms within social strata. The prevailing ethnoracial lexicon, itself a product of colonialism and of slavery, differentiates individuals and social groups along a scale based on color categories, following a set hierarchy of skin tones ranging between the archetypal ‘Black’ and ‘White’. Dozens of terms are used in the Caribbean and in Brazil in order to designate this variation and this phenotypical hierarchy. This situation should not be interpreted as an example of racial democracy or of referential ambiguity on account of métissage, as some theories have sometimes suggested. On the contrary, this lexicon was and remains the main yardstick of segmentation in societies born out of triangular commerce. In the case of contemporary French Caribbean, for example, it resulted in a near total inability to develop a full-fledged civic identity (Dahomey, 2001 ; Labelle, 1987). Those who immigrated from these countries into the United States or Canada, might have been seen as ‘Griffes’, ‘Mulâtres’, ‘Quarterons’, ‘Bruns’ or ‘Marabouts’ (including many sub-categories for each basic term) in their homeland, but their former identity is reduced to the global category of ‘Black’ once in their new host society. They are thus readily associated with the group with an inferior social status as dominant, othering narratives purposely avoid having to deal with the ambiguity of intermediate identities.

Flux and identity constructs

The straight line assimilation theory which prevailed in North America until the end of the 1960s maintained that new immigrants would first experience acculturation by adopting the values, language and manners of the core group of the host society, and would then develop a sense of belonging, which would in turn modify their identity. In the final phase, civic assimilation was considered successful when there were no conflicts between majorities and minorities over political issues, when immigrants participated in and became committed to the public affairs of the host society, the acquisition of citizenship representing, at this point, the best indicator of the success of the assimilation process.

Numerous sociological studies have disproved this theory. It is possible to observe that identities have variously been reshaped among European minorities in the United States. These variations can be explained by sociological factors such as: the status of the reference groups, social class, and the life cycle (Waters, 1990 ; Rumbault, 1997). Within racialized minorities, choices are more restricted, but they exist depending on the specific cases and contexts (Waters, 1998 ; 1999).

These distinctions demonstrate that it is necessary to take into account the historical, social and political context in which identities are developed, transformed and combined. Contemporary factors are still active in the perpetuation of the racialization process. Systemic discrimination, categorization linked to public policies geared toward the management of diversity, the segmentation of the labor market, the socio-demographic characteristics of the migrants, the legal status and the duration of residence, the representation or presence within the public sphere, the ideological and political stakes inherent to the host societies, all these factors have an influence on the ways identities are shaped.

 The case analysis which follows will attempt to shed light on the impact of certain of these structural factors on the discourse associated with identity building and with the rationale on which it is based, in a specific societal context, that of Quebec.

3. The identities of the « second generation » :
A Quebec field study

For over 15 years, I have been studying the representations which are commonplace within minority environments on the issues of integration, citizenship and inter-community relations within Quebec society as a whole (Labelle, Lévy, 1995 ; Labelle, Salée, 2001). I have done this research through participant observation and field studies. This qualitative method requires that the researcher become immersed in the context, and that he or she take charge personally of the majority of the in-depth interviews, in order to be able to determine when the saturation point has been reached. This method has many advantages when compared to opinion polls or quantitative methods. The qualitative interview, as long as it is reinforced by a rigorous theoretical framework and well-documented research on the social environment being studied, allows for the acquisition of a deeper knowledge of the perspective of the social actors, and a better understanding of the stakes as well as of the difficulties experienced by the actors.

In 1998, in the context of the social climate that followed the 1995 Referendum on Quebec sovereignty [3], with two other colleagues, I have tried to circumscribe the discourse specific to the ‘second generation’ of Haitian and Jamaican immigrants in terms of their integration into Canadian and/or Quebec society, and of their experience with racism (Labelle, Salée, Frenette, 2001).

 In looking at Haitian immigration to Canada, we distinguish between two distinctive waves. The first, from the late 1950s to early 1970s, was made up largely of professionals in the fields of health and education, as well as students, forced out by political persecution - this group had relatively little difficulty integrating. During the rapid expansion of the welfare capacities of the Quebec state in the 1960s and 1970s, their skills were in great demand. The second, post-70s wave consisted of unskilled or semi-skilled laborers fleeing economic hardship and political repression in Haiti. They headed mainly for Quebec’s manufacturing and service sectors. Their lack of professional qualifications and a slumping Quebec economy through the better part of the 1980s and 1990s made for more difficult conditions of integration than what their predecessors had experienced. The Haitian community is the fourth-ranking ethno-cultural group established in Quebec. It numbered 75,705 individuals in 1996, 45,465 of whom were born in Haiti. The second generation represents two-fifths of the community (Statistics Canada, 1996). Over 94% of this population is concentrated in the francophone neighbourhoods of the Montreal metropolitan area, and has an educational profile relatively comparable to the general population. Two-thirds of immigrants of Haitian origin speak only French ; 30% know both French and English ; 3% speak neither one. A little more than half of the individuals born in Haiti have declared Creole as their mother tongue.

The Jamaican community has deeper historical roots in Quebec society. The first important waves of immigration from the West Indies began early in the 20th century. In Jamaica, as in the rest of the Caribbean, limited economic perspectives and demographic pressures were the principal motivating factors behind emigration. In 1928, West Indian immigrants represented 40% of Montreal’s ‘black’ population (Williams, 1997). According to Williams, they were better educated and more ‘British’ than the Afro-Americans that had arrived in Montreal before them, which created a certain social distance between the two groups, reminiscent of the situation in New York (Kasinitz, 1997). Beginning in 1955 and into the mid 1960’s the immigration of women was more prevalent due to the West Indian Domestic Schema. Many of these women lived in Montreal temporarily, only to emigrate to Toronto and Vancouver (Williams, 1989). As of 1968, following the opening in Jamaica of the first immigration office able to handle immigration requests on site, the number of immigrants rose quickly. This immigration was youthful, urbanized and bipolar, much like Haitian immigration. But the majority of individuals headed for English Canada.

In the 1996 Census, 10,075 people in Quebec declared that they were of Jamaican origin. The second generation is estimated to be made up of 4,230 individuals. Data shows that the Jamaican community in Quebec remains almost entirely concentrated in the Anglophone communities of Montreal. 79% are unilingual and speak only English, while 20% declared that they were bilingual. The knowledge of French is more widespread amongst the educated youth in Quebec. This population has an educational profile comparable to the general population of Quebec.

It is often assumed that second-generation immigrants have an easier time than their parents and as a result should feel more readily Canadian and/or Quebecers. The ultimate aim of our exploratory study (from which we are quoting partial results for the purpose of this article) was to verify this assumption. The study is based on 24 in-depth interviews with Montreal-area young adults (ranging in age from 18 to 34) (chosen according to the snowball sampling method), who were either born of Haitian or Jamaican parents in Quebec or immigrated to Quebec with their parents as pre-schoolers. In other words, they have been primarily socialized and raised within Quebec institutions and normative environments (for the methodology employed, see Labelle, Salée and Frenette, 2001). The two principal researchers conducted the interviews personally.

Given the limited scope of the research, we deliberately chose to focus on young people from the middle classes, who did not display any particular commitments to social, political or community issues. The fathers were well educated (75% of them held a university degree) and were employed at the time or previously in socially enviable positions (engineers, professionals, teachers, administrators). Many of the mothers, although less educated, were active in the workplace (nurses, businesswomen, employees of the service sector, laborers).

All the young people of Haitian origin interviewed were educated in French at the elementary and secondary levels. Half of the young Jamaicans were educated in English at the elementary level and 90% went to English-language high schools. All of the respondents received either post-secondary technical training or University level education. The majority were actively part of the labor force at the time of the interviews (however, in many fields not necessarily related to their initial training).

We focused on their experience of racism in the school environment throughout their socio-professional development path. We investigated their social networks, their views on intercultural relations in Quebec, the personal significance of trans-border links with family members and relatives, and their views on national and civic identities.

We wanted to find out whether, inasmuch as these young adults had been imprinted in a sustained and even exclusive way by the Canadian and Quebec social environments, they felt a sense of belonging to the Quebec and/or Canadian political communities. We also asked whether they embraced Quebec’s civic identity in any way, and, despite the experience of racism which was part of our hypothesis, what meaning should be ascribed to their identity options.

During the interview, we asked for their reaction to the following statement: “People can describe themselves in several ways, for example as Haitian or Jamaican, Haitian-Canadian, Canadian, Quebecer of Haitian origin, Quebecer, Black or by some other name. How do you identify yourself?”. Four or five types of identity options stood out: a unique national identity based on Haitian or Jamaican origin (29% of cases) ; a hyphenated identity, for example Canadian-Haitian or Jamaican-Canadian, or Quebecer of Haitian origin (42% of cases) ; a unique Canadian civic identity (17%) ; a racialized identity: ‘Black’ (8%). In one last case, an interviewee identified herself as a ‘citizen of the world’ and explained her choice as coming from a feeling of double rejection.

Haitian and Jamaican identities.

The young people interviewed justified their choice of a single identity, Haitian or Jamaican, by differences in culture, education, values, lifestyles and the characteristics of their informal networks. The interviewees made a clear distinction between their own identity and the Canadian or Quebec identity. One can debate this identity’s status: is it based on immigrant values, on ethno-racial considerations, or is it linked to citizenship ? It all depends on one’s point of view: that of the country of origin or that of the host society. Whatever the case may be, the respondents (some among them were born in Canada) who chose a single identity, that of their parents, stated that they see Quebec and/or Canada as a place of residence, but they attach no symbolic value to this condition and feel no sense of belonging to either Canada or Quebec: “Haitian first, because of my surroundings, my friends. I have my home and my own way of being myself. If I said that I was a Quebecer, I would be assimilated… I have integrated into the Quebec milieu, but I am Haitian… And proud of it… It is a way of setting myself apart.” (Woman born in Canada, translated from French) ; “I feel Haitian… For me, a Quebecer is a White Francophone. I do not fit this image.” (Born in Canada, translated from French) ; “I’m Jamaican. Not Jamaican-Canadian. I wouldn’t say I’m Black… I would just assume, you look at my skin and you know I am Black. I am very proud of it. I don’t feel like I am a Canadian or a Quebecer. I feel like they want me out of here…”. (Born in Jamaica) ; ‘Jamaican. Most people would probably categorize me as Jamaican-Canadian because I speak a certain way and I know certain things…but I’have never felt that I am Canadian or a Quebecer. I just don’t do a lot of the Canadian things…” (Born in Jamaica).

Hyphenated identity.

This choice of identity is made by respondents who came to Canada at a very early age, but also of some individuals who were born in Canada. Their attachment to the culture and to the country of origin is reaffirmed, more often than not, as a reaction to a feeling of exclusion. Thus, a young woman, born in Canada, declares that she is ‘Jamaican-Canadian’: “I wouldn't say just Quebecer or Canadian because I was born in Jamaica. I still have the cultural influence”.

A young man speaks of the fluidity of identities that are transformed depending on the generation. He clearly refers to himself as a ‘Haitian-Canadian born in Montreal’, who cannot be considered automatically as a ‘Quebecer or a Canadian’, because he is the son of immigrants who possess another culture and another ‘race’, but whose children may one day call themselves or be designated as ‘neo-Quebecers’.

Identity building is manifest among the interviewees as a part of a dynamic relationship between themselves and their vision of a Quebec identity. Their vision of the ‘Quebecer’ is ethnically charged (it connotes White Francophones), and non-civic. These interviewees therefore declared, inevitably, that they harbor feelings of non-belonging towards Quebec. Whatever the case may be, they declare, people have always insisted on knowing where they are from, and have ceaselessly made them feel like the ‘other’ (or have underscored their ‘otherness’). “Jamaican-Canadian… I wouldn’t really say I am a Quebecer because to be a Quebecer is to be White and French… I guess since elementary school [people ask]: Where are you from? And you realise from young (sic) that you’re not a Quebecer, you are whatever your parents are.” (Woman born in Canada)

The interviewees demonstrated a strong sensitivity, much like first-generation immigrants, to the political connotations associated with the competing national/civic identities in the Canadian social space (Labelle, Salée, 2001). They have learned to take the context and the interlocutor into account in order to select a situational identity: “If I find myself in a Québécois milieu, I will say Quebecer of Haitian origin, perhaps because that pleases people. If I am among allophones [4], I am Canadian. I do not simply say Canadian or Quebecer, because that is not what people want to hear” (translated from French).

Only one respondent claimed to be Quebecer-Haitian: “I would not simply say Quebecer, because people could tell from my skin color that I am not truly Quebecer. Because in our heads, when we see a Quebecer, we see a White person.” (translated from French)

The Canadian identity.

Those who identify themselves exclusively as Canadians underscore the distance that they have taken in terms of their parents’ country of origin, their integration into Quebec society, or the political connotation of their choice: “Canadian. Because when I go to Jamaica they all look at me like a foreigner. I am a second-generation…I have more in common with the Québécois child. I have done the cabane à sucre. I have done all that. I come from here”. Or from another respondent: “I would probably call myself Canadian. I would probably call myself Quebecer. I think it’s all I really know. I was raised here. I was raised in a fairly French-speaking community here…” And finally: “I describe myself as Canadian. It’s political…” (Translated from French)

The racialized identity.

Two young people of Jamaican origin opted for the ‘Black’ designation: “Black is a powerful word and it's right to the point”, one of them remarked.

*
*  *

Three observations stand out concerning this empirical data: 1) the dominant tendency to adopt a hyphenated identity that, in most cases, demonstrates a resistance in accepting a unique Canadian or Québécois civic identity ; 2) the weakness of the Quebec identity and its polarization ; 3) the weakness of the racialized identity. Let us examine the possible reasons behind this state of things.

The weakness of the racialized identity.

When questioned on the topic of the ethno-racial lexicon used in governmental circles and public institutions, one third of respondents felt it was normal to recognize ‘race’ via the terms ‘Whites’ and ‘Blacks’, seen as accurately reflecting biological, social and cultural differences. In reaction to a historical legacy of ‘White’ dominance, the bedrock of racist ideology, many recalled a parental caution against trusting ‘Whites’, as well as emphasis on solidarity between ‘brothers and sisters’ of colour -- the idea of ‘looking out for one’s own’.

A majority, however, found the ‘Black/White’ dichotomy to be reductionist, over-simplified, even hurtful, pointing to the dangerous precedent set by those wishing to biologize difference, as well as homogenize an otherwise vastly diversified group of persons. It is also seen as a very ‘American’ delineation, unreflective of particular Canadian realities, and reinforcing the racist stereotypes of generations past in the current popular imagination.

They point to the great national diversity of populations aggregated as ‘black’ and their internal differences. One interviewee remarked that, in general, ‘white’ people are referred to in terms of their national origin, whereas this is not the case for people of color. Being Haitian or Jamaican is linked to specific national histories that are highly valued by their parents. These opinions confirm the results of many studies that demonstrated the resistance shown by Caribbean immigrants (and their descendants) to being reduced to a ‘Black’ identity against which they are then forced to define themselves either positively or negatively (Labelle and Midy, 1999: Williams, 1997 ; Waters, 1996 ; Kasinitz, 1997). The young people, for their part, have a rather mitigated view of ‘black’ solidarity in North America. In this sense, the Jamaican or Haitian communities of Montreal, Toronto, New York or Miami all have, in their eyes, their own specificities. Some also referred to a climate of competition and mistrust, and even prejudice, between groups categorized as ‘Blacks’. Many indicated that Quebec’s preoccupation with linguistic concerns, and the ensuing geographical divide of francophone and anglophone groups in Montreal, are often transposed onto ‘Black communities’, influencing the integration process: “It is more a question of language. We are French and they are English (referring to Jamaïcans). …So there is a barrier” (Haitian-born woman).

The respondents therefore distanced themselves from the essentialist theory of ‘race’, a product of the racist ideology of the colonial period in the Americas. It must be said that two-thirds of the young people interviewed remembered being called a variety of disparaging names during their school years: ‘chocolate’, ‘nigger’, ‘bougalou’, ‘négresse’ (feminine form of ‘nigger’), ‘patinoire’ (a play on words whose literal meaning is ‘ice rink’, but which, in its derogatory, deconstructed meaning is a deformation of ‘petit noir’ (pa-ti-noir) or ‘little blackie’). In order to face up to racism, quite real in its diverse manifestations (prejudices, discrimination, violence), they were raised to abide by a strong ethic of performance which held that they must work twice as hard as others to counterbalance the prejudices.

Michèle Lamont demonstrated how white American racists promote a disciplined self, whereas black American racists portray themselves, in terms of a distinct race, as the defenders of humanism and of the ethics of community solidarity -- the caring self (Lamont, 2001, op.cit). The same dialectic operates in the discourses of some of our interviewees, but in reverse. In face of discrimination, the lack of available resources and economic opportunity, prejudiced methods of selection and fierce labour force competition, results a parental pressure to succeed and overcome, to ‘be better than Whites’ in compensation for the social handicap of colour: ‘You’ve got to work twice as hard…As a Black person you have to prove yourself more than double time to get the job. As a parent this is a notion that you would pass on to your kids… ‘ (Jamaican-born woman).

The predominance of hyphenated identity.

We have already analysed the reasons that explain the persistence of multiple identities in first-generation immigrants. National pride and transnational linkages, the perverse effects of State-generated categorization, the role played by discrimination based on racism, ethnicity, religion, etc. and a certain feeling of exclusion in the cultural and symbolic order, all explain the reticence to relinquish national identities linked to the country of origin (Labelle, Midy, 1999 ; Labelle, Salée, 2001).

In the present case study, transnational linkages are unevenly maintained. Half our respondents keep some ties with the country of origin of their parents, but not to the same extent that their parents did or still do with the friends, relatives or associates left behind. The other half hardly knows anyone from the old country, or never even set foot there. Transnational practices in this regard remain relatively limited, contrary to what we note in the first generation of migrants.

Social categorization, prejudices and discrimination are more important factors. Both the Jamaican and Haitian communities in Quebec report unemployment levels at twice the provincial average. Studies reveal clear evidence of discrimination in both hiring practices and job security due to feelings among employers that hiring minorities constitutes a ‘risk’, and adherence to racial stereotyping that characterizes Blacks as ‘lazy’, despite candidates displaying the required necessary knowledge and skills.

Again, the racist incidents reported left unpleasant memories which have tended to reinforce symbolic boundaries in the mind of our interviewees. And despite their relative success at securing satisfying jobs, they feel that job hunting has been for them a more difficult and lengthier process than for other Quebecers. Less than one third of respondents reporting no difficulties in the professional realm, the rest describing a variety of obstacles including an implied lack of experience, lack of connections and ‘contacts’, insufficient knowledge of French, as well as overt prejudice and racial discrimination. Anglophone Jamaicans in particular feel that French language requirements represent an additional obstacle for them in the labor market. In consequence, for some, continental mobility is an important element of their social mobility project, even though, paradoxically, they perceive racism to be worse in the United States than it is in Quebec and Canada.

Personal networks and professional connections are essentially woven within the Haitian and Jamaican communities themselves. The choice of friends and spouses follows a certain logic based on community closure to the outside. And even if relations between ‘Blacks’ and ‘Whites’ are widely perceived as problematic, 90% of interviewees declared that the racialized minorities clearly wish to integrate into Quebec society.

The politicization of the Quebec identity.

Historical tensions surrounding the debate over nationhood, and the discourses leaning toward the ethnicization of the people of Quebec, which are still prevalent in the Canadian public space (in the Canadian press outside Quebec and within a certain minority-based leadership), contribute in certain cases to slowing down the process of civic incorporation for Quebec’s minorities. Conversely, in other cases, the same factors produce a strong adhesion to the Quebec civic identity, perceived as the access key to a shared citizenship [5]. These divergent social positions are underpinned by several theoretical arguments (Labelle, Lévy, 1995 ; Labelle, Salée, 2001) and are the source of heated debates.

In this case study, many respondents shared an ethnicized view of the Quebec identity (which is reflected by the recurrent and pejorative image, markedly present in their discourse, of Québécois pure laine – old-stock Quebecers or Quebec-born residents of French descent). The majority were unaware of the debates and of the notions of common public culture and of common civic framework put forward and defended by the Government of Quebec (Quebec, 2000). They were unaware of the principles and values that underlie Quebec’s public policy of interculturalism [6]. They were also uninformed about the societal debates surrounding the issue of the Quebec civic nation that might have led them to qualify their points of view.

As a result, only a minority declared that the integration of racialized minorities has nothing to do with the political situation, but is rather linked to the perpetuation of racist ideologies and to limited opportunities within the labor market. However, the majority readily positioned the debate on the political level. They foresee that the treatment of minorities will be worse in a sovereign Quebec. Minorities experience, according to them, feelings of insecurity, fear and reticence towards Quebec nationalism.

The sovereignist movement causes them to feel frustrated and uncertain. In a first case profile, individuals felt excluded from the Quebec social and political community. They do not feel like Quebecers because they are not themselves considered as fully-recognized Quebecers: “There are many immigrants who are in favor of Quebec independence. [For my part], the movement for the independence of Quebec is too ‘white’ and too Quebecer to allow any room for immigrants”. (Translated from French) Or, from another respondent: “Certain Quebecers are proud of Quebec and want separation, no matter what ethnic groups it may contain. Many others do not want to have anything to do with the English, or with Blacks. They want to live amongst born and bred white Québécois’. (Translated from French)

In a second case profile, individuals delineate themselves by attributing to a ‘cultural other’ (the French majority or the French sovereignists), a propensity toward intolerance. Under a ‘separatist regime’, said one respondent, immigrants would no longer be accepted, minorities would be ghettoized and would not be allowed the same liberties as ‘French Canadians’: “It would be worse. Minorities would be ghettoized”.

Linguistic policy serves as an important vector in the analysis of this situation. Perceived as an ethnic language rather than as a common public language, the French language is seen as a strategic element for domination and exclusion: “The Québécois pure laine, the real Quebecers, those that have been here forever, that's what they really want, Quebec for themselves”.

Certain sovereignist leaders have come to embody the presumed rejection of minorities and immigrants who were accused of being responsible for the failure of the 1995 Referendum on the sovereignty of Quebec. This discourse consolidates and perpetuates the stereotypes linked to non liberal values that are ascribed to the attributed nature of ‘ethnically’ defined Québécois or sovereignists (Potvin, 1997). It is therefore understandable that, armed with such prejudices, the young people interviewed developed an oppositional stance and did not identify themselves as Quebecers. The positions observed are indeed marked by ambivalence. They oscillate between a feeling of exclusion and a sense of reversed rejection, in a dynamic relationship that underpins the desire to belong.

This study is not fully representative of all racialized minorities youth, nor of minorities in general. But the analysis of the perceptions and the discourses that we have conducted does in lift the veil on a reality that is infinitely more complex than the one delivered by opinion polls on identities or prejudices, the common indicators of social distance. We may conclude that professional uncertainty, empirically experienced racism, non-inclusive societal categorization, stereotypes developed in reverse and community closure to the outside reinforce the feelings of otherness experienced by these young people in the country where they were born and/or grew to adulthood.

Conclusions and perspectives

In Western countries, structural transformations in the labor market have contributed to the exploitation and to the precariousness of large segments of the population. The coexistence of classic racism (which takes root in the hypothesis of biological and hierarchized races), and of neo-racism (based on the incompatibility and irreducibility of cultures and the necessity of their distance), perpetuates in turn the material and symbolic marginalization of individuals and groups. The societal enunciation of racism and social segmentation explains the quite diversified modes of incorporation of historical minorities subjected to conquest, annexation and slavery, and of contemporary migrants.

The ideological and political stakes proper to each society also factor into this enunciation. In Quebec, despite the orientations that guide the construction of a Quebec civic and diversified nation and despite the contributions of artists and intellectuals from minority groups to these same orientations, we are forced to note that the Quebec identity is more often than not a pretext for the expression of resentment.

How do we conceptualize the incorporation of racialized minorities in particular into the greater citizenry, in keeping with the perspective of a broadening of democracy? Civic incorporation must necessarily be attained through the concrete application of social and economic rights (the right to work, the right to fair remuneration, the right to dignity in the workplace, the right to unionize, the right to social security, etc.) and by the fight against systemic discrimination within the public and private sectors. In this perspective, the public policies that set in place equal opportunity access programs to employment (and the qualitative measures to which they are associated in the workplace: job training, vigilance against racial harassment, etc.) play an exemplary role. The same applies to policies and measures designed to favor equitable access to public services (education, health, etc.).

Citizenship is also linked to the concrete exercise of civil and political rights. Canada and Quebec, much like other States in the Americas, have made commitments to international and regional human rights instruments in order to fight racism and xenophobia (legislative, administrative and judicial measures targeting propaganda and racist organizations). Many community organizations in the civil society work towards the inclusion of these measures into social practices. A lot remains to be done, however, in terms of the broadening of democratic spaces (measures to improve access to public affairs through presence if not active participation in institutions, social movements and political parties ; measures aimed at recognizing and supporting community action dedicated to the fight against racism, etc.).

Finally, in the Quebec context, asking these questions solely in terms of multicultural or intercultural relations, or of the co-integration of ‘communities’, defined as homogenous blocks or entities, is just not enough. We believe that a new discourse focused on cultural rights is a necessity, along with its corollary, the subversion of the current ethno-racial discourse. What is at stake is the builging of neither a ‘communauté des citoyens’ as individualized monads, nor a ‘communauté des communautés’, and requires institutional creation for taking in account the deep diversity of our societies (Balibar, 2000).

The world Conference of the United Nations against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and the intolerance with which it is associated, held in Durban in 2001, highlighted various claims. Among them, the measures of symbolic reparation represented by the recognition of the cultural and identity rights of Aboriginal Peoples and of the minorities of African descent, which includes the possibility of ‘calling themselves by of their own names’. The right to identity can be interpreted as the right to not be reduced or subsumed into a presumed racialized group. It thus appears necessary to subvert this reductionist and dominant discourse. Quebec, like other Western societies, has its own narrative that can recounted otherwise than by means of the ‘White/Native’ or ‘White/Black’ dichotomies, and this, without falling into the trap of an abstract and levelling citizenship. On the contrary, a differentiated or multicultural citizenship presupposes the public recognition of diversity as a principle, but does not tie down the groups carrying various identity markers to an exclusive specificity, whether it be ethnic or racialized. Moreover, how could they be defined or delimited?

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