Definitional Debates, Mechanisms and Canada: Comment on Will Kymlicka’s article: “Solidarity in Diverse Societies”

摘要

Does immigrant-origin diversity undermine states’ willingness to engage in broad social redistribution, from enacting “living” minimum wage laws and progressive taxation, to providing public benefits in order to mitigate economic inequality? In asking this question, Will Kymlicka (2015), one of the staunchest defenders of multiculturalism, takes seriously the question of whether recognition of cultural, ethnic and religious diversity comes at the expense of redistribution. Not surprisingly, Kymlicka makes a strong pitch for a multicultural welfare state, which he distinguishes from neoliberal multiculturalism, exclusionary welfare chauvinism or assimilatory neoliberalism1 (Kymlicka, 2015).