DR. AYA FUJIWARA

The Impact of Multiculturalism on Racialized Minorities: A Japanese Perspective

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This paper addresses the impact of multiculturalism policy on racialized minorities, bringing Asian and Japanese perspectives into the discussion. The 1971 federal policy of multiculturalism was criticized by Asian scholars and activists such as Peter S. Li and Gordon Hirabayashi, for prioritizing the linguistic and cultural rights of “white ethnics” in the 1980s and 1990s. It has evolved, however, into much more comprehensive policies over the past fifty years, which endorse anti-racism and equity for racialized citizens. While it made a significant impact on how mainstream Canada recognizes these marginalized people as significant actors in society, the policy had certain limits. Focusing on post-secondary education, this paper puts forward three points. First, while multiculturalism policy encouraged the hiring of ethnic scholars in the 1990s, the majority remain white ethnics and racialized scholars are still in the minority. Second, in post-secondary institutions, the promotion of Japanese language education and Japanese studies largely depends on homeland funds and initiatives. Finally, systemic racism is still deep-rooted and Asian scholars are usually confined to studies dealing with their homelands. Given these tendencies, this paper envisions the future role of multiculturalism in education.

Aya Fujiwara is the Director of the Prince Takamado Japan Centre for Teaching and Research (PTJC) at the University of Alberta. Currently she is teaching the History of Modern Japan and the History of Ethnicity and Immigration in Canada in the Department of History and Classics, while organizing several students’ mobility programs and research projects that focus on Japan and Canada at the PTJC. She is author of Ethnic Elites and Canadian Identity: Ukrainians, Japanese, and Scots, 1919-1971 (University of Manitoba Press, 2012), and several articles in the field of immigration and ethnic history of Canada. After obtaining her Ph.D. in history at the University of Alberta, she served as a full-time political advisor/researcher at the Embassy of Japan in Canada, and as L.R. Wilson Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of History, McMaster University. Her area of research is immigration and ethnic history of Canada, transnationalism, Japanese Canadians, and Japan-Canada relations.