
What accounts for the considerable variation in the salience of distinctive identities and community life among minority ethnic, racial, cultural and religious groups in Canada? What are the primary forces at work, both inside and outside of the group boundaries? And how does the formation of distinctive identities and communities affect the integration of minority group members in mainstream society?
These questions have been addressed in the studies listed below. While all these studies have included groups of European and non-European origins, over time there has been an increasing emphasis on groups of non-European origins, reflecting the changing immigration demography in Canada.
The Survival of Ethnic Groups (1980), and most of the other studies published between 1974 and 1980, drew on results from the Non-Official Languages (1976) survey of 10 minority groups in major Canadian cities, conducted by the Multiculturalism Program in 1972. Ethnic Identity and Equality (1990), and as well the 1997 publication “Race, Culture, and the Economic Integration of immigrants,” was based on a survey in Toronto of 6 minority groups, Italian, German, Jewish, Ukrainian, West Indian Blacks, and Chinese, plus a “mainstream Canadian” group (defined as persons of British origins whose families had been in Canada for three or more generations). The 1997 publication was also based on this survey. And Multiculturalism and Social Cohesion (2009) was based on the Ethnic Diversity Survey conducted in 2002 by Statistics Canada, and included representation of a range of ‘visible minority’ and European-origin groups.
Survey Source: Non-Official Languages Study (1972)
1974 Jeffrey G. Reitz, “Language and ethnic community survival”, Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology Special Issue: 104-122. Reprinted in Ethnicity and Ethnic Relations in Canada: A Book of Readings, edited by J. Goldstein and R. Bienvenue, Toronto: Butterworths, 1980, pp. 111-129. Also reprinted in Second Edition, 1985, pp. 105-123.
1976 K.G. O’Bryan, Jeffrey G. Reitz and O. Kuplowska, Non-official Languages: A Study in Canadian Multiculturalism. Ottawa: Supply and Services Canada, 274 pp. Also in French translation.
1976 K.G. O’Bryan, Jeffrey G. Reitz and O. Kuplowska, “Non-official languages study: a review of principle results,” Multiculturalism as State Policy, published by Canadian Consultative Council on Multiculturalism, Conference Report, Second Canadian Conference on Multiculturalism. Ottawa: Ministry of Supply and Services, pp. 131-145. Reprinted in: Cultural Diversity and Canadian Education, edited by J.R. Mallea and J.C. Young, Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1984, pp. 217-232.
1980 Jeffrey G. Reitz, The Survival of Ethnic Groups. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 292 pp. Japanese edition: Kanada Taminzoku-shakai no Kouzou: Esunikku Shudan wa Naze Sonzokusuruka [The Structure of Multi- ethnic Society in Canada: Why Ethnic Groups Survive], translated and edited by Washio Kurata and Takeo Yamamoto. Kyoto: Koyo Shobo, 1994, 420 pp.
1980 Jeffrey G. Reitz and M.A. Ashton, “Ukrainians in urban Canada; some findings on language and identity retention.” Canadian Ethnic Studies 12, 2: 33-54.
Survey Source: Toronto Ethnic Group Survey (1980)
1990 R. Breton, W.W. Isajiw, W.E. Kalbach and Jeffrey G. Reitz, Ethnic Identity and Equality: Varieties of Experience in a Canadian City. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 342 pp. Nominated by University of Toronto Press for the John Porter Book Award.
1990 Jeffrey G. Reitz, “Ethnic concentrations in labour markets and their implications for ethnic inequality.” In: R. Breton, W.W. Isajiw, W.E. Kalbach, and J.G. Reitz, Ethnic Identity and Equality: Varieties of Experience in a Canadian City, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990, pp. 135-195. Reprinted in The Sociology of Labour Markets: Efficiency, Equity, Security, edited by Axel van den Berg and Joseph Smucker, Scarborough, Ontario: Prentice Hall Allyn and Bacon Canada, 1997, pp. 407-450. An earlier version published as “Ethnic concentrations and ethnic inequality in Toronto labour markets: a comparison of seven minority groups”, in: Jürgen Fijalkowski (ed.) Transnationale Migranten in der Arbeitswelt: Studien zur Ausländerbeschäftigung in der Bundesrepublik und zum internationalen Vergleich (Transnational Migrants in the Employment System: Studies on the Employment of Foreign Workers in the Federal Republic of Germany and on International Comparison. West Berlin: Edition Sigma Rainer Bohn Verlag, 1990 pp.
187-221. Presented at a conference on “Personnel Policies and the Integration of Immigrants into the Workworld” (Handlungsspielräume betrieblicher Personalpolitik und Ausländer integration in der Arbeitswelt), Freie Universität Berlin, West Germany, December 16-17, 1988.
1997 Jeffrey G. Reitz and Sherrilyn M. Sklar, “Culture, race, and the economic assimilation of immigrants,” Sociological Forum, 12,2: 233-77.
Survey Source: Ethnic Diversity Survey (2002)
2007 Jeffrey G. Reitz and Rupa Banerjee, “Racial Inequality, Social Cohesion, and Policy Issues in Canada,” pp. 489-545 in: Belonging? Diversity, Recognition and Shared Citizenship in Canada, edited by Keith Banting, Thomas J. Courchene, and F. Leslie Seidle. Montreal: Institute for Research on Public Policy. Reprinted with updates in Social Inequality in Canada: Dimensions of Disadvantage, 5th edition, edited by E. Grabb and N. Guppy, Toronto: Pearson Canada. Also included in 6th (E. Grabb, J. Reitz, and M. Hwang, 2017) and 7th (M. Hwang, E. Grabb, and J. Reitz, 2022) editions, Toronto: Oxford University Press.
2009 Jeffrey G. Reitz, Raymond Breton, Karen Kisiel Dion, and Kenneth L. Dion, Multiculturalism and Social Cohesion: Potentials and Challenges of Diversity, Amsterdam: Springer, 196 pp.
2009 Jeffrey G. Reitz, Rupa Banerjee, Mai Phan, and Jordan Thompson, “Race, Religion, and the Social Integration of New Immigrant Minorities in Canada,” International Migration Review, 43, 4 (Winter): 695-726.
2015 Jeffrey G. Reitz, Mai B. Phan & Rupa Banerjee, “Gender Equity in Canada’s Newly Growing Religious Minorities,” Ethnic and Racial Studies, 38, 5: 681-699.
2021 Richard Alba & Jeffrey G. Reitz, “The significance of mixed family backgrounds for mainstream integration in Canada,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47:4, 916-933, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2019.1654162
‘State of the Art’ Overview and Synthesis
1980 R. Breton, Jeffrey G. Reitz and V. Valentine, Cultural Boundaries and the Cohesion of Canada. Montreal: Institute for Research on Public Policy, 422 pp. Also in French translation.
1980 Jeffrey G. Reitz, “Immigrants, Their Descendants, and the Cohesion of Canada,” pp. 329-417 in: R. Breton, Jeffrey G. Reitz and V. Valentine, Cultural Boundaries and the Cohesion of Canada. Montreal: Institute for Research on Public Policy.
1998 Jeffrey G. Reitz, editor, “Metropolis Research Papers,” Canadian Journal of Regional Science, 20 (Special Issue, No. 1, 2; Spring-Summer 1997, published November, 1998) pp. 9-268.
2007 Jeffrey G. Reitz and Rupa Banerjee, “Racial Inequality, Social Cohesion, and Policy Issues in Canada,” pp. 489-545 in: Belonging? Diversity, Recognition and Shared Citizenship in Canada, edited by Keith Banting, Thomas J. Courchene, and F. Leslie Seidle. Montreal: Institute for Research on Public Policy. Reprinted with updates in Social Inequality in Canada: Dimensions of Disadvantage, 5th edition, edited by E. Grabb and N. Guppy, Toronto: Pearson Canada. Also included in 6th (E. Grabb, J. Reitz, and M. Hwang, 2017) and 7th (M. Hwang, E. Grabb, and J. Reitz, 2022) editions, Toronto: Oxford University Press.
2005 Raymond Breton, Ethnic Relations in Canada: Institutional Dynamics, edited and with an introduction by Jeffrey G. Reitz. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 398 pp.
2020 Irena Kogan, Eric Fong & Jeffrey G. Reitz, “Religion and integration among immigrant and minority youth,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46,17: 3543-3558. DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2019.1620408