Premium
Perceived racial and cultural discrimination and sense of belonging in Canadian society
Author(s) -
Wu Zheng,
Finnsdottir Maria
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
canadian review of sociology/revue canadienne de sociologie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.414
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1755-618X
pISSN - 1755-6171
DOI - 10.1111/cars.12339
Subject(s) - multiculturalism , white (mutation) , racism , race (biology) , social psychology , ethnic group , sociology , sense of place , sense of community , identification (biology) , gender studies , psychology , social science , anthropology , pedagogy , biochemistry , chemistry , botany , biology , gene
Multiculturalism promises equality and tolerance, yet racialized minorities in Canada continue to report experiences of discrimination. As Canada becomes increasingly culturally and racially diverse, it is important to understand what this discrimination means for sense of belonging in Canada. Using ordinary logistic regressions, we examine the effects of ethnocultural and racial discrimination on sense of belonging. Relying on a theoretical framework of the Rejection/Identification and Rejection/Disidentification models, we test the impacts of discrimination on national sense of belonging and on in‐group sense of belonging. We further examine the differential effects of discrimination on sense of belonging for white and non‐white Canadians. We find that discrimination negatively impacts both national and in‐group sense of belonging among both non‐white and white Canadians, although the impact is stronger among racialized minorities. Thus, we argue that discrimination reduces sense of belonging in Canada generally, but is more damaging to those who already occupy a marginalized social position. These findings have implications for our understanding of multiculturalism in Canada.