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Intercultural Citizenship, Civic Nationalism, and Nation Building in Q uébec: From Common Public Language to Laïcité
Author(s) -
Dupré JeanFrançois
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
studies in ethnicity and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.204
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1754-9469
pISSN - 1473-8481
DOI - 10.1111/j.1754-9469.2011.01132.x
Subject(s) - citizenship , nationalism , sociology , politics , public space , public sphere , interculturalism , pluralism (philosophy) , legitimacy , political science , cultural assimilation , gender studies , multiculturalism , political economy , public administration , law , epistemology , architectural engineering , philosophy , engineering
This article analyses the current citizenship‐nation building nexus in Q uébec in light of government publications and recent public discourses on ethnocultural pluralism and immigrant integration. First, the article surveys the changing relationship between Q uébécois nationalism and citizenship according to political circumstances in Q uébec, suggesting that debates over immigrant integration have played a central role in the creation of a civic Q uébécois identity, initially based on F rench as the public language and interculturalism. The article then analyses recent public debates surrounding ‘reasonable accommodation’ in Q uébec, and identifies a growing emphasis on laïcité – the secularisation of the public space – as identity marker. This article attributes this growing focus on secularism to dissatisfied nationalists seeking to reclaim the cultural prominence of the F rench C anadian majority in provincial institutions and press for measures aimed at enhancing Q uébec's distinctiveness and autonomy within the C anadian institutional framework. On a more normative note, the article argues that while language nationalism is reconcilable with ethnocultural pluralism, recent discourses on the secularisation of the public space constrain the emergence of an openly pluralistic stance on national belonging in the province, and undermines the legitimacy of Q uébec interculturalism.