Multiculturalism and Integration

Multiculturalism and Integrationprovides new insights into the important issues of diversity, reasonable accommodation and identity construction in multicultural societies by examining the experiences of Canada and Ireland. While these two societies share many historical and cultural links, their differences help reveal the range of possible approaches to these important issues.Multicultural and multilingual diversity in contemporary Ireland are fairly recent phenomena, whereas Canada's policies and practices addressing cultural and linguistic diversity are several decades old. This basic difference has influenced their laws, language policies, education systems, cultural creations, and national identities as they have worked to accommodate multiculturalism.The volume brings together an international group of scholars working in a variety of fields including politics, law, sociolinguistics, literature, philosophy, and history. Their interdisciplinary approach addresses the complex factors influencing integration and multiculturalism, painting detailed and accurate portraits of these issues in Canada and Ireland.

Vera Regan is professor of Sociolinguistics at University College Dublin, and her research focuses on Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition. Her current research, funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS), examines Language, Identity and Interculturalism in Ireland. Recent distinctions include Chevalier dans I'Ordre des Palmes acadmiques, Conseil scientifique de I'AUPELF Research Fellowship, Prix du Qu, Canadian Studies Research Fellowship and Irish Canada University Foundation research Grant. Isabelle Leme teaches at the French Department of St Patrick's College. She holds a doctorate from University College Dublin. Her main interest is Second Language Acquisition, but she is also very interested in Language Variation and the learning of French through immersion programmes in Canada. Maeve Conrick is Dean of Arts, Vice-Head of the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences and Head of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at University College Cork, National University of Ireland Cork. She holds a doctorate in Linguistics from the Universit de Provence, Aix-Marseille 1, France. Research interests include the Linguistics of French and English, Sociolinguistics, Applied Linguistics, Language Policy, Canadian Studies and Qubec studies.