Meeting : organizing Cultural Diversity in Canada

The Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME) organized, Tuesday, February 13, 2018 at the Casablanca Book Fair, a round table on the « management of cultural diversity in Canada ».

Ms. Fayrouz Fawzi, Ph.D. in Immigration Sociology and Immigration Law Consultant in Montreal, Mr. Abdelkader Filali, Doctor of Political Science from the University of Ottawa and Mr. Moulay Hicham Mouatatid, Political Science and PhD Student in Religious Studies contemporary at the University of Sherbrooke, participated in this roundtable moderated by Mr. Aziz Rifki, Project Manager at the CCME.

Mr Mouatadid said the Moroccan community in Canada « has a high level of education because of the selective migration policy to the country « . Moroccans in Canada have the advantage of being from a country with a millennial and pluralistic culture and face the challenge of integrating into the cosmopolitan Canadian society.

He added, the Canadian government is implementing a series of administrative and legal provisions for the integration of immigrant communities, but should not exclude « cooperation with members of these communities to help them in their supervision, particularly  religious affairs « .

Following the latest terrorist acts in the country he said: « preventing radicalization must be the subject of a partnership between Canada and the countries of origin to face radicalism  and Islamophobia and racism as the uniquivocal repercussions « .

Mr. Mouatadid lastly explained, referring to the history of Canada and the United States, « the term migrant should be exceeded because we are all migrants and what  changes is just the date of arrival « .

In her intervention, Ms. Fawzi afirmed that « Moroccan women in Canada actively participate in the development of the country and the integration of their family » but do not  integrae when they are not educated or when their language proficiency reception is lacking.

Even if it has been complicated, the difficulties, the Moroccan woman brings an added value to theCanadian society.

According to Ms. Fawzi, « economic development and the battle against the low birth rate are the fist objectives of Canadian immigration, which places interculturality only in third place. « A ranking that may need to be revisited »

Even if the associative actions encouraging interculturality are making many efforts, Ms. Fayrouz said that they « are remain insufficient to integrate the Moroccan community » and particularily to neutralize the stereotypes of  the media which alter the image of the immigrant.

Finally, Ms. Fayrouz invited « Moroccan women to make greater efforts to consile their traditions and the values ​​of Canadian society. »

Mr Filali said for his part said that « the security approach is prevailing in the treatment of immigrant communities », which « must be reversed by the immigrants themselves. They  are called to organize themselves into think tanks. Because they are, in countries like Canada and the United States, references for party groups.

He also called for « improving the Moroccan cultural offer in Canada, which must focus on the diversity of our millennial heritage ».