the CanadaVisa Team - 10 January, 2012
The study’s thrust is that “that people who work or learn in a diverse environment are more open to people from other cultures.”
The study found the following percentage of those surveyed described their workplace or school as diverse:
Jack Jedwad, the executive director of the ACS, says that “Canadians are stacking up as the country that has the most diverse workplaces.” He continues, that the “ethnically diverse workplace generally produces more openness to cultural difference.”
There are variations of diversity in Canada between its provinces, with Alberta coming out on top, with 81% of respondents classifying their work place or school as diverse.
While the study also pointed out that Quebec has the least diverse workplaces in Canada, according to the Montreal Gazette, “diversity is increasingly becoming the hallmark of 21st-century Quebec,” and that “population growth in the province is now primarily driven by immigration,” and finally, that shortly, “the province almost entirely will be reliant on immigrants to swell the population and sustain its productivity.”
While Quebec is a laggard then, in the diversity of its workplaces compared to the rest of Canada, which leads other countries according to the ACS study, no doubt an outcome of its highest per capita immigration on earth, with Quebec’s own increasingly ethnic diverse population — also due largely to immigration, its workplace diversity will likely rise to more closely match the high numbers seen across the rest of the country.
As Jedwab concludes “Going forward, as our workplace milieu and schools will become more diverse, it will likely generate more openness to difference.”
