Visible minority

Look up visible minority in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Visible minority is a term used primarily in Canada to describe persons who are not visibly of the majority race in a given population.

The term is used as a demographic category by Statistics Canada in connection with that country's Employment Equity policies. The qualifier "visible" is important in the Canadian context where political divisions were traditionally determined by language (English vs. French) and religion (Catholics vs. Protestants), "invisible" traits, prior to the reform of Canada's immigration laws in the 1960s. Members of visible minorities are defined by the Canadian Employment Equity Act as "persons, other than Aboriginal people, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour."^[1] The term is used to address labour market disadvantage of this group.

Visible minorities in Canada

Over five million Canadians identified themselves as a member of a visible minority group in the 2006 Census, accounting for 16.2% of the total population. This was an increase from 2001 where visible minorities accounted for 13.4% of the total population; an increase from 1996 when the proportion was 11.2%; and a major increase over 1991 (9.4%) and 1981 (4.7%). The increase represents a significant shift in Canada's demographics since the advent of that country's multiculturalism policies.

Of the provinces, Ontario had the highest proportion of visible minorities, representing 24.8% of its population, followed by British Columbia at 22.8%. In the 2006 census, South Asian Canadians overtook people of Chinese origin as Canada’s largest visible minority group. In 2006, Statistics Canada estimated that there were 1.3 million South Asian people in Canada compared with 1.2 million Chinese.^[2] In 2001, there were approximately 1 million Chinese Canadians representing 3.5% of the country’s population, followed by South Asian Canadians (3.1%) and Black Canadians (2.2%).

Controversies

The label “visible minorities” has been followed by controversy. In March 2007, the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination described the term as racist because it singles out a group.^[3]

Another criticism arises regarding the composition of “visible minorities” as defined by the Canadian government. The Canadian government defines visible minorities as “non-white” or “non-Caucasian” and further states that it comprises the following groups: “Black, South Asian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Southeast Asian, Filipino, Arab/West Asian, Latin American”.^[4][5][6] As a result, Arabs and West Asians (the Canadian government’s label) who identify as white and Caucasian take offense to the implication that they are “non-white” or “non-Caucasian”. They allege that the Canadian government has adopted a highly Eurocentric definition of “white” and “Caucasian”.

Furthermore, the category “West Asian” may offend those descended from the people of Turkey, Iran, Armenia, etc., if these do not regard themselves as Asian.

Similarly, it may be offensive that a Latin American, even if entirely of European ancestry, is implicitly defined as “non-white” and “non-Caucasian” under the definition of visible minority. Again, this use of the term “visible minorities” implies a very Eurocentric definition of “white” and “Caucasian”.

It has also been pointed out that the groups comprising “visible minorities” have little in common with each other, including both disadvantaged ethnic groups and groups that are not disadvantaged.^[7]

See also

• Affirmative action
• BME (Black and ethnic minority)
• Employment equity (Canada)
• Racialism
• Racism

References

External links

• Statistics Canada – Visible minority population and population group reference guide (2006 Census)
• Statistics Canada – Visible minority population, by census metropolitan areas (2006 Census)