Mapping of Population Diversity in Canada and Germany: Different Strategies, Similar Pragmatism

Mapping of Population Diversity in Canada and Germany: Different Strategies, Similar Pragmatism

The aim of this paper is to compare the respective approaches of Canada and Germany in statistically mapping population diversity and to offer possible explanations for the differences and commonalities observed. In order to investigate this, the paper takes into account the concept of ‘politics of belonging’ as a theoretical background and considers the functions of national statistics in categorizing different groups of people. There are different strategies of mapping population diversity and, inter alia, two models can be distinguished: while some countries explicitly include questions on elusive concepts of ‘origin’ in their population data collection, others refrain from doing so and instead derive different subgroups from information on citizenship and place of birth. Taking Canada as an example of the first group of countries and Germany of the second, and delineating recent changes within their respective strategies of measuring diversity within their populations, this paper argues that Canada and Germany converge towards a new pragmatism in the approaches of measuring diversity in population statistics.
Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v11i1.255
 

Schultz, Caroline

Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies; 2017: RERA V11:1 Transatlantic Perspectives on Citizenship and Diversity: Changing Trends (backfile abstracts)

2562-8429

10.22215/cjers.v11i1

Centre for European Studies, Carleton University

2017-05-20

info:eu-repo/semantics/article

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Peer-reviewed Article