The Effect of Multiculturalism Policy on Ethnic Identity among Filipino Students in the United States and Canada

This dissertation uses in-depth interviews of 58 university students to explore the role multiculturalism policy plays in ethnic identity maintenance in Canada and the United States. This study expands our current understanding of assimilation trajectories by comparing the ethnic identities of second-generation Canadian and U.S. Filipina/o university students. Filipina/os experience an alternative form of assimilation in both countries that is neither straight-line nor segmented by class. The study finds that Canada's explicit multiculturalism government policies create different expectations for ethnic identity and assimilation among Filipina/o students in that they believe they can be both ethnic and national. The policy facilitates structural assimilation but not cultural assimilation.;In contrast, the absence of an explicit multicultural policy in the U.S. facilitates neither structural nor cultural assimilation and places a greater reliance on volunteer cultural organizations. The result is that US Filipina/o students have a more politicized identity whereas those university students in Canada view their identities as cultural rather than political. Filipina/os see the value of a politicized identity, and when one considers gender and sexual preference, Filipina/o female and gay students in both the U.S. and Canada understand the necessity of a politicized identity because they believe they are marginalized in society.