Ethnic Identity of Older Chinese in Canada

In Canada’s multicultural society, ethnic identity is important to the elderly and can influence areas such as access to services, health promotion and care. Often, the complex nature of ethnic identity is underestimated when looking at cultural groups. This study aims to: (a) validate the factor structure of a Chinese ethnic identity measure for older Chinese in Canada, (b) examine the level of ethnic identity of the participants, and (c) examine the correlates of ethnic identity in these older individuals. Using data from a large, national research project on the elderly Chinese in Canada, this study analyzed the results gathered from a total of 2,272 participants. Principal component analysis, maximum-likelihood confirmatory factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis were performed. The results indicated that ethnic identity of the older Chinese is a multi-dimensional construct made up of three factors: (a) culture related activities, (b) community ties, (c) linkage with country of origin, and (d) cultural identification. The findings have provided a better understanding of how ethnic identity can be measured among the aging Chinese population in Canada

Consumer ethnicity three decades after: a TCR agenda

Research into consumer ethnicity is a vital discipline that has substantially evolved in the past three decades. This conceptual article critically reviews its immense literature and examines the extent to which it has provided extensive contributions not only for the understanding of ethnicity in the marketplace but also for personal/collective well-being. We identify two gaps accounting for scant transformative contributions. First, today social transformations and conceptual sophistications require a revised vocabulary to provide adequate interpretive lenses. Second, extant work has mostly addressed the subjective level of ethnic identity projects but left untended the meso/macro forces affecting ethnicity (de)construction and personal/collective well-being. Our contribution stems from filling both gaps and providing a theory of ethnicity (de)construction that includes migrants as well as non-migrants

The Assimilation-Retention Hypothesis and the Second and Third Generations

Non

THE PROCESS OF MAINTENANCE OF ETHNIC IDENTITY: THE CANADIAN CONTEXT

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DEMOCRACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY: DIVERSE ETHNIC IDENTITIES AS A NEW BASE FOR SOCIAL ORDER

Conference Dates : July 18, 1994 Conference : XIIIth World Congress of Location : Bielefeld, GermanyThe last quarter of the twentieth century has witnessed an emergence of interethnic conflicts and a reassertion of ethnicity around the world. In a great many societies ethnic minority groups who previously appeared to have accommodated to their minority position in society have become politicized. In a survey of such groups, Ted Gurr (1993) has singled out 233 minority ethnic groups who are "at risk". By this he means groups that in the post-World War II period have either taken political action on behalf of their collective interests or have experienced economic or political discrimination, or both. Hence they are actually or potentially engaged in interethnic conflict

Olga in Wonderland: Ethnicity in Technological Society

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MINORITY CHALLENGE TO MAJORITY IDENTITY: TOWARD A THEORY

Conference : XIVth World Congress of SThis paper deals with the premise that ethnic minority groups, to the extent that they retain their identity in a larger or smaller degree, present a challenge to the identity of the majority, i.e., the dominant, group in society. My consideration of this issue derives from what sociologically speaking is the nature of ethnically diverse societies: Distinct minority ethnic groups existing in a society whose institutions are determined by the culture of a different, but dominant, ethnic group. While on the one hand the dominant culture, by that fact, presents a challenge to the minority groups' cultures -- a challenge that in our society is usually approached through the process of assimilation of the minority groups -- the persistence of cultural identity of the minority groups in turn must present some kind of challenge to the majority identity

Democracy in the 21st Century: Diverse Ethnic Identities as a New Base for Social Order,” paper presented to XIIIth World Congress of Sociology, “Contested Boundaries and Shifting Solidarities

The last quarter of the twentieth century has witnessed an emergence of interethnic conflicts and a reassertion of ethnicity around the world. In a great many societies ethnic minority groups who previously appeared to have accommodated to their minority position in society have become politicized. In a survey of such groups, Ted Gurr (1993) has singled out 233 minority ethnic groups who are "at risk". By this he means groups that in the post-World War II period have either taken political action on behalf of their collective interests or have experienced economic or political discrimination, or both. Hence they are actually or potentially engaged in interethnic conflict. Each one of these groups is at risk of collective adversity. Of these 233 groups, only 27, or about 12 percent, have so far no record (in the sources he could find) of political organization, protest, rebellion or other form of intercommunal conflict since 1945. Further, he points out that out of 127 countries in the world that he examined, 75 percent had at least one, and many had more, highly politicized minorities. Gurr admits that these are conservative figures and gives references to other researchers. Two such researchers have identified 575 ethnic groups as being actual or potential nation-states, and one has estimated that there are as many as 3 to 5 thousand "nations" in the world Another way of gauging the political significance of ethnicity is to look at main events taking place over a period of time. Thus, out of 295 events taking place around the world as recorded by the Statesman 's Yearbook, 1993-94, 127

Approaches to ethnic conflict resolution: paradigms and principles

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