What is Interculturalism?

As a Torontonian resident and a ‘diversity-lover’, it is a must to know the meaning of the word “Interculturalism”, and to distinguish it from the other close cultural designations, “cross-culturalism” and “multiculturalism”.

Let’s start it…

• Interculturalism

The first, and the most important one for our concern, is interculturalism. If you decompose the word, you get “Inter” and “culture”, meaning that there is an integration of various cultures. A good definition could be: “A government policy regarding the relationship between a cultural majority and cultural minorities, which emphasizes integration by exchange and interaction.” (Source: http://www.duhaime.org)

 

• Multiculturalism

In a multicultural society, people live alongside one another. There is a value of tolerance and the celebration of another’s distinctive cuisine, dress, music, dance, and related outward expressions of culture. It be can be presented as: “the existence, recognition, or preservation of different cultures or cultural identities within a unified society.” (Source: www.thefreedictionary.com/)  

 

• Cross-culturalism

A cross-cultural community tries to build bridges of relationship between all cultural communities, while remaining open to exchange. It is therefore like: “pertaining to or contrasting two or more cultures or cultural group”. (Source: www.thefreedictionary.com/) 

 

The picture below helps you to get a better understanding of the specificities of the three of them (Source: http://www.united-church.ca/)

 

 

I hope you now have a better picture of “Interculturalism”. As shown on the above picture, beyond the simple  co-existence of other cultures, and deeper than a first level of exchanges, a truly intercultural community requires real efforts and depth from each of us. This is a challenge that most of communities are currently facing, and this is what this website is focusing on.