Controversy
The classification “visible minorities” has attracted 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. Another criticism arises regarding the composition of “visible minorities” as defined by the Canadian government. Critics have noted that the groups comprising “visible minorities” have little in common with each other, as they include some disadvantaged ethnic groups and other groups who are not disadvantaged. The concept of visible minority has been cited in demography research as an example of a statistext, meaning a census category that has been contrived for a particular public policy purpose.
Since 2008, census data and media reports have suggested that the "visible minorities" label no longer makes sense in some large Canadian cities due to immigration trends in recent decades. For example, "visible minorities" actually comprise the majority of the population in Vancouver, Markham, Richmond, and Brampton. However, the term "visible minority" is used for the administration of the Employment Equity Act, and refers to its statistical reality in Canada as a whole and not any particular region.
Read more about this topic: Visible Minority
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
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