In March 2016, Austrian Federal Minister for Families and Youth Dr. Karmasin paid the first official visit to Canada in order to learn about the Canadian experience in the area of immigration integration. In an interview for the Canadian ethnic radio in Ottawa she pointed out that Austria and Canada have commonalities in dealing with the immigration integration.
Canada is a country historically based on immigration. Canada has a multicultural policy that provides a large variety of free services for immigrants. The Canadian policy of multiculturalism extends to the media and to the public sphere. Canadian citizens and permanent residents can participate in media by opening their own small newspapers or by volunteering for mainstream or ethnic/multilingual media.
What about the EU? Can we compare the EU and Canada in terms of multicultural society and policy?
The governmental multicultural policies are aimed at citizens. The EU makes efforts to extend media that broadcast in various languages of the EU. The news stories that Euranet and Euronews broadcast are about migrants but are not specifically aimed at resolving migrant problems in favour of migrants and the European multiculturalism.
The question is whether migrants are involved in the public sphere of the EU? Does the multiculturalism become a supranational policy of the EU, or each Member State deals with migrants on its own? What type of multiculturalism does the EU need?
