The Multicultural Right:
Immigrants, Their Children, and
the New Face of Canadian Conservatism
This project explores how racialized immigrants and their children are reshaping the political right in Canada. I draw inspiration from U.S. scholarship on the “multiracial right,” particularly the work of Daniel Martinez HoSang and his collaborators. I use the term “multicultural” deliberately because it resonates with the Canadian psyche, where official multiculturalism has long been celebrated as part of the national identity.
My research asks: What happens when groups historically imagined as outsiders to the nation begin to claim space within conservative politics? Canada is a crucial site to study these questions. Immigration is central to Canadian nation-building. By 2036, nearly one in two Canadians will be an immigrant or the child of an immigrant. Already, racialized immigrants make up nearly half of the Greater Toronto Area’s population, one of the country’s most important political battlegrounds.
In my recent article, “I Began to Think More Like a Canadian” (Ethnic and Racial Studies), I show how second-generation South Asian and Chinese Canadians sometimes support conservative politics as a strategy for navigating racism and demonstrating belonging. Choosing meritocracy, in this context, is not about rejecting the reality of racism but about proving they have succeeded within the system as it stands. As one reader suggested, voting conservative is a form of "passing."
This project builds on those insights. It examines why and how some immigrants and their children are moving rightward while others are shifting left toward the NDP, and the consequences of these historic shifts. By taking a bottom-up approach that foregrounds participants’ own explanations, I aim to show how multiculturalism is not only a story about inclusion but also a political terrain where racialized groups can end up endorsing exclusionary politics, including the paradox of racialized immigrants and their descendants supporting anti-immigrant agendas.
My research asks: What happens when groups historically imagined as outsiders to the nation begin to claim space within conservative politics? Canada is a crucial site to study these questions. Immigration is central to Canadian nation-building. By 2036, nearly one in two Canadians will be an immigrant or the child of an immigrant. Already, racialized immigrants make up nearly half of the Greater Toronto Area’s population, one of the country’s most important political battlegrounds.
In my recent article, “I Began to Think More Like a Canadian” (Ethnic and Racial Studies), I show how second-generation South Asian and Chinese Canadians sometimes support conservative politics as a strategy for navigating racism and demonstrating belonging. Choosing meritocracy, in this context, is not about rejecting the reality of racism but about proving they have succeeded within the system as it stands. As one reader suggested, voting conservative is a form of "passing."
This project builds on those insights. It examines why and how some immigrants and their children are moving rightward while others are shifting left toward the NDP, and the consequences of these historic shifts. By taking a bottom-up approach that foregrounds participants’ own explanations, I aim to show how multiculturalism is not only a story about inclusion but also a political terrain where racialized groups can end up endorsing exclusionary politics, including the paradox of racialized immigrants and their descendants supporting anti-immigrant agendas.
