Multiculturalism

I don't see Tangle suggesting that it was bad but that it was just the reality. I would question though whether or not he was correct. It seems to me more that the melting pot just takes longer.Certainly when people move to a new country they are most likely to move to a community that more closely represents their homeland. It is human nature. We are tribal and of course there are linguistic issues as well.However as time goes by and you get to the second and third generations and beyond, IMHO it does become more of a melting pot as people's customs become more blended.A lived in the Toronto area for a number of years and our street was a complete melting pot where people born in Canada were a minority. There were Brits, French and English Canadian, Chinese from both Hong Kong and the rest of China, Serbians, a Croatian, East Indian are the ones I can remember off the top of my head.I'm not convinced that given enough exposure to each other we can't have a society that will focus more on what brings us together than what separates us.

You may be right although the experience that I had in Toronto was more positive. I also think that in Canada, other than for our native population, we are a country of immigrants, so possibly we are more of a melting pot than you are in the UK.Possibly the size of any specific immigrant population might have an impact. The larger the group the less need to integrate with the majority group. I experienced that myself as an anglophone living on the west island of Montreal where English was the predominant language, as opposed to majority French language and culture in all of Montreal. The English speaking population in my area made it easy for me to live without being absorbed into the French language and culture, which of course in the long run was my loss.