Diversity and Interculturalism: Learning from Winnipeg's Inner City (Report‪)‬

Abstract We are experiencing, through a series of public and private decisions, the globalizing of our urban communities. Winnipeg's inner city, the focus of this research, is deeply touched by the globalizing process. It is in the inner city of Winnipeg, that newcomers, especially refugees, have joined the historical minority-Aboriginal people who struggle with poverty and exclusion. In this qualitative study, I discuss the changing ethno-racial composition of Winnipeg's inner city due to immigration and attendant modes of social exclusion. Newcomers feel excluded from and distanced from Canadian society, and there are tensions between newcomers and the historical minority--Aboriginal people, who are disproportionately located in the inner city. The voices of participants in this study suggest that official multiculturalism has not resulted in the elimination of exclusion and marginalization within these racialized groups. Therefore, I suggest a shift from multiculturalism to interculturalism.