Joseph Yvon Thériault

Ethnolinguistic minorities and national integration in Canada

Abstract In the light of the other contributions to this issue, which offer various perspectives on ethnolinguistic minorities — Anglophones in Quebec and Francophones in Canada outside Quebec — this article explores the question of how the identity process unfolds in these minority groups. These processes do not reflect pure definitions of types of identity groups, such as nation, minority nationalism, or ethnic groups. They are, instead, an interlocking pattern of these different types, which produces a dynamic determined, in large part, by historic modes of national integration particular to the Canadian context. The specific dynamic, rather than leading us away from our understanding of ethnolinguistic identities, leads us towards the possibility of a better understanding of how contemporary societies are constructed by the interweaving of ethnolinguistic and ethnocultural groups, national minorities and nations.