The United States and Canada

• Main Authors: Bourhis, Richard Y, Marshall, David F
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York, NY 1991
• Subjects: First Nations
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195124286.003.0017; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52230272/isbn-9780195124286-book-part-17.pdf

Abstract The United States and Canada have many similarities: Both were the products of British Empire expansion; both contain conquered language minorities (Spanish and French, respectively) that seek maintenance of their languages and cultures as “national minorities”; both are known as “immigrant countries” of the New World that have depended on international immigration to build their respective multiethnic and multicultural societies; and, continentally, both developed westward, displacing aboriginal peoples (First Nations) who were conquered militarily and marginalized in their respective cultures and governments. English is used as the majority language in both countries, a language that symbolizes the powerful hegemony of two consecutive capitalist world empires: the British and then the American. Despite the unrelenting spread of English world wide, internally both Canada and the United States face political turmoil that surrounds issues of language choice, ethnic identity, equality, and justice, and both are experiencing crises of national identity and the process of “renationalization” through the changing of their respective concepts of who they are and what they are about as nation states.