Assessing multiculturalism’s cross-national fate with greater accuracy: Why we need a BSM index

This paper develops the prototype of a new composite index, one that is based on the tenets of and contributions to the Bristol School of Multiculturalism (BSM), to assess multiculturalism’s trajectory in the third decade of the 21st century and beyond. The ‘BSM Index’ builds on the BSM’s study of multiculturalism in the UK and western Europe, its discussion on religious identities and post-migration communities, and its expansive notion of the integration process. The BSM Index is applied to the Canadian case, a country that consistently receives high scores on the Multicultural Policy Index (MCP Index) and that is held, by academics and public commentators, as the example of successful and enduring immigrant-centered multiculturalism. The Canadian case’s BSM Index score shows that while the country’s commitment to multiculturalism is indeed solid it still has more room to develop. The paper concludes that obtaining a more accurate picture of national level commitments to multiculturalism in and across immigrant-receiving countries will require developing a final product BSM Index that can operate in combination with the MCP Index.