This annual dataset includes a score for each MCP policy for immigrants in each country from 1960 to 2011. The data identifies the precise year in which a country adopted and/or retrenched each MCP. It also includes the year of adoption of each MCP in countries such as Canada and Australia, which introduced such policies prior to 1980. In 2020 the Multiculturalism Policy Index for Immigrant Minorities was updated to include data for 2020. As part of that update Rebecca Wallace identified the exact years in which policy changes occurred. This allowed for the update to the Multiculturalism Policy Index for Immigrants and Minorities data (cited as Tolley et al., 2021) to be used to update the annualized index as well. Where there has been no change in an indicator for a particular country for the period between 2011 and 2020 that is indicated in the evidence section for the indicator. Where there has been a change, a brief summary of the reasons for the change is given.
This dataset was compiled by Dr. Daniel Westlake for his doctoral dissertation research at the University of British Columbia. The dataset is a central focus of his publication: “Following the Right: Left and Right Parties’ Influence Over Multiculturalism.” Canadian Journal of Political Science. 53(1): 171-188. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. We are very grateful to him for sharing this data with the wider research community.
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Table 1: Multiculturalism Policy Index for immigrant minorities: annual data
These annual scores are based on the decision rules set out in the original evidence document: “Multiculturalism Policy Index: Immigrant Minority Policies: Revised Edition, by Erin Tolley, with revisions by Madison Vonk (2011; 2016) and Rebecca Wallace (2020). The evidence supporting the year of adoption/retrenchment is set out in the document entitled “Evidence: Annual Scores.”
Table 1: Excel [168 KB]
EVIDENCE: Annual Scores
This data set extends the original Multiculturalism Policy Index for Immigrant Minorities in two ways. First, it fills in the years between the 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020 scores that the Banting/Kymlicka index includes. The data set scores countries on a year by year basis, identifying the year in which a country adopted a particular multiculturalism policy and any years in which retrenchment on that policy occurred. Second, this data set goes further back historically, including scores from 1960-2011.
Evidence Document: PDF [797 KB]