Current Debates on Citizenship and Belonging: Multiculturalism, Gender and Sexuality

In English Debates around gender and sexuality currently inform important negotiations of citizenship and belonging in Canada. In this chapter, we broadly outline main areas of research in the social sciences for Canadianists from German-speaking countries. We focus on two separate but interrelated themes that have recently gained a particular salience in Canadian society and politics: 1) Gender and the ostensible ‘clash’ between minority religions and multiculturalism, and 2) sexuality and group rights, including recent examples from the fields of immigration and education. These debates highlight how closely related issues of multiculturalism, gender, and sexuality are, as well as how important they are for the continuous re-evaluation of notions of citizenship and belonging from a feminist point of view.