Transmitting pluralism: mixed unions in Montreal.

Meintel, Deirdre

ABSTRACT/RESUME

This research concerns mixed unions in Montreal, particularly the intergenerational transmission of identities and forms of social belonging among young parents (under thirty-five years of age). "Mixedness" is examined as a social construct that varies by social and historical context. While questioning classical notions about such unions, whereby they are presented as the final stage in the assimilation process, these unions are looked at here as an important point of interethnic contact and as a key to understanding identity issues in the wider society. A pilot study reveals "identity projects," i.e., parents' aspirations regarding the ethnic (and religious) identity of their children and the strategies that they deploy in this regard (e.g. regarding names, religious initiation, travel, language classes, contact with the kinship network, etc.). Such projects and strategies are oriented toward multiple identities, affiliations, and cultural referents and are framed in a strongly pluralist ideology by the Que becois partners in these unions.

Notre recherche concerne les unions mixtes en mileu Montrealais, et plus particulierement la transmission inter-generationelle des identites et des formes d'appartenance. L'enquete est centree sur les jeunes parents (trente-cinq ans ou moms). La mixite est abordee en tant construction sociale, variable selon le contexte sociale et historique. Tout en questionnant les approches classiques qui font des unions mixtes l'ultime etape d'un processus d'assimilation, nous les presentons comme un point de contact interethnique important. Elles constituent aussi un phenomene clef dans la comprehension des enjeux identitaires au niveau societal. Une etude pilote a fait etat de ce que nous nommons des << projets identitaires >>, soit les aspirations qu'ont les parents l'egard de l'eventuel identite ethnique (et religieuse) de leurs enfants et les strategies qu'ils deploient cet effet (par ex., noms, prenoms, initiation religieuse, voyages, cours de langue, contacts avec les reseaux de parente etc.). Ces projets et strateg ies sont encadres dans une ideologie pluraliste tres affirmee chez les partenaires Quebecois de ces unions.

INTRODUCTION

The research (1) presented here concerns mixed unions between Francophone Quebecois adults (aged twenty to thirty-five years) and partners of minority backgrounds who have spent at least part of their childhood in Montreal. Data show that parents in such unions develop what we call "identity projects" for their children; i.e., aspirations about the child's ethnic identity as well as strategies oriented toward inculcating or reinforcing certain aspects of that identity. Such projects are generally plural in nature and orient parental strategies regarding, for example, language learning and use, religion, and other aspects of socialization.

Though difficult to define in any rigourous way, mixed unions are the subject of a sizeable, but rather fragmented, social scientific literature (Le Gall, in press). Most studies focus on the couple dynamic and direct relatively little attention to intergenerational transmission. Moreover, research has largely focussed on the problems and conflicts likely to be generated in this type of union, typically seen as "nonnormative."

The focus of this research is the intergenerational transmission of culture and identity in such unions. While arguing that such unions are in no way indicative of an "assimilation" process leading to the disappearance of minority cultures and identities, they are nonetheless seen as constituting an important point of interethnic contact. This research focusses on the following: 1) it examines the notion of parental identity projects: i.e., what they consist of and in what kinds of situations they emerge; 2) it decribes such projects among young parents in ethnicially mixed unions; and 3) it explores what these couples can tell us about identities and mixedness, particularly as they appear in present-day Montreal. Inspired by the "Life Course Analysis" approach developed by historians of the family (Elder 1977; Hareven 1978), research results were analyzed in light of contextual factors related to the Montreal milieu and to Quebec society, as well as the social and historical experience of the age cohort of those interviewed. The first task, however, is to explain the notion of "mixedness."

PROBLEMATIZING MIXEDNESS

For many years, ethnically mixed marriages were imagined sociologically in terms of the assimilation paradigm inspired by Park's schema of "race relations," and were seen as the conclusive step toward the assimilation of minority individuals. In research tools such as the "Bogardus Scale of Social Distance" (1925), the final question referred to conjugality as the highest possible inter-ethnic closeness between majority and minority individuals ("admission to the kin group by marriage"). It has often been parodied as, "would you want your daughter to marry one?" Mixed marriage was long seen as a key indicator of a majority-minority dynamic where the desired and, indeed, most likely, outcome would be assimilation of the latter.

In the present era, as authors on both sides of the Atlantic (Rocheron 1999; Streiff-Fenart 1989, 1990; Waters 1990) have observed, ethnically mixed marriages often involve partners of different immigrant backgrounds, rather than a member of the dominant ethnic category and a minority individual. Moreover, as Spickard (1989) argues in regard to Native Americans, a high rate of mixed unions may accompany growth in the numbers of the minority; i.e, the offspring may identify with the minority rather than with the majority group. Our own research shows that Francophone Quebecois parents in mixed unions seek to ensure that their children develop the cultural, linguistic, and identity referents that concern the minority parent. Though some studies, notably in France, have presented children's socialization as an area of struggle between the parents (e.g., Barbara 1993), this does not seem to be the case for the great majority of the couples in this research.

A second point concerns the nature of the plural identities that parents seek to inculcate. Since Barth's (1969) work on ethnic boundaries, much research has focussed on the dynamic and malleable aspects of ethnic identities. Constructivist theorists (Amselle 1990; Gallissot 1987; Poutignat and Streiff-Fenart 1995) have argued for the plural and historical character of ethnicity, in opposition to "primordialist" approaches whereby identity, and specifically ethnic identity, is construed to be, like gender, an "ascribed" trait given at birth, and where ethnicity is typically defined in terms of the presence of certain longstanding cultural traits. (See also Fisher 1986.) This research approaches mixedness as constructivist in that "ethnic mixedness," like notions of ethnic purity, is seen as a social and historical construction; indeed what is seen to constitute a "mixed" marriage varies greatly from one era and from one national context to another (Le Gall, in press). As Schnapper (1998) notes, mixedness is not an objective "given." Rather it depends greatly on the perspective of the observer, not to mention the couple themselves (Varro 1995:43). Moreover, as Barbara (1993) observes, every marriage is in some sense a "mixed" marriage. Socially speaking, however, mixed unions are generally taken to be those where the union involved partners from groups that consider themselves different and perhaps even antagonistic (Streiff-Fenart 1994).

From an anthropological point of view, mixed unions imply ethnic exogamy. However, couples of different ethnic backgrounds and even different countries of birth may not see their union as an exogamous one. Rather, they may see themselves as homogamous by virtue of similarities of class, educational level, values, and so on. (This poses obvious difficulties for recruiting informants.) Indeed, most of the couples interviewed for this study are strikingly similar in terms of educational level and occupational field. On the other hand, individuals of apparently homogenous genealogy in ethnic terms may see themselves as mixed for biographical reasons; e.g., due to migration.

In any case, it is risky for the researcher to take for granted the conventional social frontiers between groups (e.g. "racial" boundaries in the United States, or distinctions between "foreigners" - who can include the native-born - and "French" in France). When this happens,

the ethnic culture is homogenized, that is, it is assumed that the cultural conventions, including religion, language, norms and expectations, are not only the same for people of a particular ethnic identity, but are also completely accepted and practiced by them all, that there is one pure, easily identifiable set of ethnic traditions, religion and speech.

Breger and Hill 1998:9

We might also add that it is just as easy to attribute a false cultural homogeneity to the imagined social majority (see Pietrantonio, this issue). Moreover, taken-forgranted ethnic markers and boundaries can change overtime, depending on political and other factors (Breger and Hill 1998; Pescoe 1991) and are likely to vary from one society to another. Political factors particular to a nation state or a region may influence notions of what constitutes a mixed marriage among researchers as well as the wider public. In the United States and Great Britain, for example, the criterion of race predominates in popular as well as scientific discussions of the subject (AlexAssensoh and Assensoh 1998; Sanjek 1994). In France, the scientific literature has focussed mainly on unions between French and North African (Maghrebin) individuals. As for Quebec, it is only since the Quiet Revolution that mixed marriages have come to be defined in terms of ethnic or linguistic, rather than religious, differences between the partn ers.

Mixedness in individuals is by no means a genealogical given; rather it is constituted, perceived, and experienced quite differently from one societal context to another. Mixedness is, I argue, quite problematic and variable, something that tends to get lost when it is glossed as "hybridity" or "metissage." Apart from the biological flavour of such terms, they connote a synthetic uniformity rather than the highly individualized and diverse mixite that is common in Montreal. After presenting some of the results of this research, I will argue that the components of mixed identities, be they based on religious, ethnic, or other kinds of affiliations, can be articulated in many possible ways. Furthermore, the mode of their articulation may vary from one social or national context to another. Whether one or another affiliation is given priority and whether individuals' various affiliations are seen as mutually exclusive or as co-existent and mutually compatible are factors that condition how plural identities are constructed and experienced. In fact, the parental identity projects of our informants, rather like those of immigrant parents or internationally adopting parents we have studied, are oriented toward creating multiple, coeval affiliations, a tendency that has been found in my previous work on other kinds of mixedness in Montreal, both ethnic and religious.

THE MONTREAL CONTEXT

It is very difficult to estimate the incidence of mixed unions of the type this research examines for Montreal or for Quebec in general. Census data from 1991 shows that about six percent of all marital unions are between natives of Quebec and individuals born on other continents. Of these, most are between Quebec-born women and foreign-born men (Vincent et al. MRCI 1997:163, table S1). Going by the same criterion, exogamy in Quebec is far lower than in Ontario (14 percent) or British Columbia (17 percent) (Baillargeon 1995:4). However, such statistics offer little insight into several socially significant types of exogamy; e.g. between individuals from the same continent but of different national or ethnic origin. Furthermore, they say nothing of unions between individuals born or brought up in the same society but who identify with different groups of origin.

The latter type of mixed union is particularly important in the Montreal context for several reasons. First of all, Montreal has proportionally fewer foreign-born residents than other major Canadian cities such as Toronto (Preston and Cox 1999), thus it is not surprising that unions between native-born and those of different continental origin would be less frequent in Montreal. On the other hand, unions between individuals of different ethnic background, and especially between Francophone Quebecois and those of otherethnic origins, are particularly interesting in light of the recent history of Quebec. Until Bill 101 (1977), immigrants had been channelled toward English-language institutions and their children to English language schools, (2) and ethnic minorities became associated with the "Anglophone" category. The new law made French the sole official language of public life in Quebec and obliged non-English-speaking immigrants to send their children to French-language schools.

Since Bill 101, French has become the working language of people of many different ethnic and national origins. At the same time, both native-born anglophones and francophones are increasingly bilingual, especially in younger age cohorts, and trilingualism has become very common among children of immigrant parentage (Meintel 1998; Lamarre, et al. in press). (3) Indeed, a recent study indicates that exogamy, defined according to linguistic criteria (i.e. unions between those of different first languages), has become more common in Quebec in recent years (Paille 1997). Sociolinguistic observations in several colleges in Montreal over the last several years (4) lead us to believe that the establishement of French as a lingua franca among youth of many different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds in Montreal will lead to an increase of this type of exogamy among young adults.

THE RESEARCH

This collaborative research (5) is a pilot study based primarily on twenty interviews with Quebecois of French background (six men and fourteen women (6)) between twenty and thirty-five years of age who are Living in a marital union (not always formalized) with a partner of a different ethnic background and who are parents of at least one child. Given the frequency of cohabitation without marriage in Quebec (Lapierre-Adamcyk, et al. 1999), it is perhaps not surprising that just under half of the couples in this pilot study were not legally married.

This age group among Francophones has grown up in a social context strongly influenced by Bill 101, one where they were likely to have had contact with young people of other ethnic and linguistic backgrounds in their schooling (indeed, many of our interviewees met their partners in post-secondary school contexts). We decided to give priority to the perspectives of the partner of Franco-Quebecois background because the primary focus of the GRES research programme (for which the present study is a pilot project) is the transformation of Quebec society since the mid-seventies and because it was often not feasible to interview both partners. In the broader study, we hope to include both partners.

The interviews focus on the themes of transmission and socialization regarding, among other things, language, religion, customs, values, and identity. Parents were asked, for example, about the names, religious intitiation (e.g. baptism) and instruction, and schooling given their children; domestic practices such as cooking, meals, languages spoken, and so on; and relations in family networks (visits, other forms of contact, mutual aid, etc.). For the pilot research, the results of which are presented here, Quebecois whose partners were schooled at least partly in Quebec were interviewed; in fact, in most cases the partners were born in Quebec or had long been resident there. Part of the larger GRES research programme plan is to enlarge and subdivide the research study population in order to better examine differences between unions of individuals from the social majority (Franco-Quebecois) and minority partners (those of immigrant background), as well as marital partnerships involving individuals from two d ifferent minorities. We also hope to account for differences between unions where one partner was born and raised in another country, and those involving minority individuals born and raised in Quebec. A larger, structured study population, it is hoped, will allow us to better see how the presence or absence of a family network in Quebec for either of the partners affects what is transmitted to the next generation.

PARENTAL IDENTITY PROJECTS

Earlier research on youth of immigrant background (Meintel 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994) and on international adoptions7 has led to the development of the concept of "parental identity projects." When children have several possible ethnic identity referents, be this for reasons of genealogy or biography (e.g. society of residence), parents tend to form what we call identity projects for their children that are more or less explicit. Such projects tend not to be articulated in cases where children's ethnic status appears to be obvious, homogeneous ("pure"), and incontrovertible. When such is not the case, identity projects are likely to become the subject of discussion and planning between the parents and will orient some of their priorities and strategies in bringing up the children. Parents of immigrant youth interviewed for an earlier study, for example, had specific aspirations regarding the ethnic identity of their children and, in many cases, had implemented strategies to assure desired outcomes (Meintel 1992) . In addition to key values which the younger generations also claimed to hold important (such as respect and family obligation), these parents often hoped to transmit a language, a religion, and an identification with the group of origin. Practices such as speaking the parents' mother tongue at home, sending the child to language school on Saturdays, baptizing the child in their church, and family visits to the country of origin are examples of strategies deployed to carry out parental identity projects. While often interpreted by researchers and others as expressing parents' intentions to keep the child within the confines of the ethnic group, such projects are in fact usually plural in nature and orient parental strategies regarding, for example, language learning and use by their children as well as other aspects of socialization. That is, immigrant parents interviewed also hope that their child will integrate into Quebec society, succeed academically, be accepted as Quebecois (and Canadian), and become f luent in French. Usually they expect that the educational system and other, more generalized institutions of the society of residence will guarantee the child's identity as Quebecois and Canadian. Many give their Quebec-born children French first names or names that translate easily between French and other languages.

In the course of research on international adoption in Montreal (Quellette and Methot 2000) it was found that the Quebecois parents of children adopted internationally also developed identity projects, in this case oriented to assuring that the child keep some degree of ethnic affiliation with his/her birth origins through such strategies as giving him/her a middle name from the language of the birth country, introducing him/her to foods from that society, language classes, visits to the country, etc.

Neither immigrant parents nor those adopting internationally take their child's ethnic identity for granted, nor do they implicitly relegate its development to the mother's socialization work, as might usually be the case (Juteau-Lee 1983). Rather, it becomes the object of explicit discussion and strategies, usually involving both parents. Mixed unions present yet another kind of situation where parents develop projects and strategies oriented to shaping children's ethnic identity.

MIXED UNIONS AND PARENTAL IDENTITY PROJECTS

In most of the mixed couples interviewed, the arrival of the first child initiates considerable discussion about issues that are likely to have a bearing on the child's social identity. Many of the couples report discussing such issues early in their relationship, well before a child is expected. Here we examine three questions that appear especially relevant for questions of cultural transmission: the choice of the child's names, languages (always plural) used in the child's environment (home, family, and school) and religion. Our interviewees present these choices as a matter of consensus, easily negotiated between the parents, except for several instances concerning religious initiation (circumcision, baptism) detailed in a later section.

Several common themes appear in virtually all the interviews in regard to such choices. The first is a desire to give expression and recognition to all dimensions of the child's ethnic background. "Other" origins are to be given recognition and value in the expectation that they will form part of the child's identity. Secondly, rather than impose one or the other parent's cultural heritage, our informants express the desire to maximize the child's range of symbolic resources and alternatives, often with the explicit expectation that s/he will use them strategically. In short, names, religion, and languages are not simply part of a parentally-imposed heritage but rather comprise numerous symbolic resources to be made use of later in life, depending on the child's inclination. Thirdly, our interviewees think of themselves and their children not so much as deviant from the social norm as avatars of the Quebec society of the future,

Children's Names

One of the first decisions parents must make is the baby's names; i.e., given names and surname(s). Most of our respondents make it clear that they see names as key indicators of their child's ethnic status, as well as a means of connecting him or her with either or both sides of the family. All our informants' children have names that in some way recognize ethnic origins from both sides of their background. At the same time, many parents indicate that they want to avoid names that would make the child seem "too" foreign in the Quebec context.

Most give the child a single last name, that of the father, no matter what his origin (fourteen of the fathers have non-French surnames.) This choice is usually taken for granted. However, a substantial minority (four couples) have given their children both parents' surnames, a common practice in Quebec. In several cases the informants mention that a double surname would be too long, either because one of the parent's names is already very long or (in one case), because both parents already have double names. Sylvie, (8) whose husband was born in Lebanon of Armenian origin, explains the decision to use the patronym alone as being the father's explicit wish, and that moreover, a double surname would mark her children as non-Armenian in the Armenian school they attend.

However, one couple regrets not giving their child two last names:

Initially, I thought that (giving her the surname) Bedard was just normal. But later on we thought that we should have put two last names, and then she could choose later on whichever one she wants.

Lucas, twenty-nine, director of marketing. Carla, his common-law partner, is of Italian background.

First and middle names usually give expression to ethnic origins other than the patronym. In some cases, a first name is chosen that is the same in both languages (e.g., David in English and French), or that translates easily into the first language of both the parents. Emma, a Francophone Quebecoise of Jewish background, searched the Internet for a name for her son that exists in both Hebrew and Arabic, the language spoken by her husband's parents, and that would be easy to pronounce in French. (9) Lucas and Carla chose the name "Laetitia" for their daughter. Lucas explains,

My in-laws wanted really typical Italian names. We were looking for a name that you don't see all over the place, a Quebecois name that's not too tacky-sounding ... like Sylvie ... We wanted to go in between the two ... Laetitia, it's a name that sounds a bit Italian. And at the same time, not too much.

In other cases the parents agree on giving the child a French first name, especially when the patronym is non-French. As Stephanie explains,

The name _____ says a lot; it's pretty hard ... not to know that she (child) has another (ethnic) origin ... Her first name is Florence because, we told ourselves, since she will grow up here in Quebec, it's unlikely that her identity will be mostly Polish. Serge himself found that it wasn't all that easy, that's why he calls himself Serge instead of Sergei ... If we named her, say Agnesca, it would be very pretty, but would it really fit her? I think she'd feel a distance between her name and who she is.

Stephanie, student, twenty-four, married to Sergei, born in Poland.

The young mother adds that her daughter also bears the names of her two grandmothers, since the tradition in her own family was to give the first child of each gender the name of the grandparent of that gender. While affirming that she herself would prefer to carry her husband's surname, she cannot, because under the Quebec Civil Code, wives do not take their husband's surname. She adds that she might legally change her name when she can afford to do so.

When you have a foreign name, people treat you as if you just arrived. To have to always stand up for yourself is rather unfortunate. That's why I felt it was important to balance it with a really francophone name. As soon as she opens her mouth, people will understand. People might get stuck on her family name--it's a bit heavy, nobody can pronounce it right --but her first name will work fine.

In any case, she adds, "Soon enough, names won't mean much of anything about a person's origins." In other words, Stephanie believes that individuals of mixed background with foreign-sounding names will soon be far more common in Quebec society, a theme that will be returned to later. Indeed, casual observations suggest that even couples where both partners are of Franco-Quebecois background are giving foreign-sounding first names to their children (e.g. Sacha, Tatiana).

One of the men interviewed gave an explanation for choosing his daughter's names which was similar to that offered by Stephanie. Jacques, a twenty-six-year-old graduate student married to Fatou, a pharmacist born in Guinee, says that he wanted the child to bear his surname, as he is "opposed to composite last names." He and his wife agreed their daughter should have an African first name so that, he says, "her mixedness would be reflected in her name." The child's first name, Awa, reflects her mother's African family origins, being that of the maternal grandmother. However, she also has a French middle name, Aline, because, her father says, "It's always practical." He anticipates that "Aline" might be more practical than Awa for occasions where the latter appears "too metis." Even in this instance, Jacques makes a connection with his wife's background; he and Fatou "copied African custom" because Aline is the name of one of his aunts who was childless. To honour her, they gave it to their daughter. (10)

Languages

The issue of which languages their children will learn is one of concern to all the parents interviewed. One might surmise that the importance of language to these parents is a result of the centrality of language issues in Quebecois political discourse. However, the concern for language goes well beyond wanting their children to be fluent in French. Other languages are the focus of parental concerns and strategies for all the interviewees, including, in most cases, the first language of the spouse as well as English, and in some cases, still other languages. Beyond seeing other languages as an advantage in a globalized world, these parents see them as key elements in their children's identity and family networks.

Parental strategies are oriented toward assuring children's competence in several languages, typically French, English, and one or more other languages. Measures taken to develop multilingualism in children are articulated around societal forces and resources. Our colleague, Patricia Lamarre (Lamarre and Parades Rossell, forthcoming), has found that among couples where one's mother tongue is French and the other's is English, parents often speak one language at home and send their children to school in the other. Nearly all those we interviewed assume that their children will be schooled in French ("C'estevident," as several put it). Generally, the school system is seen as one of the principal guarantees of the child's competence in French, along with interaction in French with the Quebecois parent and relatives, if not both parents.

At the same time, most of the parents express the wish that their children also learn English. In several cases, one of the spouses uses English with the children and the other French. Several have chosen to send their children to English-language daycare, a trend recently noticed among couples where both are of Francophone background (Perrault 2002). Other means include special language classes, exposure to English-language mass media, and sometimes, contact with Anglophones in the family network.

Furthermore, most of the parents also seek to give their children experience of at least one other language in addition to French and English. While the Montreal context offers many resources for learning those two languages, having children learn a third language sometimes requires special strategies. One strategy is for each parent to speak a different language with the children. Typically, the Franco-Quebecois parent uses French, while their spouse uses a non-official language such as Spanish or Greek. Occasionally, the parents speak yet a third language with each other. For example, Charlotte, aged thirty-three, speaks French with her two children. Her husband, Stavros, thirty-five years old, is a Montrealer of Greek parentage. He speaks Greek with the children and the couple speaks English with each other (See also Fournier 2000 for similar findings (11)) Grandparents may also interact with the child in a language other than English or French. Their influence is even greater when they babysit regularly, as is often the case. The languages used by grandparents with the children of our informants include, among others, Italian, Polish, Greek, and Arabic.

In most cases studied, Franco-Quebecois parents actively seek to have the child learn the first language of their spouse; sometimes, in fact, they are more interested than their spouse in having the child learn the latter's mother tongue. Such is particularly the case when the language in question is of little practical value on the international level. All the parents interviewed frame their strategies for assuring multilingualism in their children in terms of the value of languages in the world of today. Languages are seen as a tool that "opens doors," to cite a phrase that comes up constantly in the discourse of these parents. Most express the belief that the more languages their child learns, the better. Richard and his South American wife use French and Spanish, respectively, when talking with their toddler son, and plan to have him take courses to perfect his knowledge of Spanish when he is older.

I think it's enriching that he'll speak Spanish practically from birth, maybe not perfectly but pretty well, unlike me, so he'll be able to immerse himself in those cultures more easily than me. I think it's rich for him, especially because languages will open up different worlds to him.

Richard, graduate student, twenty-four, married to Cristina, with one child.

To give another example, Charlotte's Montreal-born husband, Stavros, who is of Greek background, speaks Greek to their two young children. Similarly, Lucas expects that his daughter, Laetitia, will learn Italian, her grandparents' language, before she learns English, and that she will eventually be trilingual. He hopes to improve his rudimentary Italian along with his daughter. His wife, who is trilingual (Italian, English, and French) uses French most often with her husband and child, but also English and Italian.

Knowing three languages, speaking them well, it's a plus. For sure, other things go along with language, it's not just the language. She'll get to know her Italian family. They know things she'll want to know...Her grandfather is an auto mechanic, she'll learn how to repair cars It's not just about learning Italian. If she wants to know how to speak Danish or anything else, we'll say, "Go to it!" For sure we'll try to awaken her taste for learning. We won't ever say, "It's no use speaking Danish or whatever language she wants to learn." On the contrary ... You know, if she has a c.v. that says she has four languages, it's something

Lucas, twenty-nine, director of marketing, married to Carla, born in Montreal of Italian parents.

While the high value placed on multilingualism no doubt reflects an awareness of globalization, there is more to the issue. In some cases, the partner's first language is rarely spoken by anyone outside the group itself, as is the case for most African languages as well as Haitian Creole. How to explain, then, why their Francophone Quebecois partners are so keen for their children to learn these languages?

Veronique, a twenty-seven-year-old graduate student whose husband, Kwasi, is from Ghana, admits to attaching much more importance than he does to their son learning one or several African languages. At present, Veronique uses French with the child and Kwasi uses English (he also speaks German and French), and the couple speaks English with each other. Eventually, Veronique hopes to send the boy to learn Ewe, one of the African languages her husband speaks, in courses given by a Ghanian organization in Montreal. One reason for this is that she "doesn't want him to feel rejected or laughed at if we go to Ghana." Moreover, she sees learning Ewe and perhaps other African languages as important for the sake of the child's identity.

He (Kwasi) says, "Everyone there speaks English, nobody is going to say my son isn't Ghanian." But I know things don't always happen that way ... It (speaking the language) is a way of feeling like part of the group ... Like when I was in Morocco, sure, everybody speaks French, but when you are with a family, they all speak French, but only with you; otherwise it's Arabic and you don't understand anything, you feel left out ... I think it's part of him, his father is from Ghana, so I want him to know Ewe. He'll choose for himself later on what language he wants to use, but I think it's important that he knows (the language)...

Language and identity have been so strongly associated in Quebec public discourse over several decades that it is perhaps understandable that our Franco-Quebecois subjects might attach more importance to the transmission of the spouse's language than does their partner. Like most of the interviewees with partners born outside of Canada, Veronique sees living in Ghana as a serious possibility, if not yet a concrete project. "I really want us all to go to Ghana together. Even live there for a couple of years, to really live that culture. ..."

Even when our interviewees do not speak or understand the other language themselves, and are thus not capable of transmitting it, they seek means to do so (contact with relatives, special classes, travel, and so on). Similar tendencies are evident in parents of children adopted internationally who seek to acquaint their child with the language, cuisine, or other cultural elements of their milieu of birth (Ouellette et Methot 2000:114-118).

Though Veronique sees language and identity as closely interrelated, as do others encountered in the study, she presents learning a language (Ewe) not so much as a way of producing a certain identity for the child, as it is a means giving him a certain possibility to choose such an identity later in life. Emphasis on children's voluntaristic choice is a recurrent theme in the interviews. As mentioned earlier, children are often given several names in the expectation that they may choose one over another, depending on context and personal inclination. Similarly, languages are treated as a kind of symbolic resource, as tools for enlarging the child's range of possible action and choices. Even when their economic or practical value is doubtful (as for Ewe or

Fulani or Haitian Creole, to name some of the languages discussed by our informants), they have value in terms of the possibilities they hold for family relationships and as possible bases of identity.

Religious Initiation

In a few cases, religion and the question of whether to initiate children into any religion is a source of dissension. Charlotte and her Greek-Canadian partner, Stavros, both non-practicing in their respective religions (Roman Catholicism and Greek Orthodox), have not yet married officially nor had their two young children baptized. This is because, according to Charlotte, Stavros' parents would be hurt if the rituals were not Greek Orthodox. Charlotte has not yet decided about baptizing the children in the Greek church.

Stephanie, though of Catholic background herself, did not want her child baptized in the Catholic church because she greatly resented having been obliged to practice Catholicism by her own parents. However, she finally did so after much pressure from her Polish in-laws.

In the most conflictual couple we encountered, Emilie, twenty-three years old and employed in a community organization, is uneasy with her Muslim husband's new-found dogmatism. (Karim, twenty-five, was born in Tunisia and works in his brother's restaurant.) Their discord over their son's circumcision has brought them to the brink of separation:

I wanted us to talk about it. But it was not open to question, it was like, "We'll have him circumcised, and that's it." If not now, then when he's three, in Tunisia. So, yes, I was scared. I found a doctor who would do it in the hospital under sterile conditions. So I decided to have it done when he was three weeks old, rather than my husband having it done behind my back when he's three, in Tunisia.

In the great majority of cases, neither of the parents are particularly religious, and in some cases, neither are the grandparents, especially those on the Quebecois side. The theme of voluntaristic choice is even more accentuated in our subjects' comments about religious upbringing than about the issues of names and languages. Most see religion less as a set of practices and beliefs to be inculcated in their children than as a potential symbolic resource--one that the child may or may not choose to utilize later. This is the case for nearly all the Franco-Quebecois, and somewhat less frequently so (according to the former) for their partners. In some cases, spouses consider circumcision or baptism in a particular church as related to family identity, without giving much weight to religious belief or practice. At the same time, nearly all the Franco-Quebecois parents we interviewed see religion as a kind of symbolic resource to which their children should not be denied access.

Juliette, for example, says she is "Catholic" but neither believes in, nor practices any particular religion. Though she believes in God in a vague way, she feels critical of the Church and its priests. Her husband, Dimitri, is of Greek background and, though baptized Orthodox, is also non-practicing.

My oldest already asks questions about death and where we go afterward ... We're not atheists, but we question religion and all that ... It's hard to answer their questions, it's like, "We don't know," or "We'll see."... My husband is worse than I am ... He told them that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer would take them to heaven! -- Juliette, twenty-nine, full-time mother with a recent M.A. in history, married to Dimitri, also twenty-nine, an office manager born in the city of Quebec of Greek parentage.

Dimitri's mother and sister, however, have strong religious convictions that they discuss with her four children, who range in age from four years to four months old.

That doesn't bother me ... It happens especially at Christmastime The kids are fascinated by Christmas. There's going to be a creche with Jesus, Mary, the Three Kings. Even my husband sets up the creche ... They (the husband's mother and sisters) talk about baptism, they are believers and they practice, too. I let them do it because it's important for them (the children) to know about religion ... I can't talk about all that stuff with them, but my mother-in-law can ... Our cultural references are all tied up with religion, it leaves an impression ... I don't want to give them the values of the Church, I just want them to have a critical mind and ... basic values, like loving your neighbor. I hope they have faith because it's practical in life, it's less depressing, it's reassuring. Life is easier, it would be better for them that way. Then when they are older they'll do their own, (repeats: their own) search.

Juliette and Dimitri have had their four children baptized in the Greek Orthodox church. She and her husband decided to have the children baptized as a "social concession to their two grandmothers, who worried about the children's salvation. For her, she says it is a rite de passage, a formal presentation of the baby to the family. Juliette finds the ritual far more interesting and "picturesque" than the Roman Catholic baptism, and given her feelings of distance toward the institution of the Roman Catholic Church, easier and more pleasant for her. In general, when the parents come from different religious backgrounds, the traditions of both religions are often part of the children's experience at home and/or in the extended family.

While none of the interviewees see themselves or their partner as atheist, almost none of them actually practice a religion regularly. If they do, it is unlikely to be Catholicism. One interviewee has converted to Islam, the religion of his wife, though he felt in no way obliged to do so. Another relates that her husband, of Tunisian background, has become a practicing Muslim since their marriage. Several other couples mentioned having had their children baptized in one or another church for the sake of parents or in-laws. In a few cases, male infants have been circumcised because this is part of the religious tradition of one of the parents. However, even parents who have chosen some form of religious initiation for their children are reluctant to "impose" (in the word used by many) any religious practice or identity on their children. Even the few parents who themselves practice a religion seem unlikely to ever insist on regular religious practice for their children. Rather, they seem to see religion as a matter of eventual personal choice, much like their non-practicing peers.

I don't believe or practice, but I'm Jewish, he's Muslim. He doesn't pray or do Ramadan, nothing like that, but I think he believes in God a lot more than I do ... We bought a book that talks not just about our religions but about all the religions in the world and their beliefs, we figured we'd start with that ... We figured we'd each explain our own religion so that he knows about it, so that he can know better who mommy is and who daddy is. But we won't impose either one. If he wants to practice one of them, that will be his choice. It's not for us to say ... Maybe he won't be interested in any religion, who knows?

- Emma, computer specialist, twenty-five, married to Nael, twenty-eight, born in Liberia of Lebanese parents.

Jacques, mentioned earlier, has converted to the Islamic faith of his West African wife, Fatou. However, he presents his own religious identity as plural and cumulative, and expects the same may be the case for his daughter.

Do I believe more in one religion than another? No, I'd say I belong to the Catholic Christian tradition, and by choice I have converted to Islam. But that doesn't keep me from synthesizing the two, and to see them as two religions that seek the same thing and talk about the same thing, in similar words ... Just as I live in balance, I'd like my children to have that balance, too. That is, I'd talk less about religion and more about spirituality - recognizing God, humility in regard to our surroundings, and before something that is stronger than us that we must recognize ... In regard to religion as such, you take what's good. So, she should go look right, left, and center for what is good for her.

- Jacques, twenty-six, graduate student, married to Fatou, a pharmacist born in Guinee, one child.

Interestingly, while some look at baptism or other forms of religious initiation as an unacceptable imposition of religious identity on their child, others see it simply as opening a door." In either case, these parents do not seek to inculcate any particular religious practice or identification in their child. Rather, they hope that their child will develop spiritually and become acquainted with various religions. Just as he plans for his daughter to learn Italian and English as well as French, so Lucas and his wife, Carla, have had their daughter baptized in the Catholic church. They expect her to take catechism classes, so as "not to be ignorant" of religion, but won't impose religious practice that they themselves do not follow. They expect her to choose in the matter of religion. "We can't tell her what is the right religion; these are choices she will make."

TRANSMITTING PLURALISM

Rather than passing on a cultural heritage, a specific cultural and linguistic patrimony, the parents we interviewed see themselves as having access to symbolic resources through their marital union as well as their own Quebecois background, resources they seek to make accessible to their children. This is true even in the domain of religion, which has traditionally been transmitted genealogically and where affiliations have been exclusive (That is to say, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and most Protestants have traditionally been seen as having a single religious affiliation). One might well ask, if so many of the parents we studied expect their children to choose their ethnic identities and cultural orientation, then what indeed do they seek to transmit to the next generation?

What comes up repeatedly in answer to this question are references to what might be called "key values" for these Montrealers: tolerance, respect for others, comprehension, and open-mindedness. While these are not the only values the parents hope to transmit to their children, they are the ones mentioned by nearly all the informants, often with a great deal of emphasis. Other values mentioned by one or several include politeness, gratitude, patience, love, friendship, liberty, etc. Many add that they believe their partner would also consider family-mindedness (esprit de famille) important, along with respect for one's elders. Our Quebecois subjects often add that they, too, admire and support such values.

Interviewer: What do you think is important to pass on to your child?

Juliette: Respect for others ... It's the value, I think. It's really important for Dimitri, even more than for me. Respect toward one's parents--Dimitri has been around people who really don't care about that at all, for him it's really important ... I think we're going to really pass on to them the interest in discovering the world, through travel and to be open toward others ... Family orientation (esprit de famille), the ties between brothers and sisters ... sharing (it's not for nothing that we have four children) ... self-respect ... Sharing, it's a major value ...

--Juliette.

The key values that our subjects consciously hold and seek to pass on, i.e., respect for others and openness, tolerance, and so forth, are of course ones that give normative support to social pluralism. Such values are given further expression and elaboration when our subjects talk about "mixedness" and what it holds for their children. When asked, for example, how they think being of ethnically mixed background will affect their children's lives, these Franco-Quebecois parents rarely speak of problems or handicaps--though a in few cases where the other parent is from Africa or the Caribbean they worry about the possibility of discrimination. But overall, the notion of mixedness is seen as extremely positive, never as a handicap, per se. Moreover, they see mixedness as positive for their child because it will make them "like the other kids" in their schools and neighborhoods.

Comparison with other research we have done in Montreal suggests that parental identity projects are likely to be present wherever the ethnic identity of the younger generation is potentially problematic, i.e., in Situations where children can plausibly claim several possible identities; e.g. those of immigrant parentage and those adopted internationally. We find that immigrant parents and Quebecois parents who adopt internationally are also oriented toward assuring plural identity referents and cultural linguistic resources for their children. What is most remarkable about the subjects interviewed for the present research is that their parental identity projects are framed in a strongly pluralist ideology. Moreover, this ideology is repeatedly invoked in order to explain and support the strategies such parents develop to assure their children's access to cultural and linguistic resources from several different traditions. Several of the parents express that they do not want their children to be 'lust" Quebe cois. Overall, these parents explicitly value plurality rather than what we might call mono-ethnicity, both for their children and for the family as a whole.

CULTURAL RESOURCES

We began this pilot research with several hypotheses, one of which was that parents in mixed marriages would encourage multiple languages, cultural traditions, identities, and so on. This has been amply demonstrated in the research so far. It is not altogether surprising, in light of our earlier research on mixed identities. Young adults of immigrant background born in Quebec were found to value greatly their "other" identity and the values associated with it, while still feeling fully Quebecois and Canadian, and did not seem to see any conflict between the two. (At the same time, the same young people often speak of "the Quebecois" or "the real Quebecois" as being pure lame, i.e., Franco-Quebecois.) Parents who adopt internationally are often concerned to give recognition to their children's "other" cultural-ethnic origins, be it through names, visits to the country in question, and/or exposure to its food and customs, just as do the Quebecois in mixed unions interviewed for the present study. In both cases, the parents expect their children to grow up as fully Quebecois. A number of the parents of children adopted internationally express a preference for ethnically diverse schools and neighborhoods, as do our informants in mixed unions.

If there is any surprise in the findings of the present research, it lies in the degree to which our subjects value ethnocultural plurality, and how much this affects their views on mixedness. Roots in "other" cultures and territories are not valued only for the fact that they will be part of their child's own identity, nor are they valued simply for pragmatic reasons (the economic opportunities stemming from contacts in other countries and knowledge of other languages). Beyond all this, there seems to be an implicit notion of the cultures of the world as forming a vast pool of symbolic resources. Mixed origins are seen as allowing their children greater access to this wealth. At the same time, anthropology, especially in North America, may be emerging from a long period of culturalist particularism, where cultures were seen as separate and as imprinting individuals with a kind of "second nature," one that is nearly as deterministic as others have seen biology to be, as did Taguieff (1987: 321). Recently, the notion of "Culture" (i.e., the sum of particular cultures) has enjoyed a certain revival in anthropology. Hannerz, for example, speaks of "the idea of culture as one single large inventory" (1996:23). Meanwhile, in subfields such as the anthropology of human rights, researchers seek to elucidate convergences between particular cultures, if not universals (Messerl993).

However, the premise that mixedness gives greater access to this "Culture" is not without contradiction, at least as concerns the relation between genealogy and identity. On the one hand, family origins do not beget identity in any automatic way for these parents, who put so much emphasis on their children's eventual choices of identity, religion and so on - who, in other words, presume that their children have the right to choose. Yet at the same time, genealogy (mixed ethnic origins) seems, as they see it, to allow their children easier claims to other cultures and identities.

A mixed union does allow the Quebecois subjects an opportunity to experience "otherness" up close -- those whose partner is of foreign birth generally express the wish or even the project of an extended stay in their spouse's country of origin. At the same time, obviously, having ethnically diverse family networks is likely to lead to practical opportunities for more intimate access to other languages, cultures, and societies for both the Quebecois parent and their children. However, for these parents, the symbolic richness of the partner's cultural background and language seems to somehow "belong" more obviously to their children than to themselves.

How does one explain the value our interviewees place on "other" origins, languages, and cultures? Our subjects may have a particularly strong orientation toward other cultures, and perhaps they share what MacCannell (1976:3) considers a modernist ideal whereby authenticity is construed as otherness (other historical periods, other cultures ...). (12) Mary Waters, in a major study of mixed marriages in the United States, quotes informants who express a longing for cultural and social density. As one woman tells her, "I would like to be a member of a group that is living a culture, like on an American Indian reservation or a gypsy encampment ... or an Italian neighborhood ... some rich, thick culture" (Waters 1990:152).

Yet, compared to most urban Canadians and Americans who are not of recent immigrant origin, Montrealers of Quebecois background would seem to have a very strong sense of identity and cultural heritage. However, one might argue that family density is problematic in Montreal, given the high rates of divorce, single parenthood, and so on. In fact, many of our informants have parents who are divorced and seem attracted to the family density and stability of their spouse's kin group, a theme we plan to develop in another publication.

I would suggest two other possible explanations for the value placed on other cultures and languages. The first concerns the composition of our study group. We recruited subjects for the interviews who identified as French-speaking Quebecois; only later did we discover that several were, in fact, of "mixed" background by our criteria (e.g, one of the parents was French from France); in fact, several of the spouses who identified with some "other" ethnic background or nationality also turned out to be, in fact, of "mixed" parentage. Moreover, many of those we interviewed had had boyfriends or girlfriends of other backgrounds before they met their present partner, suggesting an attraction toward other cultures or particular cultures. (Often the preceeding partners were of the same origin as their spouse.)

Another explanation may lie in the ideological currents that have predominated in Quebec society and public discourse since the Quiet Revolution. For decades Quebec public discourse has been permeated by the preoccupation with language and culture as manifestations of identity, and of the right to keep one's language and culture. I have argued elsewhere that these influences have affected the way identities are felt, imagined, and structured in Montreal (Meintel 2000).

CUMULATIVE PLURAL IDENTITIES

For parents in mixed unions, notions about rights to one's language, culture, and identity - and the positive value attached to all these - translates into plural identities that are cumulative, (13) rather than mutually exclusive. This theme is one seen in work on immigrant youth and international adoptions. Though the children of immigrants studied previously might be construed as "maintaining" ethnically specific identities, they in fact insist on being able to claim all of them; e.g., Quebecois, Greek, Greek from-the Islands, Mediterranean, "ethnic" (Meintel 1992, 1994). One or another may be expressed selectively according to context, yet without denying or negating any of the others. (14) In fact, the interlocutors affirm their mixedness, a theme that recurs in work with Francoise Romaine-Ouellette on the Quebecois parents adopting internationally, who often try to support plural (Quebecois and Chinese, for example) identities for their children. In the same vein, Annie Le Blanc (2001) found that most y oung adults horn of mixed marriages involving one Armenian parent also feel themselves to be both Quebecois and Armenian, with slightly more emphasis on the latter.

Mixedness appears to be emerging as a widespread value in Montreal, if not in Quebec generally. This is not a homogenizing mixedness destined to obscure real differences of class or ethnicity, (15) but rather a diversified mixedness whereby individuals claim several identities without denying any of them. The domain of religious affiliations offers similar results (Meintel, forthcoming). Such is also likely to be true in the area of family and kinship, given the high rate of conjugal instability in Quebec, though this is a speculative statement In other words, cumulative plural identities seem to be a feature of the Montreal social landscape in this era of globalization. (16) To what extent this might be the case in other urban and national contexts is a question I hope to investigate in future research.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to Marie-Nathalie Le Blanc and Sylvie Fortin for their comments on earlier drafts of this article. I also thank Marie-Jeanne Blain for her technical assistance.

NOTES

(1.) Funds for this pilot research were provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). A review of the literature on mixed unions was funded by the Conseil Quebecois de la Recherche Sociale (CQRS).

(2.) This tendency was established in the latter decades of the nineteenth century. Immigrants, who at the time included many Russian Jews, were channelled to anglophone-i.e. Protestant-institutions, establishing the pattern whereby children of immigrants went to English-language schools (Anctil 1991; Linteau 1992).

(3.) Recent newspaper reports cite sociologist Jack Jedwab to the effect that one in six Montrealers is trilingual or multilingual (Authier 2002).

(4.) Most of this research has been carried out in collaboration with my colleague Patricia Lamarre (see Lamarre, et al. this issue).

(5.) The present research was carried out with Marie-Nathalie Le Blanc and Josiane Le Gall, who are also my co-investigators for the broader study expected to develop from this pilot project. Interviews were carried out by Julie Paquette and Emmanuel Kahn.

(6.) The disproportionate number of women in our sample is in part a reflection of the fact that far more Quebec-born women than men are in mixed unions (Vincent et al. MRCI 1997: 163, table S1).

(7.) Francoise-Romaine Ouellette (INRS-Culture, Quebec) was the principal investigator for the study on international adoptions.

(8.) All names given for informants are pseudonyms.

(9.) The name is quite distinctive and so is not given here for reasons of confidentiality.

(10.) On the significance of names given children by parents in mixed unions, see Streiff-Fenart (1989,1989a) and Varro (1995).

(11.) Fournier studied mixed couples of an age group similar to that of our respondants.

(12.) Cited by Dubuc (2002).

(13.) The notion of cumulative identities owes much to Fonseca (1995).

(14.) Though we speak of identities in the plural, we are in fact talking about different referents or dimensions of identity since, as Devereux (1972) argued, identity is by definition unique and synthetic.

(15.) Other research that I have carried out on Cape Verdeans in the United States and in Cabo Verde, supplemented by the more recent field work of Isabel Rodrigues, indicates that "mixedness" is often invoked in political discourse (Somos todos mistos) in such a way as to level or negate class and colour differences.

(16.) Anecdotal evidence we have been able to gather suggests that in earlier generations, children of mixed backgrounds felt stigmatized by evidence of their difference from others.

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Deirdre Meintel is a full professor of anthropology at the Universite de Montreal and has been the director of GRES since 1995. She is also a member of the research team at the Centre de recherche et deformation at a local clinic (CLSC Cote-des Neiges) that serves a large pluriethnic clientele. She is the author of numerous works on migration and family issues, as well as questions of identity. She has published articles in journals such as Culture and the Revue europeenne des migrations internationales. Dr. Meintel has preciously researched the issue of transnationalism in Cape Verde. Along with ethnicity and migration, her other main interest is religion and modernity. She and Marie-Nathalie LeBlanc recently co-edited an issue of Anthropologie et societes on this subject.