The Emergence of a New Cosmopolitan Generation?

An investigation of the attitudes & strategies of students in interethnic relations focuses on experiences in a secondary school in an English-speaking neighborhood of Montreal, Quebec, where a French-speaking group constitutes the largest ethnic majority (20%). Based on qualitative data drawn from interviews with French, Italian, & Haitian students (N = 194, ages 12-17), a number of shared principles for pluralistic conduct in the school, family, & neighborhood emerge from their strategies of mutual accommodation, notably: the primacy of the individual trait over the group trait, the relative status of ethnicities & cultures, & the importancde of reciprocity & compromise. While promoted as standards of the emerging cosmopolitan generation, & as progress beyond the ethnocentric perspectives of their parents, they are also aware of the clashes of different values, linguistic misunderstandings, & racial tensions. Adapted from the source document.