Politics, Intergroup Relations, and Group Maintenance
From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Mexicans/Luin Goldring
Mexicans in Canada are not active in Canadian or Mexican political activities. There are no politically based associations. Mexicans who become Canadian citizens vote, but they do not become involved in local politics.
Mexicans have not formed significant alliances with other ethnic groups. On an individual level, they have frequent contact with other immigrants and Canadian citizens because they do not live in segregated or ethnically closed communities. Many of the Mexican women married Canadians from eastern, southern, and central European origins. While some Mexicans may look “different” from Anglo- and European-Canadians, and many speak with an accent, they are not a large or visible group. Individuals may experience institutional racism because they are non-white, but rarely because they have been identified as Mexican.
As noted, Mexicans immigrants have not formed closed or sharply defined ethnic communities in Canada. Their relatively small number, dispersed settlement patterns, and largely nuclear family-based migration preclude this. The associations formed in the last ten years are somewhat divided along class lines, but they provide an opportunity for social gatherings based on common cultural and ethnic identities.
