Based on qualitative research using interviews with 89 young French, Italian and Haitian Quebecers in a cosmopolitan high school in Montreal, the authors try to determine how the outlooks and strategies of young people are constructed as regards interethnic relations in three specific areas: the family, the neighbourhood and the school. Elements which favour the exchange of views and obstacles to such exchanges are highlighted: the primacy of individual characteristics over those of the group, the relative nature of cultures, recognition of the need for compromise and reciprocity in exchanging views which favour rapprochement and combat friction due to linguistic, racial or value differences. Young people in general arrive at a common definition of the basic principles for pluralistic, smooth operation by the end of high school, starting from different life experiences conditioned by the values transmitted by families in various ethnic groups.
Titre de la publication
International Review of Community Development / Revue internationale d’action communautaire