Mutual Intercultural Relations in Plural Societies

The Mutual Intercultural Relations in Plural Societies (MIRIPS) is an international collaborative project to build an understanding of intercultural relations. The project is designed to promote the idea that intercultural relations can be best understood when both recent immigrants and community members are surveyed using similar questions within a community.

The MIRIPS project began with a focus on large multi-ethnic societies such as Australia, Canada, China, India, and Russia. Since the project began, researchers from the following countries have expressed an interest in participating: Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Singapore, Switzerland, and Turkey.

Through the use of a common research framework and research instrument the research will focus on two different relationships: the role of security in intercultural relationships and the existence of reciprocity between groups in their relationships. Researchers seek to know whether relationship, dimensions, and structures found in Canada are similar in other culturally-plural societies. If findings from Canada are replicated, this international research can serve as a guide to the development of policy to improve intercultural relations.

RDI will be the first researchers to undertake the MIRIPS project in Canada. Interviews will be conducted with two groups of people in Brandon: recent immigrants and their families; and community members. The results from the surveys will be useful to build an understanding of intercultural relations within Brandon, examine aspect of Brandon as a welcoming community, and assist in policy and programming

Links

MIRIPS International Website

Project Publications

Intercultural relations in a prairie city.
(2011). Presented at the Canadian Psychology Association Annual Convention, Toronto, Ontario. Annis, R.C., Gibson, R., & Berry, J.

Understanding welcoming communities and multiculturalism: Implications of intercultural relations in a prairie Canadian city
(2011). Presented at Migration: Economic Change, Social Challenge, London, England. Gibson, R., Annis, R.C., & J. Berry.

Intercultural Relations in a Rural Canadian Prairie City.
(2010). Presented at Mi/Más Konferencia, Eger, Hungary. Annis, R., Gibson, R., & Berry, J.

MIRIPS International Researchers