The Promotion of Minority Group Rights as the Protection of Individual Rights and Freedoms for Immigrants: A Canadian Case Study

This study reports that SUCCESS was founded in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1973 as a result of the failure of government agencies and mainstream organizations to provide accessible social services for newly-arrived Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong. During its initial stage, the organization provided mainly basic settlement services. But SUCCESS has become a well-established multi-level service agency, providing a wide range of programs and services to both Chinese and non-Chinese. More importantly, it has created a home and a community to which immigrants feel they belong. It demonstrates that SUCCESS has played a significant role in promoting immigrant integration. Furthermore, it has built a bridge between the immigrant community and Canadian society at large. In addition, the study challenges the view of liberal universalism and provides an alternative model to interpret minority group rights, citizenship, and democracy.