The British Council is hosting an event called the Living Together Summit. It has a number of aims which include assessing the ‘impact of migration on society, and the ability of minority communities to participate in public life’. We (that’s us at WHYS and all of you) are going to help them do that. And we’ll add some related questions of our own.
We’ll be broadcasting live from the event which is at Westminster conference centre.
Are multi-cultural societies inevitable?
Do you welcome the increased levels of migration all around the world?
Do you want multi-culturalism to work? And if so, how can you better involve minorities in your country? Give us some examples of measures which have worked (or ones which haven’t)?
If you don’t want them to work, what’s your alternative?
And while we can talk about this on a national and international level – what about your life? How has it been affected my migration?
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Melting pot is good, multiculturalism is bad because it encourages enclaves of people that wont integrate, nor will it feel integrated. Also, I think there should be reciprocity. If we have to be multicultural, so should other socities. You don’t see any welcome mats out for other races in Japan, in fact, you can see “Japanese Only” signs up. Until socities like that become multicultural, we shouldn’t not accept people from those societies.
Multiculturalism will never work now. I used to be a firm believer in it – I converted to the anti because it was taken up by those who promote political correctness more than the benefits of another culture. When that happened it was a matter of down treading the indigenous people to the betterment of the minority.
If, as should have happened, the minority culture could have integrated in to the mother culture at its own pace – as was happening – it could have had a chance to work. But politicians got involved and sought to force people to accept another culture, this is where you have the problem now in the UK. Society evolves slowly and on its own, not through legislation.
Multi-Culturalism is good but the west will never accept the African culture. Almost every African culture is bad and poses health hazard to the its people according to the west.
As my surname implies I have some Italian ancestry. My paternal grand-parents came from Italy in the 1890s. They naturalised. My grand-father fought for this country in World War !. He insisted the family speak English at all times. They got no help from the state.. As a result we have intergrated.
Immigrants now get so much. Would they fight for this country? Will they learn English? Will they mix? The British Tax Payer is forced to finacne EU Membership. Is forced to finance Immigrants including the 1 in 8 foreign nationals in our prisons and The Government wonder why there is so much bad feeling.
Often when shopping locally I hear as many people speaking other languages as I do speaking English. It makes me feel very uncomfortable.
Mohammed Ali, what is the “african culture” and how do you know the west won’t accept it? I’m sure the culture in Egypt or Morocco is different than the culture in Zimbabwe, yet all are African nations.
Multiculturalism is a proven disaster that inevitably leads to communalism, inter-ethnic violence and national disintegration. Only bigoted liberals have any faith in it. And that’s because they refuse to recognise two fundamental facts of life: not all cultures are equal; and a higher culture has a right to preserve itself against a less developed culture.
The point of having different nation-states is that each should be free to develop its unique national culture within its borders. We in the West should not be trying to force liberalism down the throats of Iraqis or Afghans. And by the same token Western nations like Holland and France have an absolute right to maintain their traditional and historic identitites and to insist that immigrants conform to Frenchness and Dutchness.
The best of many arguments against multiculturalism is sub-Saharan Africa. Here we find dozens of countries existing withing artifical colonial borders that have brought together many ethnic and cultural groups who are alien to each other. Result: since independence Africa has been a hell-hole of ethnic slaughter, ethnic rape, ethnic plunder, ethnic election-stealing, ethnic oppression, etc. The African continent is incontestably the least developed on the planet. Why? Because multiculturalism produces not the co-operative spirit needed for development but the mutual suspicion and hatred that are conducive to genocide..
Multiculturalism: an idea whose time has come and gone.
I live in Japan and i have seen quite a few “japanese only: no foreigners” signs here. I have also experienced racism in other forms in Japan, which, ironically, needs more foreigners here to support the huge aging population.
http://www.debito.org has quite a lot of info about racism, ethnocentricity and xenophobic practises in japan, so i wont dwell on it, but I do believe that multiculturalism should and must work if we are all to survive and evolve as human beings.
hundreds of years ago, it was village against village, then it was town against town and so on and so forth. Saying multiculturalism has no place in today’s world is like kicking the outsiders out of your local tavern for “not being from round ‘ere”.
Regulated multi-nationals for better or for worse help maintain a high level of quality. The key here is REGULATION. In addition the regulators need to be regulated. Advanced western industrial society has more or less proven that regulated corporate culture works, and that un-regulated corporate culture corrupts totally.
To help Africa grow, the multi-nationals must be allowed to flourish, under a top notch system of regulation.
I think multi-culturism is a terrific ideal. We have it here in Canada. It can work, but only if it actually turns into a melting pot with the passage of time. It may become a dead idea as the world’s multi-national super corporations begin to exercise more and more power.
From my observation multi-culturalism strenghtened the social fabric across the global spectrum. History is a witness that advanced socities sprung as result of co-operatio between various ethnic, racial and religious groups. While its recognisable certain conflicts erupted at their embroyonic stages, the current multi-cultural socities are a perfect example of an imposing societal co-existence. America is one such society. It is a worrying spectale to see a country like Somalia in a dire situation while its people belong to one religous and ethnic camp. I think if the old wound are set aside,a multi-cultural revolution will prosper the world to greater heights. Meanwhile it is important to develop various identities and to sing like Walt Whitman’i'm vast, I contain multitudes’
Multiculturalism is the only thread for common good. It works, but only for those who are not bigoted, for those who see no differences in people, for those who belief that we are all equal and were created equal. But multiculturalism will never work for those who belief that they are superior to the others. In actual fact multiculturalism can be equated to your beautiful garden around the house, where you have plants, flowers of all colours. If you do not believe in Multiculturalism, wipe out all plants and flowers around the hose and tell me what you feel from there on.
I am a strong believer of Multiculturalism. I was born in Africa from a peasant family. Educated in many different countries around the glob, settled in Australia, married to an English lady (My Queen), have children, the youngest (My Angel) extraordinarily brilliant young woman. I love them dearly. To add to this, my wife’s side has an American-African blood (lovely).
Now for this world to have any blessing, we need to embrace multiculturalism and promote it. The current leader of Australia is one that may be an asset for this great nation I live in (watch this space).
Multiculturalism will never work in a society where some race see themselves as more superior than another race. Think, why do you think you are superior? in actual fact you may be inferior without realising you are.
Interesting, but potentially controversial show topic idea:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/10/unc.student.funeral.ap/index.html
These stories have been in the news the past week, two white women were murdered, allegedly by black men this week. Having lived in the Washington, DC area my entire life, there are murders almost every day (it used to be multiple murders every day) that never made national headlines. Sometimes there were drive by shootings where the non drug dealer/gang rival was killed by innocent bystanders were. These never make national news, however, if the victim is young, white, attractive female, it makes national headlines. It’s similar to the missing females. If they are white and attractive, they get lots of media time. If they aren’t, they get completely ignored.
I’m not trying to take away from the horrible, unecessary death of these two college students, but this happens every single day in the USA yet if it makes the news, it’s only local news. Why does the media do this? It’s not just the US media either. I’m sure the British WHYSers will be very familiar with Madeleine Mccann, just like we have been subjected to the Natalie Holloway drama for years here, which the media would have completely ignored had she been male or not attractive.
Multiculturisam under democratic rule may not work at all as Democracy provide leveld plain field to majority & conficate minority rights at once.
A strong constitution & impartial legislative force barely handle the complecations of multiculture society as society transform by itself.
A very very long time ago the city states around Athens were undergoing an economic crisis. It seemed that 99 percent of the population owed the other 1 percent money. So the city archons got together and elected a dictator, Solon the Lawgiver. Among his many decrees was the forgiving of all debt (Solon intentionally lent money and went into the hole to make this one stick), he forbade all women from wearing more than 3 items of clothing in public (I have no idea why), and he decreed that any foreigner with a trade who wanted to settle in Athens got immediate citizenship.
From a further reading in history, it appears that all vast empires embrace the diversity of their separate cultures.
Many of you are right about multi-culturalism, however, as there is a difference between it and diversity.
Half my family were Irish, most deposited on our shores probably during the potato famine. Back then, the Irish immigrants were considered shifty, violent, drunken, incendiary, lazy good-for-nothing but back-breaking toil and quick-and- dirty hires for a corrupt and equally violent police force. But they fought in the American Civil War, dialed back their religion (my Irish ancestors on my grandfather’s side were Baptists), and assimilated.
Many new immigrants cling to their cultural diversity like it’s a life boat. But what they practice privately at home and more stridently in their neighborhoods, they dial-back in the voting booth. In just about any Los Angeles department store you can hear a dozen different languages — a situation that, when you accept the dynamics of the culture, stimulates a greater sense of inclusion.
True, if new citizens use their ethnicity to circle the wagons and isolate themselves from their adopted culture, multi-culturalism can break a state into the Balkans. (The Muslims didn’t realize it, but after 9/11, the habit of Muslim women to don the headscarf, is the equivalent of wearing warpaint and drawing up an ambuscade in our culture.) But, as Solon no doubt realized, when good citizenship is in earnest, and ethnic culture is not used as fighting words, cultural diversity revitalizes how we view ourselves, and evolves the picture of how we prefer others to view us as we’d better prefer to be.
–Regards. Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
I am originally from India which is a hot-bed of multiculturalism. There are hundreds of languages spoken here and almost all the major religions of the world are represented in huge numbers. Everyday you meet and interact with people from different ethnicity, religion and colors. It has worked very well in India and as far as I can see it has only aided to the growth of India not just economically but also spiritually. I do not see any reason why this can not work in all parts of the world. People have to just open up.
We now live in a society which has colours multiculturalism. I am a Marist Brother and you may be surprised that l belong to an order that exist in 75 countries, that is in all the continents we have one or so marists. It is possible. Comapnies, especially international ones are by nature multiculture. Let us accept the reality that we are already living in our midst. Marriages are also taking place, a thing we never heard and saw before, that whiles could be married to blacks. barriers are over and all we need to do is to promote it as much as possible whereever it is already working well.
multiculture is the world we will live in and we should appreciate it as our latest discovery in our century.
Brother Simeon Banda, Kasungu, malawi
Maybe you need to define “multiculti” and what the objectives are before anyone can say if it will “work”.
Then perhaps we need some examples of it in action – the benefits, who gets those benefits, and any problems.
The middle east is multicultural – we have arabs, persians, jews, copts. Its been a bit *cough* mixed there.
Africa: different tribes rubbing along in Sudan, Rwanda, Angola. Errr – lets move on.
India perhaps ? Maybe not – inter-communal riots are pretty common there.
Keep on looking ….
In a world where skin color accounts for one’s superiority to another, multi-culturalism wont work. If the white stops thinking that anything black is bad but anything white is better multi-culturalism will work. A South African white once told his African messenger that the ‘vulture’ cannot and will never not fly together with the ‘eagle’. If such insults cease, then we can think of healthy cross cultural relationships.
Ben Assopiah
Tarkwa, Ghana
I think multiculturalism will start to be scaled back. I think it has the best chance to work in the US, basically because we do more attempts to integrate here, while in Europe, not much is attempted, and minorities isolate themselves, and if they aren’t financially successful, likely turn to religion and can tend to get militant. Hence why in the UK you’ve had underground bombings, attempts to attack airports with explosive ladened, burning cars, etc. In europe, you have violent protests in response to activities of police chasing foreign kids who then get themselves killed, and cars are burned for weeks on end. Areas so dangerous the police won’t even enter. In the Netherlands, they are on a panic alert because a politician is releasing a film critical of Islam. Theo van Gogh was murdered in the street for his political beliefs. I just think that you’ll see europe becoming more conservative immigration wise so that they don’t feel they lose their historical liberalness. Rather ironic if you ask me. But let’s not forget that deliberate multiculturalism only exists in western nations. Countries like India maybe multicultural, but they’ve had those different groups of people there for many years, have not deliberately imported people recently, and India has had a lot of strife recently and historically due to the differing groups there. Remember, back in 1947, Pakistan was formed because muslims and Hindus for the most part decided they couldn’t live together, though there are st ill more muslims in India than there are in Pakistan. Several other nations were formed out of the British Raj because people couldn’t get along.
@ Ben: two points. firstly, Africans need to drop their unhealthy habit of, quite literally, thinking of the world in black and white. They need to get on with managing their own affairs and stop obsessing about what whites think and write about them.
Secondly, skin colour is not a matter of superiority. The ability to create, manage and maintain a modern society is. That’s what Africans need to start getting serious about, since they have so far failed at these things.
Your view that multiculturalism will work seems to be little more than wishful thinking. It also seems to refer to multiculturalism in the West alone. Almost all non-Western societies repudiate the notion of multiculturalism. A good example of this is Japan. An advanced modern society with a falling birthrate and an imminent labour shortage problem. The Japanese are determined to maintain the monocultural identitiy of their country and are currently investing heavily in robotics research as the means of maintaining future productivity. They don’t want to create a race problem where they never had one. The same attitude can be found in every south-east Asian country: multiculturalism is not for us; we are content to be a homogeneous people living in harmony with each other (The US and parts of Europe have had race riots in the past; when did you ever hear of such a thing in any part of south east Asia?).
The bottomline is that Africans, Latin Aamericans and south Asians need not apply for citizenship of south east Asian states. And who can say that those states are not entitled to take that view if they consider it to be in their best interests?
Can Multi-culturalism work? I think John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty defines some good parameters in which multi-culturalism might function. The problems that I see are those who use multi-culturalism to promote their own views to gain strength in a society and then use that strength to suppress the views and behavior of others. Scott in the States
While I lived in Toronto, I was deeply impressed about how well the multicultural society there works. If I remember correctly, about half of the residents there were not born in Canada and another quarter were second generation. Every ethnic/national group had its own spectacle, be it the Greek celebrating their national holiday or the Hindus celebrating their major festival. What’s more, the “original” WASP Canadians saw this as a plus, an enrichment to their environment and not as a threat. So what, if you don’t understand what those two people in the store are talking about? It’s none of your business anyway! Coming from Austria with the growing right wing party telling you that “the boat is full” and “multiculti can’t work”, it showed me that there is another way of living and that it just depends on the attitude of all involved. As long as you respect the laws and the (unwritten) rules of the country that you live in, you’re welcome here. I wish Western Europe could finally come around and accept at least the immigrants from the other EU countries, let alone those from other parts of the world.
All systems have defects. The problem with so called homogeous societies are that the people will start creating divisions in ways one can not predict. Weren’t Jews white? But Hitler found religion to be the dividing line. Are Sunnis and Shias both Muslims? Yet someone found some line to divide them. The point is that even though you might think you are safe living in a so called homogenous society, it will not be too far in the future before someone creates a division in your society. At that point no one would have had any experience for tolerance for ‘the others’ and something like what happpened in Germany will precipitate.
on the other hand a multicultural society will keep functioning even though you might rarely find small scale one-off skirmishes on an imaginary line that might have been drawn.
PTC bus:
It wasn’t someone who drove a dividing line between sunnis and shiites. You state that like some outsider caused the conflict. Sunnis and shiites have hated each other since Mohammed died. It is about the succession. They absolutely loath each other, they themselves drew the line. This has been going on for 1400 years now.
Steve:
This is what I meant: people will tend to start drawing lines based on religion , race or color no matter what. So if you are in a homogenous society suddenly you will find yourself in a polarized state. You will find yourself in a situation where you have to decide whether you have to go with side A or side B. And at that point, things go haywire.
Whereas in a multicultural socieity there are no distinct lines. Instead there are many shades. There is no problem with adding another shade. There is not only A or B, but everything in between A and B. You are free to choose the best of A and B or create yourself a new C and live like a C
Mr.Ptcbus ( US & India).
A pride Indian multiculture society in reality is a proven human desaster, donot blow more air in pride Indian Baloon otherwise this will explode with pride like former USSR & recently Yougosolivacia.
Please dont forget to observe crime against humanity in Kashmire by Indian Army and libration of Tamal state along with illegal occupation of HYDERABAD are the Indian multiculture pride under Democratic Lable.
“Multiculturalism”, “integration” or “melting pot”, and “tribalism” need to be distinguished.
I think Viola Anderson (above) has it about right. Multicultralism reflects tolerance for the “other”, but with the expectation of ultimate integration.
Persistent tribalism, insistence on apartness, is very divisive, for a society should be defined by shared common values.
Multiculturalism starts in the womb. A quiet and happy pregnancy, an untraumatic birth, lots of love and empowerment will create a healthy, loving baby and then human being. Tolerance requires a strong personality with lots of self-confidence, a person prepared to relinquish his/her fears and accept the other. The strong personality and the love for humanity start in the womb, start in the family. Multiculturalism is our reality. We must face it and accept it. Its acceptance is the only hope!
Multiculturalism could be the way of the future in a universe of nation-states. Within a single nation, only integration would foster a common set of values.
Should the World proceed toward integration and a unified set of values?
Multiculturalism is not an option, it is the only way open to all the citizens of the world!
The only way we can ever share love and promote peace, understanding and development among the world societies.
However, the west uses multiculturalism to re-colonise other societies and reduce the ability of the other world citizens to attain fulfillment and a sence of belonging.
As always, the West uses various designs to denigrate and obliterate other societys Identity.
It is the question of Eurupe[the west] and the other, where the ^other^ is always made to despise and underrate itself.
If multiculturalism is to work, the west must never try to use its economic position to oppress othe societies. The west must learn democracy, fairness, justice and most important, love.Untill then, multiculturalism is a paper policy.
Kipsang theophilus kerich from Bomet, western kenya,nairobi
kenya……..www.wordpress.com#kenyankerich
@ Kipsang: again, the African obsession with the West!
Please, tell me how China, Korea and Japan are multicultural? There are very few Africans to be found in those countries for a very simple reason: the Chinese, Koreans and Japanese deliberately keep immigrants out, and each of those groups regards Africans with more or less open contempt. There are hundreds of thousands of Africans to be found living and working in practically every Western country. And yet it’s the West that you choose to lecture about ‘multiculturalism’!
Can you spare a moment from raving against the unique wickedness of the West to say something about China’s indifference to African lives, or the fact that Africans are to this day being enslaved in places like Mauritania and Sudan by Arabs?
You charge that the West “uses multiculturalism to re-colonise other societies”. I hesitate to dismiss this as utter nonsense without first fully understanding it. Please explain your meaning. You might even condescend to give a few factual examples to support your assertion. Otherwise I’ll be forced to the conclusion that this is just another instance of the hysterical and paranoid West-hating, anti-White obsession that grips the minds of too many Africans. Substantiate your charges if there is any truth to them.
What Africa needs is less self-pity and more self-help.
We already live in a multi-cultural environment that is getting more crowded by the minute – It’s called “Earth”. Get used to it.
Hello All,
I think most people lead relatively small lives. I don’t mean this in a bad way, it’s just their feelings and their commentary are ephemeral. Their culture seems to them immutable. In their minds it provides them crib, cacoon and coffin. This is an illusion. Nothing in life is so simple or certain. Mixing of cultures always occurs. Sometimes it happens only at the “edges,” sometimes it happens in a deeper way. It usually engenders some sort of conflict; but it happens just the same.
Humanity is more important than culture. We are humans. We shouldn’t kill people for breaking their eggs from the big end or the little end! We should discuss our differences and our commonalities, and find a way to keep ourselves and our neighbors alive.
later,
g
“CAN MULTI-CULTURALISM WORK?”
It’s happening in many countries at this very moment. The divisions of humanity on this Earth by geographic synchronization has created the very different races of humanity out of the very will to survive. To further this point of survival people became submissive and subservient to the thoughts of others like minded, concerning the beginnings to contemplate the knowledge of the origin of life and how they are to live among each other.
No, multi culturalism does not work! It only creats problems, conflicts and wars.
Multiculturalism works as it allows people to express themselves compared to regulation and One Culture. Right now in the USA the disintegration is occuring in English and it is the Republicans and Democrats who want regulation who are initiating it. We should accept people for what they are.
IT seems the best chances of it working are in the west, as on a daily basis you read about how people cannot get along. Here’s an example from today
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7294078.stm
Community depends on shared values, culture and language. Integration must be the goal of multiculturalism, or divisiveness will be permanent and the sense of community weak.
There are a half dozen “civilizations” in the World with a degree of distinct commonality.
Peace on our planet depends on increasing reliance on international law and shared values. This should build from the local community to the World.
The Anglo-Saxon idea imposing culture is hopeless
Jos do this show!
ViktorK I am shocked at your superiority idea. Not that that is wrong- but ion the minds of the INFERIOR it becomes NAZISM. You see what I mean? YOU may be superior in intellect, I may be superior in creative gifts _ BUT ACCORDING TO WHOM? And once that dreaded Orwell decision is made WHO will enact the separation?
MY personal experience. I am still a romantic liberal who believes that all men are equal- differences are additions to our culture- and we all have the same colour blood in our veins. I have however (having done most of the anti apartheid films) that when those in power get threatened- despite their altruistic attitude towards all races and cultures- they attack the minorities. Mugabe is one – Amin is another- Hitler is another- Sadam….Khomeini…..
Nothing new, sorry to say – the Romans did it with the Jews,then the Christians to the Arabs, and now we are in the next cycle. Think of this- more Muslims live OUTSIDE the MIddle East than inside it.
Guess who the minority is now?
Mirror time folks.
That is why the phrase ‘People of colour’ is such a silly comment – white folk are the minority. Think on these things.
This is something that does make my eyes open wide with some suspicion:
And I quote from the site:
“First Panel Discussion
(off the record, Chatham House Rule, with no media coverage)
Chair: Lord Kinnock
Topic: Minority communities and their participation in public life
Speakers: Senior ministers and contributors from the region and the UK”
“Second Panel Discussion
(off the record, Chatham House Rule, with no media coverage)
Chair: Martin Davidson
Topic: The impact of migration on home and host societies
Speakers: Senior ministers and contributors from the region and the UK”
You can certainly believe if I find that a bit disconcerting then many, many others will, too.
Why are these discussions being done behind closed doors and with no media coverage? If this is so important surely it should be out in the open so people can assess it for themselves? Even if it is done under the Chatham House rule. Those providing the information should be allowed to be questioned by any and all who need them to qualify what they have said/provided.
The only obstacle that is slowing the progress of multiculturalism is ignorance.
It seems like everyone here thinks that Multiculturalism doesn’t work. Well then come on down to where I live, Los Angeles. I’ve hung out with people from around the world, with no problems at all. What’s so hard about respecting other people’s points of view and heritage?
-Anthony, LA, CA
Multi- culturalism is good because it brings diversity and most importantly intergration. But it seems racism is rearing its ugly head. The question is how do we inform and enlighten the ultra-conservatives that personal or collective closures is the solution a la
what is happening in Russia
Dolapo Aina,
Lagos, Nigeria
Rory: I think that this is an instance of liberals being shocked at what everybody else knows to be true.
Immigration occurs across the world only .because millions of ordinary people understand that some cultures are better at economic and political management than others. The West, Japan and south east Asia are not rich by chance or exploitation, but as a result of a superior economic (and to a lesser extent political) culture. Africa is, potentially, the richest continent on the planet: it’s deplorable political and economic culture are what keep it poor. If a country like Nigeria – bursting to the seams with mineral wealth – were to be re-popuated by 120 million Chinese or 120 million Western Europeans or North Americans it would, within a generation, have the world’s highest per capita GDP. Culture counts.
The weakness of multiculturalism is the pretence that cultures are equal when the evidence of our eyes tells us that they obviously are not. There may be a more tactful way of discussing this than talking of superior and inferior cultures, but I doubt if there is a more honest one. I don’t think that there is any need either to deny that all men have, or should have, equal rights: but not to equal things. Bill Gates has a perfect right, for example, to his billions, even though there are poor people in his country: both the rich and the poor have an equal right to acquire, hold and use property.
When you mix cultures in a multicultural experiment there is no reason at all to assume that the virtues of the superior culture will necessarily win out. People who have a culture of political violence, placed in a country with a culture of debate, civic trust, co-operation, and mutual forbearance, are guaranteed to force the possessors of the superior political culture to curtail their civil liberties in order to protect their lives. It’s happening in the US and UK. Those are the fruits of multiculturalism: the corruption and degradation of a higher culture by a lower one.
The implemenation of multiculturalism can’t work anywhere without financial help. International migration routes inevitably involve the movement of people of poor countries and areas to richer nations and areas, at immense human and financial cost.
The James Tobin tax project demonstrated how a tiny percent of tax on international financial transactions could raise trillions of Euro per annum to alleviate migration settlement problems, infancy death and third world starvation, and also stabilize currency markets. Although approved of my several European countries the Tobin tax has become a dead issue, thanks to opposition from the financial markets, as their profits zoom out of control.
Hello every body. I believe multicultarism can give us a chance to interact with people of varied religions. yes it is without any doubt enjoyable. The world today is comming a lot closer faster. Today we believe in globalisation. It was a long time ago when we used to draw borders between cultures without having any problems. Today we cant do that. World has become a village. We should accept that.I live in India which speaks out loud “Unity in Diversity”, offcourse there are problems,but so does every culture in itself has.
BUT THE ONLY THING IS THAT THE MINORITIES MUST IN ANY CASE RESPECT THE LOCAL CULTURE. iF THEY DONT DO THAT,THERE STARTS A BATTLE NEVER ENDING ONE.
Multi-culturalsim is a smoke hide white societal racism. These cultures and races are told to embrace their own race/cultures. However, to be partially accepted in white societies, we must leave our own cultures and beliefs to enter their world. We do not have multi-cultural societies but rather separate cultures which co-exist.
Being a resident of Portland, OR, I see our minority groups starting businesses, purchasing homes, attending their own places of worship, and establishing themselves in our culture. Though there is plenty of friction, the benefits outweigh it. Please remember it takes generations for minorities to establish themselves. It takes much longer for everything to work smoothly. The whole community needs to make multiculturalism work and that’s the hard part.
So ultimately i have to agree that multicultuarism does work. And i also have to admit that it has a lot of problems in its way.
I accept your co-existance theory John.
Culture is superficial, traditional and sentimental. People who are proud of their culture are usually egocentric and narcissistic. The most intelligent and creative people who find themselves in a different culture are always the people who don’t make their original culture an issue, because they realize its lack of importance. Being proud of something means generally means you value you it more than another thing, which creates division and braggadocio.
To me multiculturalism means FOOD. YUM. Something we can all agree on. Who wants Tacos every night, seriously? Japan, I love your Udon and Sushi, but everyday, no way.
Here in Vancouver we have a million different ethnic restaurants, every night I can go eat in another country. When I go away to Mexico or China or the States I get so bored with the food I have to come home.
Here in Canada I think Multiculturalism works. It’s the spice of life. Funny thing is, it defines Canada in many ways. In fact, the only place I can go to a restaurant that has something called “Canadian Food” is at the many Chinese restaurants that call themselves “Chinese and Canadian Food Restaurants”. Thanks god for the Chinese Canadians, without them I wouldn’t know what Canadian food was!
Immigrants have the responsibility to assimilate to the country they choose to go to. It is their responsibility to understand the culture and become part of the community. If I rent an apartment in an apartment complex, I don’t get to bring my own rules. I follow the rules of the apartment complex. The same thing goes with immigrants coming to this country.
Culture is superficial, traditional and sentimental. People who are proud of their culture are usually egocentric and narcissistic. The most intelligent and creative people who find themselves in a different culture are always the people who don’t make their original culture an issue, because they realize its lack of importance. Being proud of something generally means you value it more than another thing, which creates division and braggadocio.
There should be a difference between multiculturalism and multiple interpretations of the laws within a particular country.
Multiculturalism provides exposure to a diverse array of views which better equips people to discover their own opinions and form their own beliefs.
Peter, I was gonna ask what Canadian food is. Poutine and maple syrup? I think there’s more to multiculturalism than having wider varities of food to choose from. I have noticed that in Canada they have curry flavored Lays Potato chips, which I wish they would offer here in the US.
Multi-culturalism, not mono-culturalism. we should strive for a society of acceptance and celebration of the variety. don’t let the diversity fade. being educated of the differences between people or places may at least lead to toleration, even if there are divisions.
“Multiculturalism” is now a loaded word – it means too many different things to different people to be able to be talk about whether it works or not.
I think cultural diversity is good, and immigration is good – but there has to be conformance to the general framework of the host culture. Nobody would think much of an argument like “well, I didn’t have to pay taxes where I came from, so I shouldn’t have to here”. The laws of the host country need to be followed. Similarly, the principles that make the basic social fabric work and underly the host culture need to be followed too.
Language is probably the biggest one. Speaking, reading and writing a “foreign” language is great. But not learning the host language, not making your culturual contribution available to those who aren’t already part of it, creates insular pockets of non-integrated culture. This doesn’t offer any of the benefits of diversity.
There will always be people who discriminate against “strange” others – it happens within cultures, too – look at the history of blacks in the US. You can’t force people to like or accept others. But there will also always be those who seek out ties, or to bridge the gap, with those who offer something new. Integration happens over time when the reality of the former is shrugged off, and the offer of mutual interest and acceptance from the latter is taken up.
I strongly disagree with the caller from South Africa, Cape Town. Multi-culturalism is not the problem. The problem is racist attitudes that caller exhibited. I want to be a multi-cultural society the question is..will white people want to give up their perks to make it work. These perks can be encouraging interracial and inter-cultural marriages, multi-culturalism in religious institutions.
The simple fact is that people from different cultures live in close proximity to each other now, and always will. It is not practical to decree a stop to migration, or the separation of people from different cultures who have migrated.
The only hope is to engage in dialogue on a grassroots level, and to attempt understanding of our neighbors. We don’t have to like our neighbors, but as a matter of mutual respect all parties must attempt understanding of the basic cultural values and traditions of both the host country and the migrants who settle there.
Crime is not a problem caused by migration or by different cultures. It is a problem having to do with economic inequality, and must be addressed as such.
I live in San Francisco, California, where I migrated from the midwest of the United States – arguably a different culture – and live alongside migrants from other places in North America, Asia, Europe, and the rest. The “melting pot” strips identity from all our cultures. There’s no reason we can’t enjoy this diversity while agreeing on basic standards of respect for each other and the local laws.
The root of conflicts in multiculturalism are based in conflicting religious doctrines. Discrimination and intolerance are largely based on religious differences and less so on cultural differences. You cannot resolve the multicultural issues without resolving religious intolerance. By removing the religious intolerances, only then can you have a successful multicultural assimilation.
I’m a Latino women in the United States and we are not all Catholic. This is a generalization…this is the problem in the United States that people make generalizations and stereotypes about other cultures.
Scott, I disagree with you. Culture is important. There are plenty of creative and intelligent people who not only thrive in culture(s) but create it themselves. How can you say that every person who identifies with or is proud of their own cultures can’t exist well in others? That’s ignorant.
The USA doesn’t do a lot right these days, but one must say that we do a fairly great job living as a multicultural nation. Speaking as an immigrant to the USA this is one thing we can be very proud of. It hurts me that right now, with the current administration there’s an anti immigrant sentiment but I hope we can overcome that hurdle with a new administration.
I think historical context gets lost in this argument far too often. The caller’s comments regarding the “melding ability” of cultures in the United States forsakes all recollection of historical perspective.
The exact same concerns were raised regarding Irish immigrants into the Northeast of the United States during the potato famine. The predominantly protestant Northeastern US feared that it would be possible for the predominantly Catholic and poor Irish immigrants to properly integrate into society.
We can look back, 150 years down the road, and see that Irish immigrants have integrated appropriately into the United States. A startling revelation is to track immigration headlines from US papers today regarding the Hispanic immigration and compare them to Irish immigration era immigration headlines. Very little has changed.
For those who would claim that the Hispanic immigration is a far greater scale than the Irish immigration, the population of Hispanic immigrants in the United States represents approximately 8-12% depending on estimates. The Irish diaspora brought between 1.5 and 2 million immigrants to the US at a time when the population was approximately 19 million (representing approximately 10% of the population).
These numbers aren’t unprecedented, and the fears are merely being repeated. Integegration takes a huge amount of time (consider that Irish Americans still felt a strong enough connection to Ireland in the late 1900s to support the IRA politically and financially — 130 odd years later).
I was born in Oregon and my family has been in the United States since the generation of my Great-Great-Grandparents. Although I know that my heritage is primarily German and Swedish, I have found that living in a country that is such a vast melting-pot of cultures from across the world has caused me to question my own cultural identity and has led to a sense of no real identity but “American.” I support immigration and welcome the different cultures that come with it because it enriches the experience of day-to-day life (restaurants, art, etc.), however, it’s a mystery to me why anyone of an established, rich culture would want to move to this country without one real cultural identity.
To the gentleman from the USA who thinks Ibero-Catholic culture is the problem with Latino immigrants today – What are his comments on the integration and in many ways success of prior waves of Catholic immigrants (Irish, Italian, etc.) into US culture today? And if there are problems with integration, does not at least some fault lie with the Anglo-Protestant culture to accept newcomers? What specifically does he think are the key cultural differences at issue?
The United States is a multicultural society in that it allows other cultures to co-exist with each other. In the end however all these cultures must follow the Western standards on which the country was built. These include freedom of speech, religion, and personal liberty. Problems arrive when other cultures do not observe these standards (or have their own perception of these standard). An example of this would be forced marriages, honor killings, etc. Frankly we have more homegrown problems with people not observing our standards than we do with immigrant cultures. An example of this would be Christian extremists who refuse to sell birth control or respect the separation of church and state.
Someone needs to define multiculturalism for this discussion. In the US, we mock multiculturalism because the approach other nations take, that lead so self segregation, not learning the language, and living apart and then that leads to lesser economic opporutnities, which leads to resentment, which leads to poorness, and sometimes violence. Think of French suburbs and how cars have been burning for God knows how long.
The US takes more a a melting pot approach, but not as much these days, as people have been encouraging enclaves, business encourage people not integrating (there are spanish language signs up just about everywhere in private businesses, as is their right). I occasionally take the bus, and there are some lines where there are no advertisements in English. The Washington Metro sometimes has spanish only language announcements, with no English message, making me wonder why I’m not being informed of the message. So basically, people here are making it rather easy to not integrate, which is the opposite of what my ancestors did. They obviously came from somewhere else, and learned English, and their kids learned english. People were encouraged to integrate, in fact had to just to work and live. Whereas now things are not exactly the same, but there’s still more of an integration effort here as compared to Europe, where it seems laws are made to cater to immigrants, that they basically live the way they lived where they came from, and that society is having to accomodate them, rather than them conforming to society. Of course some places are quite unjust, such as germany, where the gastarbeiters from Turkey have no hope of ever becoming citizens, despite being in Germany for several generations..
Latinos that “migrate” are showing their disrespect for our flag when they just, instead of knocking on the door of our home and waiting for a welcome, they climb through the window, so to speak, and sit on our couch and eat our food and assume that we want them here. I hear a lot of talk at work and outside of work and what you have is the latinos believing that people welcome them here, but it’s not like that. Multiculturalism and diversity is, I believe, just forcing Americans to shut up and step aside. It’s a bunch of people in a room hating eachother. And in my opinion it’s not the government’s place to force people to like eachother.
the most troubling part that I find about listening to this show is that almost every respondent is speaking from a western european paradigm. The statements suggest that individuals from anglo-saxon/judeo-christian backgrounds have provided cultural wealth and success throughout the world. unfortunately, the western world holds the third world to a standard that it will never reach. The reason these nations will never reach the western standard b/c western countries have stacked the economic deck against these nations through structural adjustment programs and crushing global debt. within nations, the “rule of law” is also stacked against minorities. For example, many indigenous/immigrant cultural customs are outlawed by the dominant culture. Therefore, the ridiculous stance that many of the respondents approach this issue with is a victim blaming stance.If third world nations and minorities groups within first world nations were offered equal economic and social opportunities, there would be no “multicultural problem”.
Multiculturalism cannot be separated from population. Overpopulation drives people from their national and ethnic homes and communities. Our Earth is suffering from human overpopulation that is using up Earth’s resources at a faster rate than they can be created. The rate of population increase simply cannot be sustained. The world’s population reached 6 Billion in, I believe, the year 2000. It’s now over 6.6 Billion, TWICE the population of the United States, in just 7 years.
A moderate number of immigrants enhances a society, but EVERY nation will be detrimentally impacted unless we stem rates of population that in some areas is over 3% annually.
Irma: “It hurts me that right now, with the current administration there’s an anti immigrant sentiment but I hope we can overcome that hurdle with a new administration.”
I presume you are referring to illegal immigrants, and the Bush administration is incredibly friendly to illegal immigrants. He wants to give them amnesty, he doesn’t want to build a border fence. He wants things to continue the way they are. How can you say that is anti illegal immigrant? He’s the best friend illegal immigrants have. If you were referring to anti legal immigrant, do you have any basis for this? I’ve never heard anything like that. Even anti illegal immigrant people admit we need immigrants, but they want them to go through the legal route.
Conflict prevention is better than cure. Multi-culturalism leads to tension resulting in riots in eg Brixton & Toxteth etc. The British Council talks rubbish saying such violence is due to socio-economic circumstances. Poor Jarrow coalminers did not behave like savages who throw rocks and petrol bombs at the Police. Birds of a feather flock together. White and black rhino do not mix. Years ago pepole were concerned about invasions from Spanish, French, and Germans. The third world immigration invasion is far worse. Never mind immmigrant rights – what about responsibilities ?
Berenice:
“I’m a Latino women in the United States and we are not all Catholic. This is a generalization…this is the problem in the United States that people make generalizations and stereotypes about other cultures.”
It’s not just in the US where people make generalizations and stereotype other cultures. My friend married a brazilian, and she is an orthodox christian, not a catholic. However, just wanted to point out to you that you are making a generalization when you say that Americans make generalizations about others, given you cannot know every American. Right?
We compare and rate colleges/universities/schools by there results, why should we not compare cultures in this way? Clearly certain parts of the world or countries have something going on that stops progress; perhaps this is culture.
However anytime you attempt this discussion in the USA you are immediately labeled xenophobic or racist.
Culture is an ever evolving thing. Todays ‘traditional’ is tommorows archaic. Trying to seperate people by their past is artificial. Immigration and change is the only true human culture.
Clearly not all cultures are equal at creating progress or at least the type of progress you are referring to (i.e. democracy, human rights, etc.). To me it is hard to separate religion from culture which seems to be so much a part of cultures. If you have bigoted cultures moving in, with bigoted religions and opposing religions, the cultural minorities are also responsible for not being integrated, etc… . Unless these fundamental religious beliefs are changed it is impossible to live without conflict.
Cultural minorities are often just as guilty as the host culture, just as bigoted and equally part of the problem.
The earlier caller from the US stated that migration from Latin American Countries who are heavily influenced by Catholicism are chronically under-educated and this causes problems here in the US.
I disagree with this statement! One comment that he made stated that people who are here for several generations are still affected by this issue. This is not a cultural issue, this is an issue with the United States Government and its bias against Latinos and people from the southern countries. There is also a problem here with the idea of mandatory language education in our schools. There is a group here that works to discourage such an education as mandatory and starting it in the early grades.
The drop out rate is higher in Latino communities because of the attitude of many states and the federal government, regarding spending money and time to make education a priority instead of war.
I think with commitment and respect for all people and the education of people here in our country, most children of any culture, regardless of country of origin or religion, can be well educated and successful.
To address the gentleman who proposed the idea that the migration of Latinos in the US poses a problem, and his comment that not all cultures are equal in producing ‘progress’:It seems that the thought of believing that your own culture sets the standard of progress and what progress is defined as, is primitive and naive and seems to be a solid root in the problems with which we treat other people from other countries that are not our own. Perhaps we should look at it from a different angle.Multiculturalism isn’t as new as it may seem. Dealing with ‘multiculturalism’ is what seems to be the new wave, and it comes by way of migration. What interests me is why it is perceived that there is a mass type of migration happening presently?
A pedigree horse breeder would not allow his mares to integrate with inferior horses. Yet, if he were liberal, he would be happy if his European daughters married non-Europeans and produced offspring resembling neither.
Multi-Culturalism is essential to modern society. It is fought tooth and nail by those who fear change the most, those who believe their social status is based solely on their personal cultural heritage. Religious zealots, overly patriotic boot rally xenophobes who take credit for the accomplishment of the better ancestors. Live in today and join the social workings of the progress. Progressive intellectuals seem to hold the opinion of cultural tolerance and mutual respect. This means not scapegoating the new cultures who are willing to join and bring strength to one’s nation. True Nationalism should be the authentic feeling of connection to the State at large and the shared community. Furthermore the social damage caused by this ostracism of new immigrants has a causal effect relationship for their own half of this detrimental social cycle. Using ones own ethnicity to promote social status is the shallowest form of cultural identification, it brings shame to the Nation of origin and alienates a individual from the current Nation of residence. On the other hand those who fight . Remember the cause for the statistics like the Latino High School drop out rate here in the US. Take into account the failing public school system, white kids aren’t much better off if they can’t read their High School diploma.
Many of the problems of multicultural integration are easy to see while many of the benefits are difficult.
For example, the Crusades lead Europeans to the Middle East. The friction of these cultures and the bloodshed it brought is easy to see. However, from this same interaction, Europeans gained a taste for spice and new cooking techniques, gained new mathematics and technology, and came to know once more important Greek works such as those by Aristotle.
In essence, what was learned from the Middle East paved the way for Europe’s expansion and success. So while this interaction between cultures was highly problematic and would be view in an entirely bad light. Without it the West may not have grown to where it is now.
I am an American married to an African immigrant. He came here for economic reasons NOT to “become” an American per se. If western countries want to stem the tide of immigrants coming to their countries they should take a look at their own and other “first world” economic policies to see how they actually create the mass migrations of people that we are seeing now.Many immigrants I know would RATHER be living in their home countries, if it were reconomically viable.Inequities in global trade and infrastructure, and first world country’s insistence on enforcing specific economic structures are a large part of the economic crisis in developing countries. Address these and you will also be addressing much of the migration issue.
Multi-Culturalism is essential to modern society. It is fought tooth and nail by those who fear change the most, those who believe their social status is based solely on their personal cultural heritage. Religious zealots, overly patriotic boot rally xenophobes who take credit for the accomplishment of the better ancestors. Live in today and join the social workings of the progress. Progressive intellectuals seem to hold the opinion of cultural tolerance and mutual respect. This means not scapegoating the new cultures who are willing to join and bring strength to one’s nation. True Nationalism should be the authentic feeling of connection to the State at large and the shared community. Furthermore the social damage caused by this ostracism of new immigrants has a causal effect relationship for their own half of this detrimental social cycle. Using ones own ethnicity to promote social status is the shallowest form of cultural identification, it brings shame to the Nation of origin and alienates a individual from the current Nation of residence. On the other hand those who fight progress and cultural diversity in nations built on it are a social leeches to their nations image . Remember the cause for the statistics like the Latino High School drop out rate here in the US. Take into account the failing public school system, white kids aren’t much better off if they can’t read their High School diploma.
I didn’t get a chance to listen to the show today, but apparently (based off of Willow’s comments) a caller suggested that immigrants from Central and South America are chronically under-educated? That’s ridiculous.
Is it possible we haven’t taken the time to try and understand them?
multi-culturalism can work very well in the modern world. It can help people from different backgrounds to have a sense of belonging. I welcome it.
as an african in the legal profession in the west, i say multiculturalism is atrocity for any people of colour in the west who have migrated their for various reasons.
the basis tenent of the problem is that the west is very ignorant of its complicit histories to destroy various societies around the planet in its power quest. The resultant of that destruction of a peoples of colour indigeous society and their abilities to function adequently within them is they migrate.
Westerns are pejorative towards peoples of colour in general and specific groups in particular… in the us first it was native Americans and Africans, then the Asians [Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Koreans and East Indians in historical order] and now it is any Muslim with dark skin. Native american genocide, African free slavery on which the whole nation economic wealth has was spawned on and wars to submit and destroy the others. Yet, whites so-called Americans are ignore on all of these peoples of colour vast histories and civilizations existing prior to the subjugation of native americas to formulate a WHITE AMERICAN.
In business, the Africans, Chinese and East Indians have been doing business and trading for aeons [Muslim Arabic traders too]. When one sits in an MBA course in any western education institution, it one taught the histories and paradigms of traditional business of these socities as part of their MBA program or it is a eurocentric models and paradigm of doing business? This is the problem keenly. Why would i waste one quid getting a piece of parchment from the Wharton school stating I am certified WESTERN educated in business just to get a paper pushing job where the tenets will not take any of my African ideals and concepts into consideration for addressing the program unless a submit to follow the eurocentric paradigm.
The western world is only multiculutral accepting in terms of food and entertainment. You come to eat our food in restaurants in your locales yet ratherly inquire about its history and how it came to be the dish you consume; you got to performance and concerts at times if the artisit is “in” but fail to learn and understand the history of the artist homeland/upbringing and why the songs are the way they are.
Recently, Ms. Clinton stated she would welcome migration into the US if all would come and learn English… this in speech in Texas i think… imagine…being in a portion of what was Mexico saying sure a stoopid thing. She should learn latin Espanol and not the other way around.
In England, your queen mum, made a big tactile mistake last March honouring William Wilberforce and his so-called african slavery abolition, yet the cities of manchester and liverpool were built and became economic viable on years of African slave labour after 1807.. cotton sugar and tobacco… from the carribean to the indian ocean. was that multicultural? all the banks, insurance dealers, cotton looming merchants, the caribbean barons… Barclays, LLoyds TSB, and BAT would exist who this free African and East Indian slave tolling free. Are Africans/East Indians owners or major directors within these institutions?
So, what is so multicultural?
Micheal O’Riain, perhaps the offspring are more beautiful than both parents. Multiculturalism can work if we open ourselves up to change, and the phenomenal possibilities it brings.
Lordy! I’ve just heard your guests introduce themselves and their initial comments. Now that’s what I call a stacked panel.
Multiculturalism joins Islam and immigration as another topic where there are acceptable limits to any ‘debate’.
Hi, I commented on WHYS a few weeks ago. I live in the Netherlands.
In the Netherlands, we have tried to create a multiculterally intrigrated society since the influx of immigrants after the second world war and this was the focus of policy. A few years ago a study concluded that this it is not possible. The focus is now on living together but not integration. I believe that we need immigrants for cheap labour and that our governments allow immigrants despite cheap politicalling to the contrary. I am alittle pessimistic about what can be achieved by a multicultural society despite hoping the contrary.
The reasons behind the mass migrations we see these days are economic not cultural. People aren’t moving to the West because they want to adopt western lifestyles, which many immigrants see as violent, isolating, and largely inhumane. (And many immigrants refuse to “melt” into their adopted country’s culture for these very reasons). People are leaving their home countries in search of better economic situations for themselves. If Western countries want to stem this tide – they should look at their own economic policies and structures that they impose on developing countries and change them to create a more level playing field for all.
Could you ask your guests if they would comment on societies that have no intention to have multiculturalism? Think of Japan or Saudi Arabia, where they simply are happy with the way things are, and openly discriminate against foreigners and don’t want them immigrating? What would you say to the governments of these nations, and does it say something about us that we are much more willing to allow different people to come to our nations? I’m torn on this, I think it’s either we either (1) think there’s something wrong with us, and that having different people might fix it, or (2) we are so great that we want others to share in it. Which is it? Isn’t either reason disturbing?
Who do you not want in a multicultural society?!
It makes it a limited culture, not fully multicultural, if you pick and choose which cultures are allowed into your society… A lame excuse for tolerance if you ask me.
Brett ~ Richmond, Va.
Listening to the show I was intrigued by the participation of Lawrence Harrison. I check the library’s catalog and found several copies of his sited book, The Central Liberal Truth, available.
My observations of working class society (I am working class myself) have produced a curiosity about the seemly different paths traveled by Latin American and Asian immigrants to the US. I hope to gain a better perspective from Mr. Harrison’s book.
Steve in the Netherlands, would you mind immigrants from the US? I have always liked the Netherlands. However, must I add to “diversity” racially, and not just linguistically or nationally?
Steve in the US
Brett: Would you want a culture that practices cannibalism to be allowed in? Human sacrifices? I know it’s not PC brett, but every culture has good and bad aspects to them. Sometimes that bad is SO bad that you really wouldn’t want them, fortunately that stuff is incredibly rare.
Multiculturalism does work. And it is a noble societal value to pursue. Unfortunately, some hardliners in some cultures/societies who want to impose their beliefs on others, believing that their values are superior to that of others are the ones that cause mayhem. However, Its important that when people live in a society that is not exactly their native home, they should blend a little, and to make for a homogenous society, otherwise, you will have for instance a London made up of small patches of India, Syria, Pakistan, Nigeria etc. In Lagos Nigeria, Ibos and Yorubas, Christians and Muslims live and work together and everybody is happy despite the issues we have with social amenities.
Multiculticulturalism doesn’t exist yet in Ukraine – we don’t have English signs in the undeground and tourist can easilly lost their way. People don’t smile to you on the street like they do abroad. It’s hard to find good servise in Ukrainian restourant. And still Ukrainians are very hospitable people – just tradition of susspection to any other nationality or foreigner what has came from our history is spoiling our culture. I would like to have multiculturalism in Ukraine!!!
MATTHEW. How is my view false or ignorant? We would have to get into a discussion of what intelligence is, wouldn’t we? Yes being “proud” is a very dangerous road to go down, quite frankly it is bigoted. I don’t embrace my culture anymore then I embrace another. They are just that: cultures. It is like saying my family is better then yours because I was born into it. How ridiculous. My family is awful in so many ways, sure I am sentimental towards it, but I realize I am subjective about it.
Anyone who makes it a point to be proud of any superficial thing over another superficial thing is not incredibly intelligent – according to my definition. People who find the need to create their own culture are narcissistic, putting there little stamp on the community and their world.
It is like gay pride or black pride, etc. Perhaps these are created to withstand the bigotry, but then at some point they become redundant and can themselves turn into bigotry. People who become proud to be gay can end up isolating themselves and have an aggrandized view of homosexuality. We saw this yesterday with deaf culture; this ridiculous pride and lack of objectivity – the claim that deafness is not a disability.
Proud people are conforming to something, hence conformists. In my mind, the truly intelligent are the nonconformists. People who don’t want to identify with one culture but with all.
Multi-culturalism must work, or we must make it work for us. It is inevitable and it has already got a hold of me.
I am an American teenager living in Germany, and I speak 3 languages fluently and am learning my fourth. I don’t remember the last time I ate ‘real American’ food (i.e. hamburgers, french fries), since I regularly cook and eat Afghani, Greek, and Middle Eastern food. My favorite dress is a crimson Sari. My best friends are Chinese, Jamaican, Iranian and Indian, among others.
Globalisation is an unstoppable force and the amazing things each culture contributes to all of our lives has given us a wider perspective, and a much more intellectually satisfying, colorful, interesting, not to mention tastier, life.
Some might accuse me of wearing rose-colored glasses. This is not so, as I witness the Turkish-German relationship everyday. There is incredible tension between the immigrant community and the ethnic German population, but the biggest issue I see as an outsider is a lack of dialogue.
Multi-culturalism means mutual respect, respect for the new country’s laws, a willingness to learn from and about each other and the ability to maintain a polite dialogue. It may not be easy, but it started long ago and it shows no signs of stopping. Accept these as guidelines, and how can we go wrong? Pass me another piece of baklava, please!
facts:
1)the USA allows more legal immigrants than any other country in the world!
2)usa averages more than 1 million legal immigrants every year.
3)the bush administration offered legislation to give paths to citizenship to the illegal immigrants who were in the usa and the democrats in the us congress turned this down.
4) the biggest problems legal american citizens have with illegal immigrants is that they broke the law to come here, and they do not want to integrate and join the american family of citizens.
5)many illegal immigrants in the usa only want to earn money that they export out of the usa, they do not care or desire to support the usa.
6) the american melting-pot worked because immigrants, like my ancestors, became americans, learned the language and customs and became patriots.
eric swenson
melbourne beach, florida, usa
I agree completely with Miguel. A pluralistic democracy holding to core values fosters a broad multicultral society. A basis of law, language, and gaureantted unrestricted democratic voice allows for cultral integreation and religious freedom. In New Orleans, Lousiana, USA where I am writing from, like much of the US, a meltin pot of German, Irish, South and Central American, Spain, France, Africans and English have setled and maintained a life here, resulting in a vibrant cultre with access to religion, art, cuisine, language, and freedom of political thought and act that one is hard pressed to find in most of the world. The caveat is that one must have a binding rule of law and basic cultral mores (such as language and the right to the above freedoms, no matter how those freedoms of worship and though may be at odds with one’s own). By not maintaining this societal glue, we see the rise of imigrant societies that operate outside of the host country foster intolerance, and explode, such as the muslim imigrants in northern Europe over the Mohammed cartoons.
Steve,
Your right, lets choose who can be cool enough to be in our exclusive club.
There are laws to defend against acts such as the ones listed. Excluding an entire culture because of one aspect of it is narrow minded and ignorant. Welcome the culture, but limit acts which the society as a whole has a problem with which can violate human rights, ethics, etc.
Brett ~ Richmond, Va.
Multicultural Britain, America, Denmark and France have all suffered race riots. Such disturbances are unknown in homogeneous Japan. Your panellist’s conclusion: Japan must be convinced that it’s missing out on the benefits of multiculturalism!
My family immigrated to America when I was four years old, I believe that when you go to another country to live, it behooves you to learn the language fluently, and understand and accept the culture and norms of the society that you chose to join. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. I think it’s the height of arrogance to come to someone else’s country and expect the indigent population to make special accomodations for your culture or religion. I believe nations have a right to want to retain their cultural heritage, to not want to change that for people from other nations. To reverse my situation, at this point, if I were to go back to Korea to live, I would expect to have to learn the language, abide by their rules, and accept that if I want things to be like home, then I should go back home to America. I’m not going to change the patriarchial society or customs that I don’t agree with, nor do I have the arrogant right to think that I should be treated specially.
When I was a kid, integration was in favor as a social policy, and I think that worked better. No matter what our background or nationality, we had a common culture and language whereby we could communicate with one another and relate to each other. It didn’t take away my culture-I lived with it at home everyday. One example is the more you accomodate someone who doesn’t speak the native language by translating everything for them, it handicaps immigrants and consigns them to an alienated and ghettoized existence.
History has shown us that it’s human nature to want to group together with others that are similar, be it clans, tribes, religions, ethnicities, countries. It is human nature to dislike and distrust that which is different. Multiculturalism won’t work. The closer different groups come in contact with one another, the more irritated everyone becomes, until hostilites break out in a competiton for survival.
During the news interval we heard that the body of the kidnapped Catholic Bishop in Iraq had been found in a shallow grave. He was kidnapped and murdered because of his religion, which didn’t fit in with the predominant culture of Iraq. Iraq is just another of those countries in which multiculturalism doesn’t exist. Not one of your panellists is capable of seeing that, and none of them have chosen to comment on the story. This debate has completely lost touch with reality. And now some of your guests are talking about forcing multiculturalism on societies that don’t want it.
This is the most one-sided, blinkered and dogmatic discussion I’ve ever heard on WHYS.
A universal definition of multicultural society is so difficult because cultures have individual value systems. Teaching from the youngest ages all children the meaning of a value system and that although you may not live according to another’s it is still possible to respect that system, understand it, and treat those who hold those values with dignity that all human beings deserve. On an individual level, each of us, regardless of gender, race, sexual identity, etc. makes choices each day and each of us lives with consequences of those choices and that happens on the basis of the value system to which one abides. Again, the emphasis must be on education of all people about all people and that is not happening universally. As the saying goes, one cannot change what one does not acknowledge.
I believe my country, Singapore, is proof that multiculturalism works. With four ethnicities (the Chinese, Malays, Indians and Eurasians), we have had to live together in peace, and for the most part we have done so, especially since independence in 1965. It is not uncommon to see Chinese people eating Malay food, or Malay people visiting their Chinese friends at the Lunar New Year, or their Indian friends at Deepavali (Diwali).Facilitated multiculturalism, perhaps?
The blog post asks do I want multiculturalism to work? My answer is it DOES.
As long as man has been able to walk, it has searched for a better life. I think it is possible to live in a multicultural society as long as we are able to construct an identity for this new group. The biggest problem and danger to the world comes from old identities from our forefathers being replaced by a void. Radicalism, religious or not, find good ground for growth in a society that is only been identified with transition.
There is a reason we developed religions and traditions, they were to keep a group of people feeling like they belong to something. The new generation born from first generation immigrants are quickly becoming their future’s own worst enemy. The sarcasm and disregard for traditions is what will at the end lead a lot of us, I’m German Peruvian, to a radical view that at least gives us something to hold on to, while the world moves at it’s crazy pace.
I want a multicultural society, but one that is engaged in creating a society not an group of selfish and sarcastic individualists
You cannot force anyone to be multicultural. However, countries that do not want to have outside influence (multi-culturalizm) will find that their self-imposed seclusion will soon be their exclusion from the vital benefits and recourses that other cultures can offer.
My faith in humanity is somewhat restored by many of the comments above. We have to give credit to the WHYS imbeciles for fostering this debate.
Erin (above) is “telling it like it is”.
Immigration is essentially economic. Those seeking political asylum are in a tiny minority. The rules were established for those seeking political asylum.
The bottom line: if you immigrate, conform or keep quiet, or get your tail out!
Language is definitely one of the barriers. To live in a foreign country and to be able to integrate in one society, one needs the ability to communicate. In addition, to be able to communicate, one needs to have the ability to speak the language.
Another thing is the mentality of the society. Even though, I have been living for 12 years in Germany, speaking German pretty well, and even worse I have a German passport, I am still under the impression that the society doesn’t welcome me.
I have an Asian background and sometime I heard that German people said to me: Go back to the country where you belong to!
The funny thing is that Germans politician always said about integration, however I found that the German people don’t have the ability to integrate. I have been living in Sweden for three years for example, I found that many Germans don’t want to learn Swedish language or even integrate to Swedish society.
Alas, it comes across that German integration is a one-sided integration.
Accepting multi culture is about how much tolerance do you want to deal with.
If not, then it’s better to reject foreigners to come to the country.
Your guests are now talking sheer nonsense. One of them has defined multiculturalism as giving people the opportunity to experience other cultures (which is fair enough). He then gives as an example of what he means: muslim women being able to attend segregated swimming pools. Hmmm. Most surreal debate ever.
Great topic and forum today, Ros. I appreciate you making the participants provide detailed answers and explanations. Generalities are such conversation killers.
This is in response to your program on multiculturalism that just aired (Thurs., A.M, P.S.T.) I wonder at the trouble with differences that some people have, first of all because I am multicultural by birth – no choice, there! One grandmother is Filipina, one grandmother is of English, German, and Native American descent, the two grandfathers are of French descent. My mother is from Manila and Hawaii (before it was a state, and from a totally multi-ethnic neighborhood), my father is from California. My husband is Jewish American; all of his grandparents are from Lithuania.
I agree with the woman who talked of the good situation in the world’s most multicultural city, Toronto. I live in the city, Oakland, Calif. that (at least by Newsweek) has been named the most fully integrated city in the world (most variety of ethnicities living on each block).
To give an idea of what this is like:
My best friend is French-Scottish-Native American; her husband is Indian (from Mumbai). Our other closest friends are Danish and, again, Indian (husband). Close friends are African-American, Vietnamese, Russian, Italian American, Greek, and so on…more than half of my friends were not born is this country. My children’s godparents are from West Africa. My workmates are from Vietnam, Guatamala, Somalia, Germany, Serbia, and America Like most of her friends, my daughter chose to work to save and pay for being an exchange student, for her it was in Spain and in Costa Rica, where she has a whole “second family.” She speaks fluent Spanish; she currently dates an immigrant from Mexico, and another from Iran. The birthday party I went to Saturday night was a Russian Brazilian bunch. Very fascinating talk and wonderful dancing and food – exciting and interesting, what a delight! I can go on and on
The whole solution to the problems in multicultural society lies in:
how the education (from preschool- definitely from preschool!- to university) of the second generation immigrants is approached: It must be the top priority – with intelligence, adjustments, love, devotion and taxes – for all the citizenry of all the nations. My mother, a first generation immigrant to mainland America, did not go beyond highschool; my brother and I both graduated from U.C. Berkeley, and went on to graduate school. This was possible for us because when we were growing up in California, good education for all was treated as a priority. (Unfortunately this is no linger so here, hence there are problems. And I don’t mean this comes from the teachers – they are very idealistic, over-worked, self-sacrficing and wonderful),
Thank you for your exceptional program,
S Ann
Multi-culturalism suggests civilized nations would benefit from an Aborigine university – but in 60,000 years they did not build one nor use a wheel. They relied upon “oral tradition” because they were not as advanced as those using the “written tradition”.
I am sorry but I’m appalled by all the idealists e.g. in The British Council who think that multi-cultural societies cán work. BABYLONIA HERE WE COME!
In the Netherlands problems are mounting and mounting because of muslim immigration. The Dutch simply have nothing in common with muslims. The culture of Islam goes against the grain of all of Europe’s cultures. We clash, and clash, and clash – everyday there’s another clash – and nobody would be surprised anymore if that huge culture- and religions clash becomes a Civil War (!) in The Netherlands.
Satisfied British Council that we may shortly see Dutch blood flow through the streets of Amsterdam as attacked by muslims – because of YOUR stupid idealisme?
The wooly-headed (with every respect of course) people of the British Council pile-up Ethnic Conflicts upon the heads of Europeans as it is EUROPE – and not the countries were immigrants come from (!) were Europe’s culture is under attack – by immigrants. To hear somebody from the Council say that ‘muslim women must be able to allow to swim seperately’ (whatever) is preaching APARTHEID were that didn’t exist before – as in The Netherlands.
Muslims preach APARTHEID enough! They do not need the British Council. Thank you!
I have absolutely nothing against black people – but I look in schools in England – and I see Africa nót England anymore. I see crowds of veiled women – as if I look at a street in Pakistan, S.A….. England’s beautiful culture goes down the drain – as does ours! Veiled women, muslims by the THOUSANDS live in intellectual, spiritual and physical ghetto’s: ‘The twain shall never meet’! It is impossible! And proven to be!
All of Islam is an insult to christians, to jews and ‘infidels’. It is a non-pacifist ‘jihad’ ‘Apartheid religion that is dangerous to be amongst us! ISLAM/Koran laughs at your christian Queen Elizabeth – she has no right to exist in the Quran, and ‘will be destroyed by Allah’because she is a christian! The Quran blasphemes Jesus-Christ of your Queen Elizabeth.
So what is the matter with the British Council that multi-cultural societies are recommended? Was England, Holland, France, Italy, Spain … less interesting before immigration? Is Japan not an interesting country because there is none there? What does the Council want? See Europe go down the drain?
All Dutch People have lost their identity – as have the English lost their identity to immigration – but of course immigrants ‘must be allowed to keep their identity’! Europe has sold her very soul to ethnic conflict, crime, backwardness of immigrants! Europe’s governments allowed our enemies to enter our countries – unchecked!
I suggest The British Council transports from Holland to Britain some 40.000 ‘possibly dangerous muslim Salafists, the ‘radicalising muslim youth’ which makes whole neighbourhoods unsafe in the Netherlands – and takes these to Britain!
Tell imams to pull their heads, tell burkawomen that they stop offending us, tell the criminals which have entered The Netherlands to stop their crime in our country – tell the Turks, the Morakkans to stop their nationalisme in The Netherlands.
Multi-cultural Europe eats away at the very soul of Europe and the identity of Europeans – as never éver before in her history.
Olive, your example about germans in sweden is the same argument americans make about illegal immigrants in the US, who segregate themselves, tend not to learn english, and have no intention of becoming american, integrating, or even wanting really to do anything with this place other than make money and send it home. Then there are some that say that illegals take jobs. Some people say they take jobs that Americans don’t want. I’m not sure, but I cannot imagine construction work being that bad, I wouldn’t mind doing that, But I cannot remember I saw a construction worker speak in English.. And remember, thos eGermans in Sweden are at least legally there. Cannot really say that about the situation in the US.
I wonder at the troubles with multi-culturism, primarily because I am multicultural by birth – no choice, there! One grandmother is Filipina, one grandmother is of English, German, and Native American descent, the two grandfathers are of French descent. My mother is from Manila and Hawaii (before it was a state, and from a totally multi-ethnic community), my father is fourth generation American. My husband is Jewish American; all of his grandparents are from Lithuania.
I agree with the woman who talked about the good situation in the world’s most multicultural city, Toronto. I live in the city, Oakland, Calif. that (at least by Newsweek) has been named the most fully integrated city in the world (most variety of ethnicities living on each block). To give an idea of what this is like: My best friend is French-Scottish-Native American; her husband is Indian (from Mumbai). Our other closest friends are Danish and, again, Indian (husband), African-American, Vietnamese, Russian, Italian American, Greek, and on and on…more than half of my friends were not born is this country. My children’s godparents are from West Africa. My workmates are from Vietnam, Guatamala, Somalia, Germany, Serbia, and America. Like most of her friends, my daughter chose to save and pay for being an exchange student, for her it was in Spain and in Costa Rica, where she has a whole “second family.” She speaks fluent Spanish; she currently dates immigrants. The birthday party I went to Saturday night was a Russian-Brazilian and American group of friends. Very fascinating talk and wonderful dancing and food – exciting and interesting, what a delight! I can go on and on The primary solution to the problems of a multicultural society is in the approach to the education (from preschool- definitely from preschool!- to university) of the second generation immigrants: It must be the top priority – with intelligence, adjustments, love, devotion and taxes – from all the citizenry of all the nations; then people will thrive and benefit each other. My mother did not go beyond highschool; my brother and I both graduated from U.C. Berkeley, and went on to graduate school. This was possible for us because when we were growing up in California, good education for all was treated as a priority. (Unfortunately this is no linger so here, hence there are problems. And I don’t mean this comes from the teachers – they are very idealistic, over-worked, self-sacrficing and wonderful).Thank you for your exceptional program,
Hi Ros and WHYS family,
Multi-culturalism is not new. Jerusalem was the melting pot of the world in the days of Jesus Christ. But even back then there were tensions because races (Jews, Gentiles or Romans) thought they were either superior or inferior to each other. As long as we look for reasons to pat ourselves on the back vis a vis another race/person, multi-culturalism is doomed to failure.
The only place that multi-culturalism will eventually work is in heaven and that is only because the people will be children of God and therefore full of love.
Multi-culturalism is doom to failure on earth because human being are basically full of hate. Multi-culturalism can ONLY work where there is love and mutual respect for each other (where on earth can you find this?) The experiment called multi-culturalism has failed.
Multi-culturalism has failed in England, France, Germany, Canada, USA etc. etc. etc. It is time people of colour stop migrating to the west and stay at home and build their countries even if it means “sucking salt thru wooden spoon”. On earth, the only place you find peace of mind is with your own. The only place multi-culturalism appears to be working is in the churches where different races appear to mix harmonioulsy. At church we don’t look at the outside but the heart.
I am a very well contented person of colour, I am very proud of my African ancestry. I am a marvelous specimen and by-product of tenacity, ingenuity and patient endurance! Therefore, VictorK- You should not speak so contemptously of people of colour especially Africans. Courtesy is an index of class. Please remember that you played no part in deciding your race or your homeland. Your race was decided by your mother. If she had chosen an African for your father you would have ended up like me, mixed race.
The West has a right to decide who they invite into their country. Jamaica has benefitted from being blacklisted and shunned by European countries because we have been spared an avalanche of immorality. Native Jamaicans- Tainos, would curse the day the Spaniard introduce multi-culturalism to the Caribbean because it resulted in their extermination as they had no immunity to the sexual and other communicable diseases introduced by Spanish men.
Carlos, Kingston-Jamaica.
I would like to thank the team for letting me on the show. A really big thank you, guys!
I would like to neutralize some of the perceptions of people who’ve found (or heard) that Toronto is some sort of model for multiculturism. Yes, it is a multi-cultural city. However, there is growing resentment all over Canada about challenges to some of our long-held social, religious, and legal institutions. For starters, local officials, retailers, and educators have been overly conscientious about not overtly celebrating or aknowledging Christmas in public areas – i.e. placing christmas trees in public squares, saying “merry Christmas” to customers in retail areas, singing Christmas carols in the schools, putting signs up with the generic “happy holidays”, etc. This is dismaying for those of us who grew up with a Christian Christmas & Easter traditions. They are watering them down so as to not offend our new Canadians. A group of Muslims are challenging an article from a national magazine which is critical of some Muslim extremes in thought & behaviour; this group is challenging freedom of the press in a country that has always prided itself on this guaranteed right. These are, I believe threats to our way of life, when public officials back down in face of minorities who should respect the laws of the country to which they have emigrated. We celebrate the new cultures, but we don’t want to lose our own in the process.
So many good observations have been woven here creating a tapestry of ideas that emulate the multi-cultural world that is gradually evolving.
Those who exhibit the least evolved concepts and who emphasize the importance of the nation-state have the least understanding of history. Current trends are not returning us to more fragmentation.
Walled city-states are a thing of the past. The walls of Dubrovnik, the walls of the Great Zimbabwe, walls built by Rome, the Great Wall of China and countless other archaic remnants of the past are on the list of todays must-see global tourist attractions.
With a few unfortunate exceptions, no one is isolating themselves with walls any more. The Berlin Wall came down. A wall in Israel is built. One step forward. One step back. Ultimately however, the forces of homogenization are stronger than those of isolation. Modern transportation has seen to this.
Who is to say what is really responsible for the European Union, the horrors of two world wars, or the autobahn and international air travel? Perhaps a combination of the two.
But what to do about the remnants of colonialism and artificially imposed nation states in places like Africa and the Middle East remains a question. The question of how to address the imbalances that exist in todays world is still unanswered. But at least we know what the questions are.
The challenge to the future is to have the patience, will power, and wisdom to employ peaceful means to answer these questions.
Why is “multi-culturism” only encouraged in Western, Christian countries. Just heard a report about a Christian church opening in UAE with no cross, no bells, no sign–secrecy is paramount so as not to “offend” local muslims. If we were to restrict mosques in that manner in the UK, Canada, US or any European country, muslims would be rioting in the streets
Janet: Israel has a wall so that suicide bombers don’t blow people up. Hence, you’ll notice that Palestinians try to kill Israelis mostly with rockets these days, because the wall is working. And I presume you’re talking about this in the manner that you believe Israel isn’t multicultural. First, it’s incredibly diverse. People from all over the world. 20% of the population isn’t Jewish. That’s a higher % than of non christians in the US,a nd even among the Jews, there are many different types, such as middle eastern,e uropean, vietnamese, ethiopian, etc.
I listened to the multiculturalism debate at Central Hall Westminster with interest and was reminded of Carlos Fuentes observation that pluriethnicity applies now to a majority of the population in most of the countries in the Americas;and that the USA is gradually becoming Spanish speaking in large areas.
Among the main drivers of multiculturalism are migration,intermarriage,inter-relationships and general movement of people.They are not likely to decrease.Single ethnicity,(“pure blood”)is in decline and in its strictest sense ( who in England for example has no Irish,Welsh or Scottish ancestry)is a minority in many countries.Multiculturalism derives strength from these drivers and is therefore likely to increase.It is States that are often behind in recognising this and adapting legislation,facilities and opportunities to meet the challenge.
The cases mentioned of Japan and Saudi Arabia are therefore almost certain to change over time and we must hope the governments recognise the need for change in time to make the adjustments and pre-empt a problem before they need to address it.
I don’t think that could happen in Japan Ken. While Japan will surely need foreign laborors, they would never be integrated or accepted by Japanese society. The Japanese can be very xenophobic. They absolutely despise interracial relationships. My brother studied on the west coast of the US, and dated a woman from japan who was in the US to study. My brother proposed to her. My brother went to Japan to meet her family, and she never even told her parents, and when she finally did while he was there, her parents went nuts, absolutely forbade her from even being romantic with someone who wasn’t Japanese, let alone marrying them. I even believe her father threatened to kill himself if they got married. As you can guess, they didn’t get married. Sure, that’s only one example, and you cannot judge the entire society off of what one set of parents have done, but that’s not the only case I know of. I’ve been to Japan, and I saw how they aren’t the biggest fans of foreigners. They are very friendly, but you will see Japanese only signs on some establishments, I spoke with a coworker of my brother who is fluent in Japanese, but is white, and he says he absolutely freaks out Japanese people because they tend to think other races aren’t capable of speaking Japanese, and become alarmed when one can, and become very defensive. That’s not a good recipe for having multiculturalism.
It will only work when we elevate respect higher than political Correctness. Other cultures can co-exist, so long as ignorance, respect, and co-operation are the order of the day, not forced political correctness, quotas, and the stifling of free speech.
After listening the programme on multi culturalism every thing is possible as society transform by itself a combination of multiculture’s will give a birth to a new culture.
As we all know world is shrinking , physical & mental distances mean nothing, all this transformation start from distruction to construction & will repeat in reverse order because of human nature satisfaction factor.
Keeping in view world war culture, end of colonism, end of slavery, formation of UNO & drastic Geographical changes give us a new hope, idea & fundamentals for a new culture of peace, love, tolerance & accomodation.
During this process we notice downfall of former USSR & tough time for rest of the communist block along with 9/11, overall concepts of huge country & democracy will face difficulties of destructive nature. Any way obsolute & wornout symbels of dignity will lost there symbolic popularity during this non stop transformation process.
Welcome to all of you in this world.
Ros
Multi-culturalism should work. look, if the world will develop at the rate we all expect. The mind set and attitude of some people espcially those from the West and the light colour skin should change and if we all begin to regard ourselves as one peolpe trying to survie then we should be able to have a multi culture, where we will not say : you are from africa or you are an Indian for that mater you are not regarded as “human” noone should determin who is good and who is not. If multi Culturalism should it will all be based on change in perception and attitudes.
Kingsley
Ghana, Accra
Different cultures can and do live side by side in peace so long as there is mutual respect and tolerance.
But why coin yet another artificial “ism”?
Ali
Kuwait
I just cant see that multiculturalism will ever truly work. that people can ever fully accept this concept or embrace what it represents. Human society is just not designed to be accepting of others especially when they are poles apart from what we the majority are, what we the majority want for ourselves. All around the world where this mixing of groups occurs we see the fallout from it as it flounders. Even in seemingly homogenous groups, there is always some divide. if this occurs within a same group, of course it will be stronger and more prevalent where different groups mix. European were at each other’s throats for thousands of years and only now have we settled down, but to this day there are tension, cultural and ethnic divides. On top of this with mass migration from outside of Europe the multicultural notion hasn’t fully worked and doubtful it can work. You can never fully eradicate resentment towards outsiders, that is genetic, that is deeply ingrained within our primitive brains and certainly something hard to reprogram out. I don’t know how to solve this, perhaps it is something that we will never be able to fully transcend. For the moment, in small doses we can appreciate different cultures, enjoy the food, the art and history even travel to those lands. But there will always be a point where it is fine to appreciate something from over there, as long as it stays over there. When we see groups of foreigners coming to our shores, particularly when they are unable to integrate and there is the popular notion of them being ungrateful and the rest that comes with it, then there will be resentment.
Multiculturalism is working in some countries very well. Examples of this are Canada and Australia. I had the previllage of going for breakfast recently with the Premier of Manitoba, The Hon. Gary Doer and The Hon. Monique Gagnon-Tremblay, Minister for International Relations and Minister for La Francophonie from Quebec.
This breakfast was hosted by the Hon. Mike Rann M.P, the Premier of South Australia (Australian-Canadian Premiers Summit in Adelaide). I learned a lot from the speaches. As an African-Australian living in Adelaide, I see multiculturalism as the only thread for humanity in the future. Many migrants have moved to Australia and made it home. They have strongly empressed multiculturaliasm as the only way forward. I would like to give you 2 examples: First consider a Vietnamese bout person arriving in Australia not knowing the nest step. This person is no other than His Exellence Mr. Hieu Van Le who is now the Lieutenant-Governor of South Australia and the Chairman of South Australian Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs Commission. This is a man I immensely respect and respected by many. Another example is the Meyor of Port Adelaide-Enfield Council, His Worship Mr. Gary Johanson, whose second word when talking is multiculturalism. This is not to mention people like our Premier Hon. Mike Rann, Our Australian Prime Minister Mr Kevi Rudd, who are people of great vision as to where Australia is going. Of course this is only to mention a few in Australian public where many ethnic groups think multiculturalism is the only way forward. I am an advocate of Multiculturalism. So fear not.
Dear Steve,
what you have said about illegal foreigners who come to USA is not quite the same like Germans in Sweden.
My point was that Germans kind of impose foreigners who live in Germany to integrate but once Germans live outside Germany, frankly speaking, they don’t have any ability to integrate or at least a willingness to try. They decided to come to Sweden as skilled workers, they know that Swedish is the language of the land, but they don’t even want to try integrating. It’s kind of contrast what they do, isn’t it?
Of course, not every German is like that, but again foreigners in Germany even though they wanted to integrate (for instance myself, I don’t have any Asian friends, I always tried to integrate and have a strong willingness to adapt and take the consequences to live and work in Germany and Sweden), it’s very difficult for them to get any contact. My husband is a German and his view about integration is immensely changed after he did his post-doc in Palo Alto. He had been thinking that he did not need to new friends such as foreigners since he had already friends, which were just Germans.
The Americans are at least friendlier to foreigners than the Germans. Well, at least that what I got the impression every time I visit USA. Anyway, it’s difficult to explain if you have never been living and working in Germany or any other country in Europe. One more thing which is really different between Europe and USA is the culture and their root. Who is actually belong to USA? Actually Indiana, but they are almost vanish. On the contrary, Europe has their root since the year dot. Therefore, I can see that integration in Europe is harder but they need to be consequent as well. That is my point.
MULTI-CULTURALISM WORKS: IT HAS TO
WORK BECAUSE THEY WILL BE PROBLEMS
IF IT DOES NOT WORK……
Dennis from Madrid, U.S.A.
Multi-culturalism, political correctness, and socialism is literally destroying western civilization. Just wait another 50 years. Wait until there are no more germans living in germany, french in france etc. Identity politics be of higher importance than logic, or reason. A good point was made above. Will Indian immigrants fight a war against India? where does their loyalty stand? It will not work. It is destroying us. I live in Canada aswell. I have seen my country transform within the last 10 years. I do not wish to even live here anymore. Most people cant even speak my language. taxes have gone through the roof to support immigrants. If i say anything about it, Im a racist and a bigot, and so I cannot even exercise my right to free speech, for it will be labelled “hate speech”. Native residents of “multicultural societies” have to bend over backwards for immigrants. In Toronto they now have “afro-centric schools” where our school board will teach students about “africa” rather than Canada. How can this be a good thing? National unity has been utterly destroyed. Voluntary segregation has been implemented. Canada is already finished. Another 50 years it will be a completely different place. What about Europe? WIll we wake up? Or will we continue to sell-out our culture in the name of “tolerance”-which would not be granted by ANY other country in the world. try being yourself in an islamic state. See how far that gets you. Our fathers fought to protect our freedom and culture, and within a generation we sold it out and destroyed it. I am ashamed. As we all should be.