Multiculturalism Has Failed - Essay Example

?Introduction Multiculturalism has been regarded, for the most part, as a normative framework and an array of nation policies that increases acceptance, and encourages appreciation of cultural differences. At times, multiculturalism is used as a descriptive framework of society (Heywood 2000), which normally alludes to the plain detail of cultural diversity: it is largely pertained to the overall demographic composition of a particular place or organization. In the UK, multiculturalism was accepted as a suitable method for contending with cultural differences. Perhaps, it is due partly to the United Kingdom's historical employment of a race-relation line of attack to promoting social equality (Favell 2001). Multiculturalism has become a crucial and important term in the British political discourse for many years. The concept of multi-ethnicity in Britain stressed the notion of "Britishness" as a plural individuality that observes cultural or ethnic differences that represents ‘community of communities' (Parekh 2000). Nevertheless, Britain, and some other European nations, has gone through a hostile response over cultural difference (Grillo 2007). The intensification and proliferation of right-wing nationalist parties, the escalating strictness of immigration rules, and the implementation of citizenship tests represented the intensifying counterattack over multiculturalism. Perhaps, many would subscribe to the notion that there is a complete standard shift in the political discourse in Britain that covers multiculturalism, social cohesion, or from embracing difference to upholding common values. This shift followed the 2001 racial conflicts in the Northern England. It was the absence of social cohesion that brought about the tension, and inspired less multicultural rules and intensifying apprehension over the presumed division of minority communities (McGhee 2005). For example, many European political leaders have expressed opinions regarding the declining development of multiculturalism. In 2010, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor argued through the BBC World News that: The approach [to build] a multicultural [society] and to live side-by-side and to enjoy each other…has failed, utterly failed. We should not be a country either which gives the impression to the outside world that those who don’t speak German immediately or who were not raised speaking German are not allowed here. Also, British Prime Minister, David Cameron, in 2011 contended that, indeed, multiculturalism has not succeeded in promoting social vibrancy. In a recent article by the BBC World News (2011), the prime minister asserted that the United Kingdom needed a sturdier national identity to preclude the occurrence of a vast array of extremism. Also, advocacies for multiculturalism in Western countries, especially European nations, seem minor or even stumpy (Verkuyten 2007). This rather ugly development in Britain and in some other European countries has been considered to be a withdrawal of multiculturalism in the context of academic literature (Joppke 2004). But even though this interpretation has been challenged, there is a general principal plot in the academic discourse pertaining to the rise and fall of multiculturalism (Kymlicka 2010). In line with these negative developments in so far as failure of multiculturalism is concerned, this paper contends that in order to provide a clear evidence that multiculturalism has indeed failed, there is a need to bring this case on the ground and examine how it is being experienced by people in their day to day lives. Otherwise, academic and political dialogues are jeopardized of being cut off from reality and actual group intergroup relations (Howarth & Andreouli n.d.). Having this in mind, it is therefore valid to contend that a social and psychological method to multiculturalism provides a much more modern philosophical and political discourse by deriving consideratiokn of the inhabited actualities of cultural variety and the strains that are connected with it. Hence, this paper shall elaborate on some main confrontations that multiculturalism bring towards Western communities. In addition, this paper shall focus on the failure of multiculturalism in some Western countries, particularly Germany and the United Kingdom; also, this paper will touch on the relationship between Islamist extremism and multiculturalism as a failure. What is multiculturalism? Even before we get to examine whether multiculturalism has indeed failed, it is imperative to know on what grounds we should base our arguments. Hence, it is essential to know what multiculturalism is in the first place. Multiculturalism pertains to polities that comprise numerous cultures. As mentioned earlier, the word is used in two extensive ways, that is, either in a normative or a descriptive framework (Heywood 2010). First, it is used descriptively to refer to the plain general detail of cultural diversity: it normally relates to the demographic structure of a particular polity or organization like in the workplace, academe, cities, states, and countries. Normatively, multiculturalism pertains to the beliefs or notions that endorse diversity or its establishment; seen this way, it is a community comfortable with the embroidery of humanity and the craving among the humanity to convey their individuality in a way they perceive as suitable (Bloor 2010). These notions or dogmas differ extensively from one nation to another (Harper 2011), extending from the promotion of equality to the manifold cultures in a certain society, to a strategy of advocating the conservation of cultural diversity, to strategies wherein individuals of varying ethnic and religious groups are dealt with by the ruling class as described by the collection in which they have its place (Malik 2010). Nevertheless, varying and apparently unreliable policies have cropped up through the various institutional policies and methods (Meyer 2010). The first approach heavily touches on the interface and communication among varied cultures. Communications of cultures afford prospects for the cultural differences to interact and collaborate in order to form multiculturalism. The second approach focuses on the multiplicity cultural distinctiveness. Cultural segregation can guard the individuality of the local culture of a country or civilization and likewise promote global cultural diversity. An ordinary feature of many strategies that follow the second approach is that it precludes the presentation of any particular ethnic, religious or cultural public standards as a fundamental (Cotter 2011). Multiculturalism is commonly used to refer to the Western countries that apparently attained an actual and genuine distinct identity between 18th and 19th centuries (Zarate et al. 2011). Multiculturalism has become a national authorized rule in many Western civilizations for causes that different from one country to another (Inglis 1995), which comprise the fact that a lot of the huge civilizations in the Western regions are progressively built as an assortment of cultures. Multiculturalism has failed Kymlicka (2012, p.3) states that ‘the master narrative of the rise and fall of multiculturalism helpfully captures important features of our current debates’. Nevertheless, this is, to some degree, deceptive in that it may confuse the actual confrontations and prospects that the people are indeed facing. In the simplest sense, the ‘master narrative’ (Kymlicka 2012, p.3) states that: ‘since the mid-1990s, however, we have seen a backlash and retreat from multiculturalism’. Dating back to the 1970s up to the mid-1990s, there was a clear inclination throughout the Western democratic states to the strengthened acceptance and recognition of diversity through an array of multiculturalism policies and ‘minority rights’ (Kymlicka 2012, p.3). These strategies were authorized both domestically and internationally by some international organizations, and included an elimination of the primitive notions of uniform and similar national identity. As Kymlicka (2012) has argued, since the middle of the 1990s, there has been an intensifying backlash against multiculturalism, and reaffirmation of the concepts of nation building, shared values and individuality, and a uniform nationality. This backlash is, to a degree, motivated by apprehensions among the majority that the acceptance of cultural diversity has been lavishly extensive and is now menacing their manner of living. This apprehension repeatedly conveys itself in the augmentation of 'nativist and populist right-wing political movements which includes the Danish Political Party, defending the old ideas of Denmark for Danish' (Kymlicka 2012, p.3). However, the backlash likewise suggests of the belief of the center-left that multiculturalism has failed to aid the projected recipients such as the minority groups considering that it has flunked to attend to the fundamental causes of their social, political and economic exclusion; and has forwarded an inadvertent contribution to their social seclusion (Kymlicka 2012). Following this, the center-left political actions which has, to begin with, defended multiculturalism, which includes the democratic political parties in the European civilizations have shown that they have already recoiled and shied away from multiculturalism and instead, they have shifted to a discussion that stresses social cohesion, shared values and identical citizenship. The democratic discussions of community assimilation supported for developing a more comprehensive nationhood and to go against racial discrimination; however, it dissociates itself from the strategies of multiculturalism. A term is in fact being developed - post multiculturalism - to refer to the new method that points toward the surpassing of the narrow and mistaken notions of multiculturalism while evading the despotic reaffirmation of standardizing nationalist principles (Kymlicka 2012). In the United Kingdom, diffident multicultural plans (Wotherspoon 1995) were implemented by the local authorities between the 1970s and the 1980s and straight on, firstly under the labour administration of Harold Wilson (Hadjetian 2008). A new labour government was created in 1997 that was dedicated to a multiculturalist method in the national level; nevertheless, a backlash occurred in 2001, spearheaded by the centre-left critics such as David Goodhart. The administration subsequently adopted a rule of policy of social cohesion instead. Recently, in 2011, the newly-designated British Prime Minister, David Cameron, has expressed on his speech that, indeed, multiculturalism has failed (BBC 2011). Joined by the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, the British Prime Minister set off a scornful criticism over the alleged 30 years old multiculturalism in the Britain (Nicolas Sarkozy joins 2011). Sarkozy, after the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, expressed her opinions about the failure of multiculturalism in Germany, likewise agreed with the swelling number of European political leaders regarding the failure of multiculturalism to bring vibrancy and progress to their respective countries. The French President said through the Daily Mail Reporter (2011): We have been too concerned about the identity of the person who was arriving and not enough about the identity of the country receiving him. My answer is clearly yes, it is a failure. Perhaps, one of the most resounding evidence of the failure of multiculturalism is the widespread criticism directed towards it. There are various criticisms of multiculturalism that challenges the principle of the conservation and preservation of ethnic cultures within a particular country or organization. Multiculturalism is specifically a topic of discussion and argumentations in several European countries, particularly the United Kingdom, that were formerly linked with a sole, uniform nationhood (Mirza 2004). Detractors of multiculturalism may contend against cultural assimilation of assorted ethnic and cultural collections to the prevailing policies and standards of a particular nation. Otherwise, detractors may contend for the integration of the various ethnic and cultural clusters to a single nationhood. It has been contended that the United Kingdom administration has already recoiled from multicultural policy and shifted towards the integration of minority communities (Bam-Hutchison 2010). Antagonism over multiculturalism has swollen to state-supported policies; others have expressed that the backlash from multiculturalism has been a damaging failure (Wynne-Jones 2008). David Davis, in 2005, requested the government to abandon its obsolete strategies of multiculturalism (BBC News 2005). The European leaders are now open to providing broadmindedness over intolerance. As Prime Minister Cameron said in 2011: Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and apart from the mainstream. We’ve failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong. We’ve even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run completely counter to our values. Islam Extremism and Multiculturalism Multiculralism and Islam are significant themes in the general argumentations pertaining to contemporary views about multiculturalism. Secular mismatch has been impacted by the standpoint that goes against multiculturalism as supported by several thinkers. Opinion surveys of Muslim immigrants in the United Kingdom represented a relatively poor acceptance over secular concepts which include the segregation of religion and state, gender equality, religious liberty and the advocacy for the rights of the LGBT community. In a survey conducted in the United Kingdom to some 500 British Muslim respondents, 100% of them refused to consider homosexuality as morally acceptable (Butt 2009). Furthermore, a survey found out that 18% of Britain’s population believes that a considerable number of British Muslims do not have their allegiance to the United Kingdom and are always ready to disregard or perform terroristic activities (Islam poses a threat 2006). Conclusion Political leaders who have expressed their views about multiculturalism as a failure are only some of the many evidences that multiculturalism has failed. In the simplest sense, discrimination by race, gender, religion, cultural beliefs, and traditions should have long been extinct if indeed multiculturalism has prevailed. Unfortunately, these inequalities are still rampant even in the most democratic countries. Bibliography Bam-Hutchison, J 2010, 'Race, faith, and UK policy: A brief history'. Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past, University of York, viewed 19 December 2012, . Bloor, K 2010, The definitive guide to political idealogies, AuthorHouse, Bloomington. Butt, R 2009, 'Muslims in Britain have zero tolerance of homosexuality, says poll', The Guardian, 7 May, viewed 19 December 2012, . Cotter, AM 2011, Culture clash: an international legal perspective on ethnic discrimination, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., Farnham. 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