Multiculturalism Has Had Corrosive Effects on Society - Essay Example

? Definition Multiculturalism can be defined as the study of understanding people’s behaviours, interaction, culture, race and politics with different ways of doing things. It goes beyond explaining how people of different cultures came to exist in many countries all over the world and how people of diverse surroundings encounter one another. Introduction History recognizes countries as multiethnic in that nations have people speak differently or of different religion and stays in relatively different ways. In United State, the Welfare Reform Act law dramatically states the significance of nationality in the nation (Alba, 2005). But, immigrants faced the worse change where non-citizens, even the lawful permanent residents were deprived of food stamps and security. Also, medical services and welfare were not supplied to them since they are not United State’s people (Bloemraad, 2006). In the 19th centaury, countries like Germany united its people and now migrants are part of the nation. France is known as a combination of people from different regions. Italy is a mixture of communities that has never homogenized. Scottish, Catalan, Basque and Corsicans are the group of people living in Europe as a result of the end of the identical nation. Though regional tribes trustingly seen as ordinary unified units, the minorities are excluded, disregarded and oppressed by the dominant majority. Frequent internal conflict is the main oppressive way used by the majority group to punish the marginalized communities (Parekh, Bikhu, 2006). Mostly, in Europeans countries, the children of the settlers and especially those from poor countries face great problems in their host nations when it comes to labour market. This shows that the rate of unemployment is high to children’s of immigrants as compared to the children of the citizen by birth. This difference can partly be elaborated by the little educational level offered to the immigrant’s children compared to the quality education offered to the children of the host countries (Heath and Cheung, 2007). Also, the education level and labour market gap is reduced by the socio-demographic differences and economic position of their origin parental countries. A good example is children of immigrants from turkey and North Africa who share a common problem in education and job market. In contrast, the children of the immigrants position in the labour market is at least equal with that of the children born in their native land in the united states, Switzerland, Canada and New Zealand. In Netherlands, the rate of unemployment to the immigrants was higher compared to that in the United Kingdom. The minorities in Netherlands were discriminated as they could not get a placement in organizations, job motivation in term of promotion, higher salaries and they were working in frail parts of economy (Barry, 2001). This is due to the negative ethnic observation the employers have to immigrants and they were not willing to offer them jobs. Implementation of policies in the efforts to eliminate ethnic differences between immigrants and the natives in the country but they did not work since they were short-term and unfulfilled. In Britain, the black families have less access to authority and all other resources including education and health facilities compared to the middle and the high class families. Multiracial urban education in Britain was introduced with a false impression of educating the black children in the city. This was in the aim of cooling down the immigrants and impressing them that they are helping, while in the real sense such education was not making sense (Hewitt, 2005). Immigration and political movements are the main causes of multiculturalism where the blacks moved to the white countries. During this time, migrants (whites) were accepted as co-citizens and assimilation was accepted until when policies relating to migration extended to include non-whites, who were different in their cultures compared to their predecessor (Berthoud and Richard 2000). The colonized countries having less political power were dominated by the colonies and, they lost some of their cultures to adopt the new cultures from the west (Bloemraad and Irene2006). This was the case of countries like Kenya and India, and which diversified their cultures during the colonial era. New political, social, economic and religious ways were adopted due to cultural diversity and assimilation. Nations that have adopted cultural diversity have support from their government and laws are provided to include this model. This means that every immigrant can uphold his or her customs in the provision that the different cultures live peacefully within one society. As a result, a new cultural set comes into existence which is different from the one of the nation that joins them (Modood et al 1997). Some nations have experienced multiculturalism through written materials. Some nations encourage inter-university competitions from different nations through athletics, projects and other activities. This leads to multiculturalism since students exchange their cultures and beliefs during these inter- university competitions (Barry 2001). This has been the topic in the past quarter of the 20th and early 21st century than in the last decades. International movement of people in the modern world is increasing leading to increase in cultural and ethnic diversity in many societies (Cameron and David 2011). This migration is raising suspicion about the interrelation of racial and ethnic set into a rational and consistent nation. This movement is likely to continue due to economic expansion hence increasing the resources for migration. Increase in economic expansion is creating frequent changes in employment demand hence unable to satisfy. This is the case of countries like Australia, United States and Canada not leaving behind the Europeans nations which are yet to be nations of immigration like Germany, France and Netherlands (Foster and Stockley 1984). Effects of multiculturalism Due to cultural diversity, many changes are experienced by the nations in line with multiculturalism and even those which have yet adopted. The effects of cultural diversity may be positive or negative according to what nations borrowed from the immigrants. Education and religion Introduction of education by the Europeans was to find an easier way of communication since there was difficulty of understanding each other. Religion goes hand in hand with education and, as a result, nations stated to value religion. Though it is important and beneficial to the nations adopting it, the westerns were in need of using the Africans as a tool of spreading their culture and, this made the Africans to forget their traditions and beliefs (Hewitt 2005). Disadvantages Increase in conflicts Cultural diversity and interaction increased wars and conflicts in the struggle to acquire natural resources and power. Kenya during the colonial rule lost many lives due to the struggle for independence. British colonies wanted to control Kenya’s natural resources and take its power since Kenya is known to be a fertile land. (Varshney 1997) Discrimination Cultural diversity was unfair to the minority groups and, they used them as a source of trade. In the case of America, the blacks were discriminated and in other societies they were used as slaves. The Americans did not recognize the dignity of Africans and, they were not allowed to eat in the same table with them. Many migrants especially in Britain are strangers, and racial discrimination is at a higher level where politically migrants ere not recognized (Goodhart 2004). In the name of trade, developed countries are using the third world countries as the dumping site if their used materials and products. Things like clothing, vehicles, food staffs and shoes are exported to these nations at a low price as a way of helping them (Heath and Cheung 2007). Culture decay Many nations that were colonies of Britain and Germany lost their cultures as their culture was termed to be primitive and they were forced to adopt their colonizer’s way of doing thing things (Berry and John 1992). The westerns mode of dressing, some beliefs and language, was adopted and, this made the colonized nations to forget their cultures. Australia was affected by multiculturalism since it was not easy to incorporate culture in their government structure and this has been a source of weakness to the Australian administration (Parekh and Bikhu 2006). Bibliography Alba, R., 2005. Bright versus blurred boundaries: second-generation assimilation and exclusion in France, Germany and the United States. Ethnic and Racial Studies. Barry, B., 2001. Culture and Equality: An Egalitarian Critique of Multiculturalism, Cambridge: Polity Press. Heath, A.F & Demireva, N (forthcoming). Has multiculturalism utterly failed? Accessed on 29th may, 2013 from http://www.sociology.ox.ac.uk/documents/has_multiculturalism_utterly_failed/ Bloemraad, I., 2006. Becoming a citizen: incorporating immigrants and refugees in the United States and Canada. Berkeley: University of California Press. Goodhart, D., 2004. Too Diverse? Prospect (February). Accessed on 29th may 2013 from http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/too-diverse-david-goodhart- multiculturalism-Britain-immigration-globalization/ Foster, L.E, Stockley, D., 1984. Multiculturalism: the changing Australian paradigm, Multilingual Matters. Griffin, R., 2010. Management. New York: centage learning. Heath A. F. and Cheung S. Y., 2007. Unequal Chances: Ethnic Minorities in Western Labour Markets. Proceedings of the British Academy, Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy. Berry, W., 1992 ‘Acculturation and adaptation in a new society’, International Migration, 30 (1):69-85. Modood, et al, 1997. Ethnic Minorities in Britain: Diversity and Disadvantage. London: Policy Studies Institute. Hewitt, R., 2005. White Backlash and the Politics of Multiculturalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Berthoud, R., 2000. Ethnic employment penalties in Britain. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 26 (3): 389-416. Cameron, D., 2011. Speech at the Munich Security conference, February 5th 2011. Accessed on 29th may, 2013 from www.number10.gov.uk/news/pms-speech-at-munich- security-conference/ Parekh, B., 2006. Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory. 2nd ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Varshney, A., 1997. Civic Engagement and Ethnic Conflict, Journal of Comparative Politics, 30 (1): 1-20. Read More