Integration of Immigrants in Western Countries - Essay Example

Quote Discussion

The issue of integration of immigrants belonging to different civilizational and cultural tradition in Western countries, has become one of the key political and public debate.

Integration policies of foreign countries diverse and has many faces, each state has its own peculiarities in conducting such a policy. Zangwill once said that “God is making the American!.. the real American has not yet arrived. He will be the fusion of all races, perhaps the coming superman... the glory of America, where all races and nations come to labor and look forward” (Zangwill, 1925).

Nevertheless, in general integration policy is reduced to two opposite strategies: assimilation and multiculturalism. In this case, both the strategy can succeed each other historically under the immigration policies of one country. A striking example of this is the integration policy of the US, which can be divided into two periods. The first period (19th century – 60s of the 20th century) was characterized by the strategy of assimilation of immigrants. The second period (60s of the 20th century till now) was characterized by the strategy of multiculturalism. It is up to the adoption of liberal immigration laws in the 1960, in the United States, a rigid policy of assimilation of immigrants had been implemented. It received the name of the concept of the “melting pot.” Its main postulate is the acculturation of immigrants on the basis of the Anglo-Protestant culture and acceptance of the values ​​of the American political system. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate the quote by Zangwill and understand the essence of assimilation which is taking place in the modern American society.

Today, most states at least to some extent confronted with the phenomenon of cultural diversity in its own territory. Trade, tourism, international dialog of scientists and artists, mobility of qualified professionals and the migration flows lead to the fact that in most countries, significant numbers of people belonging to other cultures. Almost everywhere you can meet representatives of at least one cultural minority – temporarily entered the country of foreigners, for example, leisure and / or business. Many countries today can be called diverse in cultural terms only because they are open to the outside world – the representatives of all peoples are free to come, go, and sometimes remain. This problem occurs because of the fact that many people want to remain in the country, which came. In addition, a number of states of the world was originally formed as multinational and multicultural education; while the history of the 20th century. It demonstrated that practiced by the majority of states the policy of cultural assimilation does not give an acceptable result.

The problem of multiculturalism is the subject of scientific discussion for more than three decades, during which traced wide the diversity of approaches to the evaluation of its historical and social nature, the prospects of forecasting and risk multicultural strategy of social development. In the context of this study are of particular importance in the prevailing foreign science conceptual interpretation of multiculturalism, can form an idea about the specifics of this phenomenon.

Assimilation strategy shaped the modern American nation. Immigration has acquired such a scale that without a tough measures aimed at the assimilation of immigrants modern United States, of course, would represent a very different country. Policy of the harsh assimilation helped keep English as the national language and the value of the Protestant religion which determined the social and political life of the country. This assimilation strategy sometimes came up against opposition from the large groups of immigrant communities (for example, we can recall the attempts to give legal status to the German language in the places of residence of immigrants from Germany in Pennsylvania).

A special role in the process of assimilation is played by schooling, in which an important place belonged (and to some extent continues to belong to) the teaching of national history and various patriotic ceremonies (such as the solemn national flag raising). Getting an education was regarded in the US as the best way to instill in students the Anglo-American Protestant values.

In the process of assimilation of immigrants (in the United States, it has been called as the “Americanization”) involved not only government agencies but also non-governmental organizations, business. All this has been determined by the fact that the largest industrial corporations needed workforce which readily provided the immigrants, so a corporation organized under the school factories where immigrants learn English and inspire them

American values.

A prime example of business participation in the assimilation of immigrants was the work of Henry Ford, who believed that immigrants need to be taught American traditions, the English language and the American way of life. His company has funded numerous activities to assimilate immigrants, such as the organization of English language courses, etc. The Movement for the assimilation of immigrants went “from below” – from public organizations and private companies, which in turn put pressure on local authorities. It is because of such pressure on the “Americanization” of the program have been adopted in more than thirty states. The federal government became involved in the assimilation process somewhat later, in the 1910-1920s, when the Bureau of Naturalization and the Bureau of Education have developed their own assimilation program. However, with the liberalization of immigration laws and adopting laws prohibiting discrimination of racial and ethnic minorities in the 1960s, has gradually become in American society.

The essence of the ethno-racial relations was “positive discrimination” against minorities and it served as the main direction of state policy in the field. This policy is expressed in the provision of racial and ethnic minorities a priority in the social sphere (such as privileges in employment or quotas of seats in educational institutions for minorities). However, the policy of “positive discrimination” possesses a lot of enemies (and not only among the 'white' of the majority, but also among the representatives of minorities themselves) as “reverse discrimination” puts the group above individual rights, which contradicts the principles of the rule of law.

The experience of the integration of US policy leads to the conclusion that it is the assimilation strategy towards immigrants formed the current American society, with its dominant Anglo-Protestant 'core,' which, in turn, has allowed the country to become the leading power in the world. However, the erosion of national identity and the abandonment of the policy of assimilation in favor of multiculturalism policies poses a threat to social stability and the preservation of the state as a whole in the future. Examples of hard assimilation strategy are other countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, etc.). For example, the scale of immigration to Argentina in the late 19th – early 20th century slightly inferior to the volumes of immigration to the United States. However, just as in the US, the assimilation policy has allowed to maintain in this country as the official language is Spanish, while the scale of immigration from Spain in this country significantly inferior to the number of immigrants from Italy.

It should be noted that the success of the policy assimilation in the past in these countries is significantly facilitated by the low level of development of information and communication technologies. Lack of quick and cheap means of communication, transport, making it virtually impossible to maintain the information and cultural relations of immigrants from the donor country. At the present stage of development of means of communication and communication immigrant if desired, can save almost full information and cultural ties with their homeland, even in significant removal from it. Technical development of communications in conjunction with the political liberalization ethno-cultural policy promoted in Western countries the formation of a multicultural social structure and led to a crisis of national identity. Currently, the policy of multiculturalism has been de facto implemented in almost all Western countries that host large numbers of immigrants. However, not all countries have declared that policy as an official.

To sum up, it is possible to note that The main negative consequence of multicultural policy, in our view, is the lack of a single national identity, which allows the company not only to develop successfully, but also to overcome the crisis. However, theorists of the multicultural strategy, agreeing on the need for a unified identity, understand it as only political identity.

There is no consensus with respect to the integration policy of immigrants on the basis of multicultural the strategy is not developed in the UK. Moreover, the immigration policy of the state and its multicultural strategy have become the object of political struggle. Proponents of multicultural strategy believe that the state should not only contribute to the preservation of cultural identities and other immigrants, but also to their development. To put it differently, the state should stimulate and enhance the differentiation of society by supporting the socio-cultural identity of national minorities.

In recent years, under the influence of a wave of violence, terrorism, mass illegal immigration and other negative consequences of immigration from other cultures groups (especially from Muslim countries) in Europe's multiculturalism policy has to change. The main directions of the revision of integration practices is the rejection of the institutional support the organization of immigrant groups with a view to their greater involvement in national organizations, as well as the tightening of legislation in the field of immigration and naturalization. A brief analysis of the experience of foreign countries for the integration of immigrants says the ambiguity and inconsistency of the two concepts of integration: assimilation and multiculturalism. Despite the presence of the pros and cons, the two concepts can not fully meet the consolidation needs of the nation, on the one hand, and the preservation of a tolerant attitude towards other cultures – the other hand.