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It takes generations for people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds to become accustomed to each other. I think most of the time it really never happens because if you look at the world today you see ethnic and tribal conflicts everywhere. Multi-culturism doesnt work.
It takes generations for people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds to become accustomed to each other. I think most of the time it really never happens because if you look at the world today you see ethnic and tribal conflicts everywhere. Multi-culturism doesnt work.
that's not correct. Humans have been in conflict with one another since there have been humans. Humans of the same clan battle and have battled each other for milenia. To blame human conflict on "multi-culturalism" is simplistic...at the least.
In the 1950s and early 1960s when many of us baby boomers were growing up, America was at an historically low point as far as the percentage of foreign born population. About 85% of our population was white and 13% Black and 2% Asian in 1960. The only Hispanics were in the American SW. I think most of the baby boomers, like me, grew up as kids and young adults in homogeneous communities and it seemed perfectly normal to us. There was not all the talk about the glories of diversity in the media and popular culture.
For some reason even though America had a huge population already, the business community pushed for an ever increasing number of immigrants from countries that had never had much of a population in America before.
In the last 10 years it seems like America has just been flooded with immigrants. But unlike other major issues facing America I don't remember any big discussion or decision in Congress that was promoted and debated. Instead, the government just opened up the flood gates for people from all over the world, millions a year. Up to recently we only let about 500,000 immigrants in a year, now the figure is closer to 2 million. That figure will double with the new immigration reform bill being promoted in Congress by the business elite who wants cheap labor.
While our country has always been about immigration it has happened too fast and in too large of numbers in recent years. And English proficiency never seems to be a deciding factor on who to let into America. The melting pot has been rejected by the media and replaced by a multi cultural viewpoint which tells immigrants they should keep their own language and way of dress and lifestyle. As a result we have become a balkanized country where nearly everyone breaks into their own little ethnic, cultural and language group and only interacts with someone outside their group unless absolutely necessary. What a shame.
The melting pot has been rejected by the media and replaced by a multi cultural viewpoint which tells immigrants they should keep their own language and way of dress and lifestyle. As a result we have become a balkanized country where nearly everyone breaks into their own little ethnic, cultural and language group and only interacts with someone outside their group unless absolutely necessary. What a shame.
Now this, I do agree with.
Although I wouldn't say immigration has necessarily "destroyed" parts of America. It has changed it, and change always takes some adjustment and getting used to.
I live in Canada, where multiculturalism is state policy. I also happen to live in Toronto, where multiculturalism is more evident than anywhere else in the country. Some people in more rural parts of Canada, and in its smaller towns think multiculturalism is no good (even though there are not too many recent immigrants outside of Canada's urban areas) and you also find that attitude in parts of Quebec, where the francophone population is more interested in maintaining French homogeneity than anything else. There are also quite a few conservative Anglos who dislike multiculturalism because it was started by a popular French-speaking Liberal prime minister.
The truth is that multiculturalism has been the policy of both Canada and the US since they were first colonized. Although it was primarily immigrants from Europe and slaves from Africa that made up the first immigrants, later waves included populations from just about every part of Europe, as well as China. Despite being European, many of these people had about as much in common as a WASP nowadays has with a South Asian. Although many of the previous waves of immigrants to Canada and the US were mostly Christian (if you don't count the tens of thousands of Jews that came to the Americas at the beginning of the last century), they came from multiple denominations, spoke different languages, had completely different cultural traditions and diets, and tended to gather in separate neighbourhoods / communities.
But in time, usually after a generation or two, these disparate groups grew closer together, intermarried, attended the same schools, worked at the same offices and factories, and became American or Canadian, rather Italian, Irish, Polish, German, etc. They still honoured they roots in different ways, but considered themselves American or Canadian first and foremost.
The new wave of immigrants our countries are experiencing today is no different from these previous waves, except that they come from all over the world, speak even more diverse languages and have more diverse cultural and religious practices. I've found myself at the centre of these new immigrant communities as a teacher of ESL for the local school board, and a volunteer in the community. In my city and its surrounding area, multiculturalism works very well, for the most part. I grew up with friends from many different ethnic groups, had girlfriends who were East Asian, South Asian, South American, West Indian, etc. The people I grew up with were often children whose parents had immigrated to Canada during the 1970's. Many of their parents did not speak English, did not integrate very much with people outside their own ethnic community, and generally had low-paying service jobs or owned their own businesses.
But just like the immigrants of the early 20th Century and earlier, the young people I grew up with did speak English and adopted Canadian customs, while also spreading some of their own cultural practices to the wider community, had friends outside their own ethnic community, and often went on to work in white collar jobs. As always happens, the second and third generation of immigrants become indistinguishable from the rest of the society – they are just as Canadian or American as those whose ancestors were born here a hundred years ago. People in the Greater Toronto Area have generally learned to love the diversity of their communities. While some people remain insular and choose to remain aloof from Canadian society, they are a very small minority - as small as the minority of Canadians who think that our diversity somehow diminished us.
As a dual citizen who has spent lots of time in the US, I can say that, while issues of race are more prevalent there than in Canada, the process of immigration and integration is similar. The US is a nation of immigrants (excepting First Nation's people, of course), and the current wave of immigrants coming into the country from all over the world are generally thrilled to be in America and desperate to join the wider American community. This doesn't mean they are going to give up the cultural practices that help shape their identity (any more than Italian-Americans are going to stop being 'Italian'), but do not doubt their desire to be accepted as Americans and to contribute to their new country.
Finally, in response to the OP's remark about friendliness, here's an anecdote: on the street where I grew up, most of my neighbours were white Canadians who had been here a generation or more. My family had moved from Puerto Rico to Toronto, and bought a house in a new development so it wasn't as if we were new-comers to the neighbourhood. From the very beginning, neighbours were often aloof and unfriendly. Even today, after my mother has remained in the house for more than thirty years, she does not have a single friend on the street. When I moved to the city from the suburbs to attend university, I immediately noticed a neighbourliness that simply did not exist on my idyllic suburban street. Since then, I've found that, as a general rule, the poorer the neighbourhood is, the more tight-knit the community is. So perhaps you live in a white-collar suburban neighbourhood filled with mostly detached houses. In my experience, the suburbs generally, and the wealthier areas specifically, are not very tight-knit communities with friendly neighbours, and most people know nothing about the people who live on their street.
In conclusion, racial and cultural diversity can enrich a society tremendously. You just have to open your mind to it, go out of your way to embrace it, and try to make friends with people of different races and religions. Don't let your street or neighbourhood limit you. Volunteer at a community centre or if you're religious, hang out after mass to meet people. There are countless ways to embrace the diversity of your community. Just because your neighbours are unfriendly doesn't mean that other parts of your community are the same way. If you really want to experience diversity, get out of your comfort zone and make an effort to make friends - there are many ways to do it.
I live in Canada, where multiculturalism is state policy. I also happen to live in Toronto, where multiculturalism is more evident than anywhere else in the country. Some people in more rural parts of Canada, and in its smaller towns think multiculturalism is no good (even though there are not too many recent immigrants outside of Canada's urban areas) and you also find that attitude in parts of Quebec, where the francophone population is more interested in maintaining French homogeneity than anything else. .
When you say "French homogeneity" you should mean language and not ethnicity or bloodlines.
Most French Canadians themselves are not entirely of French origin anyway, and probably a majority are mixed French and aboriginal to at least some degree. Another good chunk is of French origin with some Irish mixed in believe it or not.
While our country has always been about immigration it has happened too fast and in too large of numbers in recent years. And English proficiency never seems to be a deciding factor on who to let into America. The melting pot has been rejected by the media and replaced by a multi cultural viewpoint which tells immigrants they should keep their own language and way of dress and lifestyle. As a result we have become a balkanized country where nearly everyone breaks into their own little ethnic, cultural and language group and only interacts with someone outside their group unless absolutely necessary. What a shame.
Talk to your Congressman. English is not the official language of the US.
You know, if many, many greedy business people in our country didn't offer jobs to people desperate to work for low pay and not so ideal working conditions, very few people would be immigrating here.
You know, if people could recognize that, when these "greedy business people" cry that they need cheap labor to keep prices low, rather than the reality, which is they want to just increase profit margin, and if we could prosecute these greedy business people to the fullest extent of the law, many of these greedy business people would think twice before seeking them out to hire them for a slave wage. This could affect the amount of illegals who come here in the first place. Incidentally though, isn't it interesting how a country that denounces slavery so severely celebrates hiring illegals to do such servile, slave-type work, for so little pay?
Who do you think the American Politician is? He is us.
THat's the most ridiculous thing I have ever read. The American Politician does not represent his contituents anymore. They are paid off criminals who only do what is best for them, their crony friends, and the corporations that pay them off.
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