Most of my posts about multiculturalism have focused either on the US specifically or on multiculturalism in general – different types of metaphors fitting for the US and how our country and our education system has been increasingly encouraging of students to gain a global perspective on life. However, I began wondering about the multicultural societies of countries besides the US. Usually we think of how the US is the classic “melting pot” (whether we still agree with that metaphor or not). Immigrants from different regions coming to America during certain time periods – British, Japanese, Mexican – usually involving some conflict with assimilation between the natives and newcomers.
But I have not thought much about multiculturalism when it comes to other countries? Are there other countries that have issues with multiculturalism in their society, school systems, or cultural combinations in general? So, I’ve decided to expand my focus and search through some other countries and see if there are any similarities or differences that maybe we can learn from each other on – how different countries cope with different issues and just to see what different views there are out there on similar subjects.
I have begun my search with Britain, our arguably closest relatives. I stumbled upon a recent article of a political figure in Britain expressing his thoughts on multiculturalism; apparently it is a controversial issue outside of the US, too. First, I’d like to state that I am unfamiliar with British politics and general societal standards, so I will relying on the information I take from this article (found here).
In this article, shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve, a political figure in Britain, portrays the downside of what seems to be a British leniency towards assimilating cultures. This struck me a little. Usually, as we discuss multiculturalism here in the US, it is usually our society and school systems encouraging the mix of cultures and teaching our new generations about heritages and traditions. Usually, the US views multiculturalism in a positive light. However, here I found an argument against it.
Grieves expresses his concern that Britain’s apparent openness to allowing new immigrants to settle in their country has created a sort of “cultural despair” within the country. He argues that British natives and new immigrants with such different cultural backgrounds trying to live harmoniously together, or next door, or in the same area, creates a type of rift in the portrayed values of the country. What are the values of a country whose inhabitants are increasingly being made up of completely different values? Do the values of the natives remain? Or do you adjust the set values as the population changes? What even are the “set values”?
What made me truly ponder the possible positive vs. negative views of multiculturalism was Grieves’ view on changing these values: “In the name of trying to prepare people for some new multicultural society we’ve encouraged people, particularly the sort of long-term inhabitants, to say ‘well your cultural background isn’t really very important’.”
This started me thinking about how each party of a conflicting society views not only their new neighbor’s values, but also their own. The people who support multiculturalism, how do they feel about the possibility of downplaying their own culture in order to make room for another? What about those who do not support multiculturalism? Does one culture actually get harmed from the attempted mixing or interspersing of cultural values?
One other issue Grieves raised in the article was the apparent issue of multiculturalism in Britain not being successful on account of the citizens themselves, both the natives and the immigrants. Although admitting that multiculturalism is a goodhearted try to make everyone feel welcome, he uses the metaphor of the ideal “melting pot” to explain how it tends to fail: “The idea behind it was [to] create the melting pot. But the melting pot needs the ingredients of people’s confidence in themselves as they come together. And if it isn’t there I think we’ve done ourselves huge damage.” This is very interesting. Do you think multiculturalism in America is failing or succeeding? And how are the citizens’ attitudes towards it creating this outcome?
As you can see, hearing the opinions of people from different countries on similar topics can truly conjure up different thoughts you may not have considered before, whether that be about multiculturalism or anything else entirely. These were just a few things this article got me thinking about. I am interested to see the other opinions from people with different backgrounds and cultural values as I continue searching next time.