Multiculturalism. Options

[radhikaeatsraman]

Multiculturalism is a public policy approach for managing cultural diversity in a multiethnic society, officially stressing mutual respect and tolerance for cultural differences within a country. [1]

Do multicultural policies really help nations such as Canada & Australia? Is the "melting pot" policy really working for the United States? Is it more beneficial to promote assimilation and nationalism rather than multiculturalism?

Personally, I quite like Canada's multicultural policy and feel that the US should adopt a similar one. Being from an immigrant family, I've seen how the "melting pot" model can hurt someone's ability to learn about their original culture & develop a strong cultural identity. The culture can be lost within one or two generations. It is an everyday struggly to communicate and relate with some of my relatives because of my identity as an Indian-American. (An American with family from India.)

By implementing multicultural policies along with teaching in a common language and encouraging immigrants to get involved in the local labor force, we can help people retain their cultural identity & operate adequately in the society they live in at the same time.

Discuss.

[AngelinaTaylor]

Well.. let me put it this way.

I live in Canada. My cousin lives in the States. We're both originally from Bulgaria. I feel at home in Canada, and he doesn't feel at home in the States. When I came here, my chemistry teacher was talking about how we're all Canadian. I said I wasn't, and asked me how long I've been living here and I said "A few weeks." Then she replied, "Oh well, you're one of us now!"

In the States, I don't think immigrants are accepted like that. At least that's what I hear from my cousin. Even his 12-year-old daughter is looked at differently. I don't know, is that true? Do you guys distinguish immigrants so much? Because here, Canadians accept me pretty much like another Canadian.

Yes, I do think multiculturalism is a good thing. Definitely. Because think about it - someone from your family must've been an immigrant. How do you think you got here?

[sakaitone]

In the States, I don't think immigrants are accepted like that. At least that's what I hear from my cousin. Even his 12-year-old daughter is looked at differently. I don't know, is that true? Do you guys distinguish immigrants so much? Because here, Canadians accept me pretty much like another Canadian.

I think in America we celebrate our cultures a lot, that’s what makes people look at each other differently. It’s true, we need to be more accepting but it’s hard to accept something we don’t understand. I think here in America we’re stress our culture, so immigrants would probably be looked at differently. We do use each other's culture to lash out on each other and I don't think that's good but we’re still trying to accept people who are different from us. We also take a lot of pride in our cultures, so sometimes for some people it may be harder to accept someone who is different then you.

Maybe America, stresses nationalism because of that saying "United we stand, divided we fall." Maybe they think if we divide into our cultural groups that this would disrupt the "united" thing. Like at my school, when it's Haitian Flag Day, almost every person of Haitian culture is wearing their flag/their colors, the Jamaican kids come to school wearing their colors/flag. A fight broke out last year on Haitian Flag Day between a couple of Haitian kids and Jamaican kids because one of them was pushed and fists just started flying even between friends.

At my school, I don’t feel very accepted as American because we talk a lot about our cultures. I have had tons of people ask me (in America) where I am from and I reply “New York”. Then say they meant where were you born and when I say “New York”. Then they wear this really annoying look of disbelief like it impossible for me to be born in America.

Where I live, (my school or town distrist)We have exchange programs in our high schools and multicultural clubs in our middle and high schools. And in a lot of my classes we talk about our cultures and lots of my classes like to throw multicultural parties. In my school we have a multicultural scavenger hunt every year; we have to collect things like an Asian newspaper, a piece of clothing made in South America, a name of a student born in a different country and etc. Every year, Native American dancers come to our school to show us different dances of their cultures.


I think this makes it very hard to accept people because we (americans) tirelessly stress our cultures.

[AngelinaTaylor]

^ What kind of culture does America have? I don't mean to be offensive; I just feel uneducated on the subject. I always thought the whole country was made up of immigrants. At one point or another, your ancestors came from another country. It's wrong to look down on other people just because they weren't born there.

How come Canadian people accept something they "don't understand", and Americans can't?

This is mostly based on what I've heard from friends living across the border.