When we hear the word "multiculturalism," some imagine people of all races and creeds holding hands, others imagine a clash of disparate cultures that cannot co-exist. There are many more nuanced definitions in between.
In the world of mainstream politics, there is now widespread acknowledgment that the failure of immigrants to properly integrate into the culture of their host nations is causing a lot more harm that good. The backlash against multiculturalism has begun to manifest itself as a rise of nationalist parties such as England's UKIP and France's National Front gaining more support from disillusioned countrymen.
In 2010 German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that,
" This [multicultural] approach has failed, utterly failed," Merkel told the meeting in Potsdam, west of Berlin, yesterday. "
Merkel also suggested that the onus was on immigrants to do more to integrate into German society, and late last year the European Court of Justice ruled that EU citizens who move to another member state "solely in order to obtain social assistance" may be excluded from receiving that assistance, an acknowledgement that multiculturalism's side effects are causing more harm than good.
Those interested in this topic should read Foreign Affairs' excellent article The Failure of Multiculturalism.
As a political tool, multiculturalism has functioned as not merely a response to diversity but also a means of constraining it. And that insight reveals a paradox. Multicultural policies accept as a given that societies are diverse, yet they implicitly assume that such diversity ends at the edges of minority communities. They seek to institutionalize diversity by putting people into ethnic and cultural boxes—into a singular, homogeneous Muslim community, for example—and defining their needs and rights accordingly. Such policies, in other words, have helped create the very divisions they were meant to manage.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 24 2015, @05:40PM
WTF does "race" have to do with this discussion? The subject matter is "multiculturalism". Maybe you have failed to understand that US and Australian white people came from very much the same "race", but they have developed vastly different cultures?
Grab a dictionary, and try to follow along on these big words. Some of us actually expect participants on a nerd site to understand the odd sixteen-letter word now and then.
(Score: 3, Touché) by aristarchus on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:02PM
Modified:
Culture is a human construct, not supported by the biology. Please continue...
FTFY
Please continue, racists. (Submitted by Eth? How could it not be?)
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:09PM
Right in TFS:
Learn to read, smartass.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:23PM
Sorry, I down-modded you by mistake. There doesn't seem to be any way to undo this.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:44PM
No problem - I'm often curious about who mods, and why. But, stuff happens. I've clicked the wrong thingy often enough since these new-fangled computers came along!
(Score: 5, Touché) by ilPapa on Sunday May 24 2015, @08:24PM
"Vastly different" in the sense that Americans love cars and beer and surfing and football and Australians love beer and cars and football and surfing.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 26 2015, @07:36PM
US football and Australian football are vastly different you insensitive clod! lol
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Sunday May 24 2015, @09:17PM
It was casually mentioned in the first sentence, hence my comment.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday May 25 2015, @12:45PM
The trouble is that unlike when I was young, being a nerd has become cool. When I was in high school, "nerd" was an insult, now it's a compliment. This has a lot of people who just don't have the intelligence and curiosity to be a nerd thinking they are one.
OTOH maybe he just needs more coffee...
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org