“The British have nothing bad to say about immigrants, but nothing good to say about immigration.” With a recent influx of immigrants in London, the debate regarding migrants and multiculturalism has become increasingly salient. White governance is becoming an antiquated notion as more and more Londoners are of mixed heritage. Like many other countries around the world, London still suffers from racial, ethnic, religious, lingual, and other forms of discrimination, generating social dissatisfaction and turmoil. More than half of London has a negative attitude towards immigration, yet many of those same people find it difficult to reject those fleeting a hostile home country or migrants who have relocated just to provide for their family. This societal and political tension will be further explored in this …show more content…
Some may consider migrants as, “foreign-born, foreign nationals, or people who have moved to the UK for a year or more.” (Anderson) However, as anyone who visits London will quickly learn, it is not easy to walk down the street and identify who is an immigrant and who is not. It could be that the Indian worker in the local pound shop moved to London when he or she was only a few months old, or just as easily, it could be that he or she only moved here a few months ago. The issue of immigrant discrimination raises the issues of defining who immigrants are, what their worth to society is, and what we should do about immigration. The line between who society considers, or should consider, an immigrant and who is not must be adapted to incite any sort of real change. Changing language in legal documents regarding immigration can only do so much, but when it comes to a Pakistani with dark skin and a foreign-sounding name applying for a job at a local British law firm in competition with white skinned Joe Bloggs from Battersea, there continues to be
Bucerius, Sandra and Tonry, Michael. The Oxford Handbook of Ethnicity, Crime, and Immigration. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print.
In Amin Ahmad’s I belong here, the reader is faced with a sense of sympathy that makes the reader’s view of the world, not only questionable, but alterable. This personal experience, written in the year 2010 shames the fact that this world has and shows how little progress the world has made in the judgment and discrimination of immigrants. These people look differently, speak differently, and live differently; but on the inside they are the same. Nonetheless, they are looked down upon by people from different cultures. The author uses his personal ethos and pathos to support the claim of value that immigrants are not treated fairly. A claim of value is a claim that is based off of what is right and what is wrong.
One of the biggest, growing debates today is the issue of immigration into the U.S. I just don’t understand why there’s such a big debate. I compare this issue to the issue of racism in the way that, no matter what you do, "they" are always going to be here, and it is only ignorance that keeps the issue ablaze. The fact that migrants are not mostly white these days, also makes the issue one more of race. As Charles S. Clark puts it in The New Immigrants, "In the 1990’s, Americans who grew up in a historically white, Anglo-Saxon society are having to adjust to a Polish-born chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, John Shalikashvili; to Spanish-language editions of People magazine on Seven-11 shelves; and to Buddhist temples and Islamic mosques rising in their communities." In the case of immigration, though, the ignorance is apparent in both the immigrant and the non-immigrant.
In the United States, the cliché of a nation of immigrants is often invoked. Indeed, very few Americans can trace their ancestry to what is now the United States, and the origins of its immigrants have changed many times in American history. Despite the identity of an immigrant nation, changes in the origins of immigrants have often been met with resistance. What began with white, western European settlers fleeing religious persecution morphed into a multicultural nation as immigrants from countries across the globe came to the U.S. in increasing numbers. Like the colonial immigrants before them, these new immigrants sailed to the Americas to gain freedom, flee poverty and famine, and make a better life for themselves. Forgetting their origins as persecuted and excluded people, the older and more established immigrants became possessive about their country and tried to exclude and persecute the immigrant groups from non-western European backgrounds arriving in the U.S. This hostile, defensive, and xenophobic reaction to influxes of “new” immigrants known as Nativism was not far out of the mainstream. Nativism became a part of the American cultural and political landscape and helped to shape, through exclusion, the face of the United States for years to come.
Without a doubt, the European continent has been through a lot over the last few decades. From World War 2, to the iron grip of Soviet Russia on half of the continent, many problems have arisen and been dealt with. Unfortunately, Europe has had a rough few years when it comes to the somewhat newer issue of immigration and immigrant groups. While some countries have managed immigration better than others, nations such as France and Italy have had their fair share of problems and continue to pass legislation that is flawed and draws criticism from other countries. The issue has gotten better in recent years, and various European countries have made great progress towards their immigration policies. In addition, various ethnic groups have been the target of government profiling and discrimination. Most notably the Romani people, who have faced discrimination for hundreds of years and continue to do so at the hands of various Eastern and Western European governments. The many setbacks and gains towards immigration are more clearly visible when looked at on a case-by-case basis, such as the individual policies of Italy, France, and the European Union as a whole.
Many people in the UK coupled with media stories, tend to portray asylum seekers as bogus individuals who are here purely for economic gains (Teater 2014). This has led organisations such as Refugee councils and Refugee Action
The distance between the new arrivals and the natives fosters a sense of distrust on both ends. However, the concern that the growing population of immigrants will compromise America’s national identity undermines our national reality. Historically, those who have willingly immigrated to the United States have had a desire to become part of American society, crossing borders and seas t...
Bloemraad, Irene. “The Debate Over Multiculturalism: Philosophy, Politics, and Policy.” www.migrationpolicy.org. September 22, 2011. Web.
Banting noted that some Canadians fear multiculturalism will bring, “…challenges to historic cultures, anxieties about Islam, and fears about insecurity,” (797). As people migrate from one cultural or religious backgrounds, maintaining the identity of the host country becomes difficult. Young children born interact with the immigrants and they could easily emulate foreign cultures thereby putting the historic cultural identity of Canadians at risk of erosion. Winter Elke warned that multiculturalism is changing to give too much preference to the immigrants thereby risking it to become a minority affair (638). Therefore, the relationship between national the majority of Canadians and immigrants need rethinking. Erosion of other cultures as immigrants introduce new ways or adapt to the cultures of the host county (Canada). Furthermore, education of the immigrants could face challenges if they experience difficulty settling in Canada. Given that immigrants later work in Canada, the human resource sector faces a new challenge of managing a diversified workforce, which can create headache for Canadian employers. Banting indicated that there is, “a strong sense that multiculturalism policies have “failed” a reaction that is strongest perhaps in the Netherlands, but is felt in many other countries as well,” (797). Such assertions only fuel resentment towards
Though the United States is home to many immigrants, controversy surrounds the issue of immigrants in the United States. The United States in a melting pot of various backgrounds and cultures, yet it is hard for all to merge into acceptance of one another. The first chapter of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and class covers stratification, prejudice and discrimination, and inequality.
The mention of the abolition of multiculturalism for a “new” post-multiculturalist approach becomes difficult to understand. It claims, “to avoid the ‘excesses’ of multiculturalism” (47), however where does this notable governmental and social switch take place? How is the term coined, and how is it understood in theory versus in practice? How is it different from its predecessor? Even the classification of history struggles to define what is considered to be modern, let alone post-modern, and yet the term suggests a positive approach to alleviating difficult assimilation projects similar to those faced elsewhere (47). This notion may developed on the grounds of “someone else’s problems” ¬– in regards to its Canadian context – as a means to label, or justify, miscellaneous aspects of multiculturalism. However, with the government-wide commitment to policies and programs, in conjunction with social understanding, it naturally becomes subject to a wide array of differing opinions. As both immigration and citizenship policies change, its public reception often shifts as well. Especially since the channels referred to within the ‘multiculturalism...
Multiculturalism vs Assimilation America is a place where many cultures and races co-exist, so there are many different opinions and beliefs. Of course there is bound to be tension and misunderstandings, which unfortunately escalates (in some cases) into violence that we hear about in the media. So what is the solution? Should we all assimilate to one standard or should we recognize our individual cultures and consider ourselves multicultural? The answer is not an easy one to define.
America has had discrimination against minorities for a long time and it will continue to have it until people treat minorities with respect. Discrimination is when people treat minorities bad because of their skin color, ethnicity and the place they were born. For immigrants, the problems they had to arrive in America were not a good experience only by the struggle to gain acceptance among the population. Most immigrants came to the U.S. to have a better life and give education to their children. Almost all immigrants have experienced discrimination at some point in their life and even some are still experiencing it today. Most Latinos don’t have a choice but to deal with it when they get discriminated because they know they are illegal.
More than half of people living in low-income households in London are from ethnic minorities. This is as a result of the high proportion of people from ethnic minorities in London who are in low income combined with the high proportion of the total population in London who are from ethnic minorities. Statistics show that black or minority ethnics (BME) only 20% of the white population live in poverty while people with ethnic origin show much greater numbers. 30% for Indians and Black Caribbean's, 50% for Black Africans, 60% for Pakistanis, 70% for Bangladeshis. The proportion of BME’s in low-income households declined during the late 1990s up to the early 2000s but has been rising since then (Browne, K. et al 2009). It should be noted that the proportion of ethnic people in poverty between 2008 and 2009 was lower than that of a decade previously, however the drop was not large enough to make a significant difference.The effect of this is mostly felt by single mothers, pensioners, children and refugees who Murray (1994) refers to as a new “sub-underclass”. Statistics gathered by JRF show that over half of Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Black African children in the UK are growing up in poverty with a staggering 70% of Bangladeshi children growing up poor (Davies, Hugh; Joshi, Heather 1998). Majority of these immigrants have come to Britain in order to find work however statistics...
It would be nice to allow people to adhere to their own styles, but doing that excludes them from the already existing nation’s practices. On the other hand, requiring immigrants to completely conform to society, will result in taking away all of their beliefs. According to Malik, “‘multicultural’ has come to define both a society that is particularly diverse, usually as a result of immigration, and the policies necessary to manage such a society” (22). With the immigration that European nations have faced, there is undoubtedly diverse culture present, but the policy aspect of that multicultural definition still needs to be redefined in order to create a balance between diversity and inclusion within