Multicultural society

Multicultural society

DEFINITION:

A multicultural society is a society where people of different races, cultures,traditions and religions live, work and communicate with each other with mutual respect for the benefit of all of them.

A multicultural society has a lot in common with migration. For years people have been moving from one part of the world to another to find a better place to live or reach their goals. Also these countries have opened their borders to refugees because of the International refugee law which aims to protect persons seeking asylum from persecution (E.g. those from totalitarian regimes). These countries have suferred from a lack of labour force so it seemed as a great solution for them to get it cheap, unfortunately they´ve forgotten about the possibility of becoming a minority in their own country by letting too much people from other cultures in their states.

Due to the migrations of different cultures and races, we now have our modern multicultural societies. We can devide them into ones where different groups of people live together in the same neighbourhood (mixed with the majority) and societies where different groups live in the same country but live in a neighbourhood with their ´own kind of people´ (in their own area).

PROS AND CONS OF MULTICULTURAL SOCIETIES:

Pros:

• A unified Europe, multicultural America and different integration processes support the idea of co-existence side by side, understanding each other´s customs and traditions, tolerating different attitudes, accepting different lifestyles, sharing our cultures to secure a happy and confident life for future generations.
• When people learn about different ways of life, it helps to break down barriers between ethnic groups which are caused by ignorance. Human beings have a tendency to be suspicious of cultures they do not understand. Living with different cultures brings a better understanding of world beliefs and cultures and helps to encourage religious and social tolerance and get rid of prejudices.
• It enriches people by offering different experiences, sharing different ideas, attitudes to life and support tolerance and understanding.
• We get to know new traditions, customs, music, fashion,...
• Multicultural education aims to prepare children for living in a multicultural society by giving them an understanding of the cultures and histories of different ethnic groups. Education is the only way to bring cross-cultural understanding and respect. The problem remains, however, that no matter how much a subject has been taught it will not be learned until the student is willing and able. This is why geographically based multicultural education is so important. It makes the concepts personal and real to the students, making them easier to accept.
• Labour force-cheap work of high quality.
• The immigrants can be talented , we can learn new languages from them and our society could help them to make bigger process and maybe they can even represent our country

Negative aspects = negative phenomena result from prejudices.

MINORITY FEELS THAT:

• One the negative side, cultural differences can be emphasized in order to divide a society. This can lead to prejudice and discrimination.
• There will always be people who think that their religion and culture is superior and right and that other beliefs and cultures are inferior and wrong. These people will try to stir up trouble in a multi-cultural society and will try to blame ethnic minorities for social and economic problems even when it is not true. This is called ethnocentrism.
• Ethnic minorities may suffer racial discrimination, social, religious and ethnic tension, prejudices from the majority and in education children from ethnic minority groups like refugees may not perform as well as they could, because they are in an unfamiliar environment.
• Sometimes imigrants are not able to adapt themselves in a new country, they can´t find a job or they are the first who are sacked.They feel they are treated in a dfferent way, they are underestimated.
• They are not accepted by the majority and feel threatened.
• can´t find any friends.

MAJORITY FEELS THAT:

• there is a danger of loss of their traditions,customs, fashion,...
• children won´t speak the language of their parents one day, because the majority might soon become a minority.
• The minority would be given more rights
• they might feel threatened by other cultures and might be scared of fights and killing, terorism.

The government have passed laws to promote racial integration in schools or at work and they support the integration of other ethnic groups in society giving them the rights and opportunities.

There is no place for segregation which encourages racial tensions and hatred.

Multiculturalism in Slovakia

In our country we are not used to people of different races and cultures, because until 1989 we were not an open society. It is changing: many foreigners with their customs and very different cultural backgrounds are coming to our country and we are getting used to the idea that it is very normal that people are of different skin colour.

Apart from Slovaks, the territory is inhabited by over half a million Hungarians in the south of Slovakia (if there is any hatred or tension it is caused by polticians both Hungarian and Slovak too-there are rows about dual citizenship, discrimination,....), along with smaller groups like the Ruthenians in the east.
One minority without a territory are the Romany. A rapidly rising birth rate among the Roma people means an increasingly important issue in Slovak politics and Slovakia is working hard to integrate them into society even though there are problems with their way of life. They start families very young. The sexual life is very early. They often have children very early. They cant look after on their children. Childrem grow in bad conditions. They live in houses which have holes in wall and it is very dirty and untidy. When thy get uneployed benefit they can spent in one day for alcohol, cigaretts. They dont buy any equipment for their children. They often borrow money.They get a lot of attention as they often say they are treated unfairly, don´t have the same rights, no job opportunities and underestimated by the majority and all this causes tension. Slovaks complain aswell that Romanies have priviledges, more advantages ansd rights. They steal, they are dirty and are agressive.There are number of projects, the government tries to intergrate the Romany into our society, but most of them failed. On the other hand, there are some well-educated Gypsies, also talented musicians, singers. They form ensembles and many of them became rich and famous, however most of them have difficulties to find a good job because of prejudices.Traditionally they are taught as horse traders, musicians, basket makers and fortune tellers.
At present the country faces the problem of Vietnamese guest workers and helps the refugees from Albania and Ukraine to continue their immigration process in newly built asylum houses.
A new phenomenon has appeared in Slovak traditions. More and more women get married to men of different religion and colour. There is still a certain amount of prejudice, but most young people are tolerant, without any prejudice.

COSMOPOLITAN COUNTRIES AND CITIES

AUSTRALIA
In Australia you can find people from many different countries and continents, who brought their traditions, traditionak meals and culture to their new homeland. They are respected by the majority society, they are proud of who they are and most of them love Australia. Big cities like Sydney or Melbourne have their China town, you can meet Indians, Pakistani or Lebanese, Thai, Japanese or people from Papua New Guinea.The customs and traditions are getting closer to each other sharing the best aspects of everything.

LONDON

London in the 21st century is the most diverse city. It is a huge, multicultural, cosmopolitan city with a population of over 7.5 million people. Over 300 languages are spoken by
people in London and has 50 nationalities populations over 10,000. London is a place of business. People come for job and money. The London people are not as friendly as some of other nationalities. But this has its advantages people leave you alone, and you are free to live your own life. Language is one reason; fluency in English is a great gift for one's children. Then there are the many refugees, who arrive expecting to return home, but find, over time, that home has come with them. "People don't treat you as a foreigner, but you feel it yourself,
Foreigners have been settling in Britain since beginning of the 20th century. Many immigrants came from West Indies, India and Pakistan. They were poor and out of work. Also Black and Asian people soon became a familiar sight in every city. But black immigrants have not had an easy time. Most of them had to take lowest paying jobs, and when there to be sacked. European societies used to be more uniform in their beliefs. Today, however, they are more diverse and are all multicultural societies.

Today about two million Muslims live in GB and their growing number has resulted in the establishment of more than 1500 mosques.The British Muslims celebrate, for example, Ramadan, which is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating and drinking during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and submissiveness to God.

The term ´Asian´ refers to all people with roots or family connections in the former British colonies of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Some are Hindus and others are Sikhs. These two groups celebrate the festival of Diwalli on November 6^th which is a festival of light. Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lampsfilled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil.

Also people from Africa immigrate to London especially from Nigeria who still might suffer from rasist comments. (Wayne Simmons hockey player-they threw a banana at his feet while he was playing)

NEW YORK
New York is as cosmopolitan as London but is not as mixed. Nationalities stay in their own communities, like the Russians in the Russian section, the Germans in the German section. Polish people settled down in a cosmopolitan district of Chicago. Harlem has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center.

It si called a melting pot, because everyone is there as a foreigner. It is the country of opportunities. They welcome talented people, who would represent their country, also hard-working people offering them opportunities, but you must deserve it. You can become rich and fasmous and successful, but you have to try very hard.

You are free to express your own opinion, celebrate your own holidays and wear you traditional clothes, you can do everything, but life there is more stressful and difficult, because you have to deserve the money.

New York is the most populous city in the United States, with an estimated 8,244,910 residents as of 2011The city's population in 2010 was 44% white (33.3% non-Hispanic white), 25.5% black (23% non-Hispanic black), and 12.7% Asian. The New York City metropolitan area is home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel.[138] It is also home to nearly a quarter of the nation's Indian Americans and 15% of all Korean Americans[139][140] and the largest Asian Indian population in the Western Hemisphere; the largest African American community of any city in the country; and including 6 Chinatowns in the city proper,[141] comprised as of 2010 a population of 649,989 overseas Chinese,[142] the largest outside of Asia. New York City alone, according to the 2010 Census, has now become home to more than one million Asian Americans,
The area of a city where many Chinese people live and where you can find many Chinese shops and restaurants is called Chinatown. In cities such as San Francisco, New York and London the Chinatown street signs are in Chinese as well as English.

America has always been a melting pot in which many diverse cultures are mixed together and have been transformed into a single great American culture in the end. The USA prefers the process of assimilation or social integration and so they encourage immigrants to take pride in America and become ´Americanized´, but they can keep their own traditions at home, speak their language at home, practice any religion they like.

African-American people often complain about them being discriminated. They live in ghettos.

FRANCE

Paris is home to a varied population. A high proportion of students, young workers and elderly people, many tourists and a large number of foreign residents: a genuine cultural wealth. More than two million people live in Paris. Today, Parisians account for 19.3% of the population of the Paris region.

North and West Africans: the immigration of these two groups has been substantially reducedby a tightening of the borders engineered by successive French governments. In the 1990s, immigrants from North Africa and West Africa came mostly through family reunification (women and children coming to live with their husband or father already living in France). An unknown number of North Africans and West Africans have also come illegally outside of these reunifications. Although some have been deported back to Africa, most of these illegal immigrants are still in France.

Chinese people: Although Paris has had a Chinese community for over a century, immigration has increased steadily in recent decades.llegal immigration is also a concern.

Eastern Europeans, a significant proportion from Romania, a group on the rise since the fall of the Berlin Wall

A huge problem is the Islamization of Paris. French government want to get tough with Muslims and ban the burqa, other parts of the French government continue to give Islam a privileged status. Now they are supposed to follow French laws and everyone has to have French nationality. They block streets while they are praying and private security has to keep peace and avoid conflicts in the streets and they are not willing to do it only at home or in mosques, they want to do it in the streets. France was expecting Islam to adapt to France, now Islam expects France to adapt to them.

IMMIGRANTS

A multicultural society has a lot in common with migration. For years people have been moving from one part of the world to another to find a better place to live or reach their goals.

They can be refugees and guest workers too. Some migration is for personal reasons, based on a relationship (e.g. to be with family or a partner), such as in family reunification or transnational marriage (especially in the instance of a gender imbalance).

Integration of immigrants is successful only when they merge into the mass, when others respect their cultural identity, when they are respected as such and when their differences are recognised as a source of enrichment for society.

Immigrants must make their lives outside the frontiers, languages and systems of exchangethat previously sustained them. Practices develop on the basis of this loss. As a result of this distance, they form certain perceptions of all they come to miss:tradition runs into an imaginary remembered world. The places that have been lost become fictional areas of mouring and contemplation of the past.

However, adaption to another area causes former references points to be fragmented. Fragments of ritual and etiquette, ways of dressing and cooking, customs of gift-giving, etc. are detached from the context of which they formed part and are never integrated into a whole. They no longer have a language to unite them or to symbolize them, they no longer form an individual history which might have emerged from the dissolution of a collective memory. Those fragments no longer form the social, professional, administrative or family life. Religious traditions have a decisive influence. Certain gestures, anniversaries or perfumes may play a vital role in people´slives and labours.

The attitude to be adopted towards immigrants is one of the most controversial questions faced by many societies. Assimilation is consideredby many as divestment of themselves, of their culture and walking naked into a strange new world. The way to achieve democratic solutions is to combine the defence of identity with integration. The idea is to integrate their cultural heritage and desire to participate and resolving to take free, responsibleand creative action.

The path of eventual consensus can emerge only from mutual recognition on the level of acceptibility. Only a real discussion, in which convictions are permitted to be elevated above conventions will be able to state, will become universals recognised by all the persons concerned-representatives of all culture.

TRADITIONS

UK:
St. Valentine´s Day – February 14th- It is lovers´day. Friends and lovers sen done another letters of greeting cards expressing their love and affection. Some of them are romantic, humorous, sentimental, satiric or provoking.
The first Valentine was a bishop, a Christian martyr, murdered by Romans. Before he was put to death he sent a note of friendship to his jailer´s daughter.
All Fools´Day – April 1st – Day full of jockes and tricky. People play tricks on other people and then they shout „April Fool“
Easter- between March and April. Easter is a Christian festival, it is also a welcome spring holiday.
Good Friday is the Friday before Easter, It is the anniversary of Christ´s crucification.
Easter Sunday commemorates the Resurrection of Jesus. Easter eggs, symbolizing new life, are given as present.

Halloween – is celebrated in October 31st. People dress up funny costumes(ghosts, devils, fairies) and go to a party. Children light pumpkins. People tell tales about ghosts and witches. This tradition marks beginning of winter.

Guy Fawkes Day – November 5th. I tis celebrated with bonfires, fireworks and the burning of guys made of straw. Guy Fawkes was an English Catholic. He tried to destroy the Houses of Parliament with a bomb. He was arrested and executed.
Christmas – December 24th. Special Christmas decorations, coloured lights and Christmas trees can be seen in the streets and shops. Christmas carols are sung almost everywhere. People buy presents. Children hang up Christmas stockings at the end of their beds for Santa Claus and then they go to bed. In the morning children get up early to find presents. Christmas dinner consists of filled turkey and Christmas pudding.
New Year´s Day – January 1st – people sing and dance. Famous place for this event is Trafalgar square.

USA
Thanskgiving Day is celebrated on the last Thursday in November. People celebrate their first harvest and the first people who came to America (Pilgrim fathers). These days families in USA meet together and they have a big dinner which consists of roast turkey.
Independence Day – July 4th – The Declaration of Independence was signed. People do not go to work and meet together.

St. Patrick´s Day

SLOVAKIA
In Slovakia we celebrate Easter holidays, Mother’s day, Father’s day, New Year, Christmas, Good Friday…... Events in Slovakia are very traditional. When two people get married they have a wedding. We have many family celebrations such birthdays, name days, school leaving celebrations and many others.
Some holidays are connected with our history. For example:
The Day of the Estamblishment of Slovak Republic –1.1
The Day of St.methodius and Cyrils – 5.7
The Anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising –SNP-29.8
The Day of the Slovak Constitution-1.9-Ustava
The Day of the fight for the freedom and democracy-17.11
Our Lady of Sorrows-15.9

Tradition of holiday are connected with religion. Christmas: Every year we look forward to Christmas. Christmas is celebrated in other countries as well, with each nation keeping its own customs and folk traditions. About a month before the Christmas holidays Christmas decorations start appearing in the stores. Cristmas is a holiday of calm and peace. All the shops an department stores are overfilled with people. Four weeks before Christmas Eve (December 24th)begins advent. People make or buy an Advent wreath (veniec) with four candles. On each of the four Sundays during Advent, a new candle is lit. Children have a special calendar. It is usually made of paper and it has twenty four windows. Every day, the children opens a window to find a picture or piece of chocolate. Traditionally, during the time of Advent,women are very busy cleaning the house, cooking and baking. On December 6th we celebrate St. Nicholas Day. In some families, the children polish their shoes and leave them behind the window for St. Nicholas to fill it with candy and small present. In some villages, angels and devils walk from house to house on the evening befor St Nicholas Day and give presents to the children who have behaved well. Parents warn their children throughout the year that if they misbehave, they will be taken away by the devil on St. Nicholas day. In most families, it has become a tradition to have a Christmas tree. The whole families, decorates the tree with chocolate candies, gingerbread, candles and Christmas ornaments. Christmas dinner starts around 6:00 pm. We usually have fish soup or soup with sauerkraut, sausages, deep fried carp with potato salat and for desert.

We have apples as symbol of health, wafles with honey, nuts. After dinner comes the best part of the day: opening the presents. Our whole family comes together by the Christmas tree where we give each other presents while listening to Christmas carolls, singing and talking. The most popular Christmas carol is „Silent Night“. Some people have a tradition of going to church later in the evening for a midnight mass. Christmas is connected with birth of Jesus.

The second most celebrated religious holiday is Easter which we celebrate in early spring. On Easter Monday, all men and boys go from house to house and playfully whip the women with a stick made of woven willows. The men also pour cold water on the women so that they will stay young and beautiful throughout the following year. The women, in return, give the men decorated eggs or money. The eggs are symbols of new life and spring. Easter is connected with resouraction of Jesus. Meals: hart boiled egg, smoked ham special bread, cakes. There are 40 days of lent.

In the Slovak Republic, we celebrate many public holidays, e.g. New Years Eve. We call it „Silvester“ and we usually celebrate the begining of the new year with our families or friends. Everyones dances, sings, and enjoys the last hours of the year. At midnight, everyone drinks champagne and toasts (pripíjať si) for happiness and prosperity in the new year, hoping that it will be better than the previous year. We continue celebrating until early in the morning and we come home tired. Many people make New Years resolutions promising themselves to give up bad habits in the following year.

Other public holidays: 1st May – holiday of working, 8th May – the day of the liberation and the end of WWII, 5th July – the day of St. Cyril nad St. Metod.

Family celebrations: Some of the most festive Family celebrations are birthdays, name days, baptisms, weddings, anniversaries. These are events which we often celebrated with our whole family. We also have more unfortunate reasons for coming together, for example at funerals.

Folk art: It survives in villages and folk groups or quiers. It is connected with clothes – in Lendak they still wear this traditional costumes. Lúčnica, Čačina, Sľuk, they perform folk dances and songs. They play on fujara, dulcimer (cimbal). Typical decoration like crochery (čipky) embroidery (výšivka) wood craft (drevorezba).

Way of life: Typical for us is family – quite common 2-3.There live 2 generations (ch + p). Both parents work – women want to make a career. Evenings people spend together.

CHOICE OF MARRIAGE PARTNER

Nowadays, in most of societies it is a matter of INDIVIDUAL CHOICE- people meet, fall in love, get married.

Pros:

-we are married to someone who we love, we want to live with and have children with.

Cons:

-we may become disappointed by the partner we`ve chosen, and since no strict religion prohibits us to divorce, then we feel free to leave our partners and find someone else rather than solve our problems. 

However, there are societies where (especially where the Hindu religion is well-established) ARRANGED MARRIAGES are the norm-in this case parents choose their child`s marriage partner.

Pros:

-in the past it was popular amongst the upper class, because wealthy parents wanted to ensure that their family wealth was not diluted by their child`s 'inappropriate' marriage.

Cons:

-we marry to someone we barely know, we don`t love.

-this type of marriage might lead to unhappiness.

MIXED MARRIAGES

Pros:

• you are given more opportunities to get to know new traditions, culture when you have someone in like that in your family. It´s not the same when you read about the culture and when you live with someone like that under one roof.
• It enriches them, because they share both lifestyles a choose features that would fit them and what would bother them which might be sometimes a disadvantage too.
• Children live bilingually- learn more languages since their birth
• they can choose where they want to live+have more opportunities to travel, see the world while visiting their relatives in a complete different world.
• Their life is more colourful.
• Their children are brought up in a way to be more understanding, tolerant, etc.

Cons:

• they might have difficluties in understanding and accepting each other´s lifestyles.
• Misunderstandings may occur.
• They are forced to live the way they have to.
• In many religions women have no rights and work at home as slaves. They have to obey their husbands commands and can´t disagree.
• For children it is difficult to choose to which nationality should they belong. Who they feel they. That they belong to their nationality of their mother of father.
• Have problems to choose a religion.

ARRANGED X LOVE MARRIAGE

Marriage is still undertaken as a commitment for the rest of your life-choosing to marry is one of the most important decisions you willever make.

Arranged

WHERE: in Asia, especially in India and Arabic countries. Now they occur in Britain too, predominantly within the Asian community of course.

REASONS:

-the motivation for parents is the preservation of family hanour, desire to strengthen family links and for them family pressure is a prevention of relationships considered unsuitable.

-to choosea proper partner in terms of family background, wealth and education. (upholding the status of the family)

-to find a spouse before the temptation of sex outside marriage.

ADVATAGES

-lower divorce rates (even with such serious motivations as domestic violence)

-the fear of being left single forever is minimized, because there is a sense of security that everyone is married off one day.

-in the past it was popular amongst the upper class, because wealthy parents wanted to ensure that their family wealth was not diluted by their child`s 'inappropriate' marriage.

DISADVANTAGES:

-they won´t be prepared for the day-to-day reality of marriage life.Sometimes you get to know them before, but it´s still not enough if the girl wants a marriage based on love.

-you barely know your prospective spouse

-society scares most parents into arranging an early marriage which is a disaster.

-they feel like being driven off to be sold.

FORCED MARRIAGES:

-it means marrying against your will, using either emotional or physical means.

-violate internationally recognised rights and may be viewed as a way of oppressing women by controlling their behaviour and sexuality.

CONSEQUENCES:

-can be stuck in a unhappy marriage where they feel they cannot separate.

-might feel isolated and depressed which can even lead to suicide.