THE CHALLENGE OF DIVERSITY


           THE CHALLENGE OF DIVERSITY

The United States is continuing the process of becoming a multi-ethnic society. That is why in the country of San Francisco alone, the school children speak more than 45 languages in addition to English. The United States of future will be even more ethnically and culturally diverse than it is today. There will be more Asians and Hispanics. Public opinion in the United States is divided on the issue of multiculturalism. Some support it because it will make the nation stronger, and others argue that it will destroy the nation like the former Yugoslavia. Then the specific issues to be discussed in the rest of the article have been identified.

Immigration policy is the most important determiner of ethnic and cultural diversity in the United States. Between 1921 and 1965, U.S. policy kept the numbers of immigrants from Europe. The realization, in the 1960s, that racial minorities in the United States suffered discrimination led Congress to reconsider the racially based immigration laws. In 1965, significant changes were made to the immigration law that favored Europeans, accepting non-Europeans and preferring the recent immigrants’ close relatives to reunify the family. Adjustments made later to the 1965 immigration law increased the number of people allowed to settle in the United States. Immigration policy from 1965 to 2000 caused a considerable increase in immigration and changed its ethnic character. The new laws eliminated the earlier obstacles to immigration from Asia and Latin America. And there was an enormous increase in the proportion of immigrants from these countries.

In U.S. history, many new groups of immigrants have been met with hostility due to fear. It is a common belief that immigrants damage the U.S. economy because the immigrants are ready to work at low wages, and the employers employ them making the native-born persons unnecessary. Next, they take more from the state than they contribute to it. A research has given contradictory answers to the question of whether immigrants help or hurt the U.S. economy. Because immigrants tend to live in ethnic neighbourhoods and continue speaking their native language, immigration opponents claim that they are unwilling to really become part of U.S. society.

Because ethnic neighborhoods helped the assimilation of earlier European immigrants, we can reasonably assume that today’s ethnic neighborhoods will do the same for today’s immigrants. Research on language shift shows that first-generation immigrants may continue to use their native languages but that their children or grandchildren will be native speakers of English. If people ignore the fact that assimilation and language shift take time, they may wrongly conclude that today’s immigrant families will not become part of American society. There is already evidence that contemporary immigrants like the earlier European arrivals, are assimilating into U.S. society.

Although some fears about immigrants are unjustified, there are problems associated with it. First, it is a risk to cause bitterness and resentment among poor unemployed Americans if nothing is done for them but at the same time large numbers of immigrants are admitted. Secondly, immigrants tend to settle in a limited number of areas can cause economic problems in those communities. Thirdly, media reports about the number of illegal immigrants are probably causing an increase in anti-immigrant feelings in the United States. Hostility and resentment toward immigrants have caused problems between immigrants and native-born Americans in the past and could do so again.

The United States needs to take at least three steps to ease the way to a multi-ethnic society. First, education and training programs are needed so that members of the underclass can advance socially and economically. Secondly, the federal government should provide adequate financial support for those regions where immigrants tend to settle. Thirdly, illegal immigration can be reduced by increased border security and better identification of companies that employ illegal immigrants. The solutions suggested will give cultural understanding and tolerance time to grow and will help create a more integrated society.

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