[quote=“porcelainprincess”][quote=“wolf_reinhold”]
There is no way you can compare a country where 99 percent of the people are ethnic Chinese to the US where it is a melting pot of peoples and languages. The United States is the only country where you can become an American. [/quote]
Erm…I might want to add Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and, to a slightly lesser degree, Great Britain and France. No need to wear the ugly American parochial blinders on this forum.[/quote]
I don’t know about figures but there are certainly areas of Bradford and probably other British cities where the majority of people are of South Asian ethnicity.
Wolf said that it is only in America that immigrants can become the people of the new country, become U.S. Americans in that case. Like Maoman and Porcelain Princess, I would extend that to at least the other countries mentioned above. I know a lot of Asian and black people who consider themselves British and who are considered so by the vast majority of white British people they know; this includes both first and subsequent generations (probably the most significant immigration in terms of numbers took place in the 50s and 60s).
But I think it’s interesting that only Britain and perhaps Canada as well have taken seriously the concept of multiple identities. Especially among South Asians, many people feel that they have both British and South Asian cultural identity. Let us be clear what this means. In terms of citizenship, they are certainly British. That is, they vote, they pay taxes, they participate very actively in the economy and would support the country in times of crisis. But many also see themselves as having South Asian cultural identity in terms of family structure, religion and custom. The two identities are not contradictory and I feel that diversity benefits both local areas and Britain as a whole. This attitude is reflected in governmental policies which although at times are lumbering and clumsy, do a good job on the whole.
This is in contrast to many other countries with significant immigrant populations, which see assimilation as a goal. Examples are the USA and France. It seems that in these countries, some kind of minimising or forgetting of the original culture is a goal. Of course immigrants’ customs and culture have not died out and are thriving, but this seems to be despite the prevailing attitude held by everybody - government, ‘native’ population and immigrant population together - that assimilation is the only worthy goal. A Taiwanese friend studying in the UK told me that he knew quite a few ‘ABCs’ who were snooty towards him and certainly did not want to think about any shared culture they might have had. On this forum, Blueface666 was outspoken about ‘hyphenated’ Americans but it seems many people share his view that one is either ‘American’ or not. The French government and perhaps many French people seem to be wary of cultural diversity and I’m not quite sure whether the recent ban on headscarf wearing (and overt display of any religious symbols) in schools is really out of concern for human rights or for other, less tolerant reasons.
I don’t want to make a big thing of this. I think that there can be advantages to both approaches and I’m sure it’s arguable that some immigrants to the US feel more accepted by and really a part of the host culture than do some immigrants to the UK. But on the whole, I feel that acceptance of multiple identities can make a country and its people stronger and more mature. There seems to be some fear in host countries that immigrants are not really loyal citizens and would run off somewhere if trouble started (with 2nd and subsequent generation immigrants, the question has to be asked; where would they run to?). Perhaps it is because of this fear that assimilation is promoted so fervently. I think that on the whole this fear is ungrounded and that the majority of legal immigrants to both assimilation-minded and diversity-tolerant countries are loyal and productive members of society. (I don’t know much about illegal immigrants and anyway that’s another subject.)