Immigration – Part 1 – Assimilation
Immigrants are attracted to a host country for many reasons:
- To escape persecution and violence
- To escape poverty
- To flee terrible wars
- To flee horrendous conditions
- Because they are attracted to the ethos, politics or climate
Once living there do they have an imperative to integrate?
Should they adopt the language, morality, dress code, culture and ‘ways’ of the host country so that they fit in?
Many of the endemic population find it infuriating when these ‘foreigners’ come into their midst and refuse to integrate. It seems absurd to see people struggling through the cold and rain of an English winter wearing clothing suited for equatorial desert regions. They become infuriated when large towns are taken over so that the historic culture is displaced, churches are turned into mosques and temples and people speak ‘foreign’ languages. It feels like an invasion.
So should these immigrants give up their religion, culture and morality and adopt that of the host nation?
Some think they should. They feel easier with immigrants who wear western clothes, talk with a British accent, go to the pub and are not praying at the mosque or temple.
Mind you, there is a double-standard at work here. These same people would be the most likely to set up ex-pat communities abroad.
If people assimilated all Americans would be living in tepees or pueblos or log cabins, worshipping nature and hunting buffalo or growing corn and speaking Iroquois. The British Raj wouldn’t have left a trail of polo and cricket clubs, Gentlemen’s clubs and commissions and they’d all be speaking Hindi and worshipping Krishna. There wouldn’t be enclaves of British pubs and fish and chip shops in Spain and all the Brits would be Catholic.
Or is there one rule for us and another for them?
So is there an obligation to assimilate?