Multiculturalism And The American Dream

As a flourishing country, the United States of America has been a recurring land of hope and prosperity for immigrants. These foreigners may have been looking for religious freedom, job opportunities, escape from economic and environmental problems, shelter from war, or simply a fresh start at life. With immigration becoming larger and larger as every years passes, with it comes reasons for more legislation and new trends that are contributed by the different array of people who come together in the crucible that is the United States. The nationality or ethnicity of the immigrants vary from the Germans, Irish, Mexicans, Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese. While there are many cases of immigrants to the United States, they are not always honest, there is always the issues of illegal immigration, that is believed to threaten the American society, “Americans perceived that the large number of immigrants from ethnically, religiously, and culturally different places

Culture is the Backbone of a society, when something/someone tries to alter it or go against it everyone will notice. In this issue pointed out by Ruth Macklin, we look at the problems that can arise when an individual’s culture and autonomy clash. Every year there at least 30 million immigrants from all over the world that move to the United states of America, making America one of the most culturally diverse country in the world. Keeping this in mind, we will focus on Ruth Macklin’s issue of Multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is the co-existence of diverse cultures, where culture includes racial, religious, or cultural groups and is manifested in customary behaviors, cultural assumptions and values, patterns of thinking, and communicative styles. Critics argue that we associate culture with a society, community and or family, but rarely with a single individual, thus placing it above the individual person. In this paper we are going to look at four different scenarios on from Ruth Macklin’s article.

Individuals are trying to achieve the American Dream, but they cannot achieve it because of who they are and what they believe in. Prejudice and racism has affected the American Dream in a detrimental way. Racism prevents people from achieving their dream because of inequality. Individuals believe that they should be able to praise whatever religion they want and that they should be able to act in their personality. They shouldn’t be judged based upon who they are.

We live in a society that has prospered generously over the years. America has opened its doors for so many different people by establishing itself as a free country. Not only have we progressed in technology and economically but we have created our own identity by becoming a free nation in which every individual has the same rights and eligibility as the other. This is the core of our countries success; we are not a nation unified distinctly by a specific race, religion or culture but by the compulsive efforts of our nation’s laws to uphold freedom in every aspect of a civilian’s life. People are not only allowed but encouraged to practice the religion of their choice, eat the food they desire, speak the language they prefer. There is even freedom in the most minute of things such as being able to listen to the music of your choice, these are the laws that promote diversity and strengthen our nation today. Our nation’s identity and prosperity is built upon multiculturalism and ethnic tolerance. However, this was not always the case it has taken many long and brutal years become the stable and versatile country that we are today. Specifically dating back to when this land was first founded and thereafter we see our nation has struggled with conflicts against politics, discrimination, and public affairs up till this very day.

America is largely made up of immigrants, and thus it is referred to by many as an immigrant’s nation. The rise in immigrants of the first generation and those of second or third generation is changing the demographics of the United States each day. Duncan and Stephen observe that about “a quarter of U.S. residents are either first-generation immigrants or the second-generation children of immigrants” (109). Most of these immigrants move to the country with the aim of achieving the American dream through career success. We would like to believe that the nation follows through with its American ideology that immigrants are welcomed with open arms, and they will have economic opportunities. However, the process of integration and assimilation of these immigrants has for long been a common debate question. The immigration waves into the United States have occurred in several waves over the past years. In the earlier years, most of the immigrants were from Europe and their assimilation was rather smooth. But, the recent wave of immigrants groups prevalently from Asia and Latin America do not face similar acceptance and open arms as their predecessors.

In the last few decades, the American have become proud of the American Dream, which they believe in coming true, as one working hard now will have a glossy life in the future. However, there is a wonder whether the American is living in the American Dream while the inequality still exists in American society. To get the answer, there are two helpful articles: “What Ever Happened to Upward Mobility?” by Rana Foroohar and “The Trouble with Diversity” by Walter Benn Michaels. These articles talk about and give the ideas to solve that wonder in different ways. In his article, Michaels shows economic inequality has the common factors as the racism in somehow, and now it becomes more popular. He says the difference between the rich and the

The United States of America has long been known as an immigrant’s country. It is a melting pot of all different races, ethnicities, and nationalities. However, the time elapsed between the foundation of America and now has led to the development of the American identity. American nationalism has changed the scope and parameters of who is truly “American,” and who is welcomed in America. The United States is no longer a country of immigrants, it is a country filled with citizens of diverse heritage, but they all identify as an American. This poses a problem for those who still wish to immigrate to America. It is still described as a place where there is a possibility of an “American Dream,” and where anyone can become anything.

LeAna B. Gloor’s From the Melting Pot to the Tossed Salad Metaphor provides a look into different opinions about multiculturalism in America. Gloor is an urban planner based in Hawaii, and attended the University of Hawaii at Hilo. The essay was published in the fourth volume of the University’s academic journal, Hohonu. Gloor’s main claim is that multiculturalism is a positive part of American life and forcing those who do not conform to social norms to become more “American” is bad for the country and against its values, saying, “If this trend away from multiculturalism continues and coercive assimilation views become mainstream in America, I believe we will stifle our creative power and squelch the civil liberties that this country was built on” (1).

Rarely do these entities attempt to introduce new, more accurate points of view on cultural relations. The media’s recycling of present cultural attitudes stagnates cultural relations in America. Although we have seen progress in our country’s legislation granting suffrage to blacks and women and various other civil rights measures, our attitudes towards multiculturalism today are not far removed from popular attitudes during the reconstruction era.

Immigrants come to america all the time with the idea of a better life and a new start.The American dream is something everyone wants but not something everyone can achieve.

America is a prime example of liberty that laid the foundation for multiculturalism. Ever since the discovery of the new world, America has always been a melting pot as immigrants from all parts of the world come to America. They come to seek a better life while inadvertently cultivating the area around them. For an example, in the diary, “Of Plymouth Plantation,” by William Bradford, a group of puritans who journey to the Americas struggle to survive during the cold and harsh winter. Luckily, they meet an indian called Squanto, who readily teaches them survival skills and make peace with hostile indians. Most immigrants don’t immediately make a positive impact and are shunned upon for their poor communication and lack of social norm. However, assimilation will always eventually happen and is tenacious to America and will perpetuate as different cultures intertwine into what we know of today as an “American”.

Cultural diversity, or multiculturalism, is based on the idea that cultural identities should not be discarded or ignored, but rather maintained and valued. The foundation of this belief is that every culture and race has made a substantial contribution to American history. However, many people remain opposed to the idea of multiculturalism, or cultural diversity awareness, while others often support it and yet have no clear idea of how it should be taught. The diversity of the United States is truly astounding, as many different ethnic and racial groups have contributed to the social,

The increasing accommodations directed toward immigrant culture worries many Americans. Americans fear the special treatment granted to immigrants will affect the unifying force of the country. Today, the trend is toward multiculturalism, diversity and adapting the newcomer, rather than on the newcomer adapting himself or herself to a diverse society (61).

Multiculturalism is also known as ethnic diversity relating to communities containing multiple cultures. The term is used in two different broad ways, descriptively and normatively. By using the descriptive term, we usually refer to the simple fact of cultural diversity. This can be applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place and sometimes at the organizational level such as schools, neighborhoods or nations. The normative term is often referred to ideologies or politics that promote this diversity or its institutionalization. The United States have been a magnet for people all over the globe, searching for a better life and bringing their own culture and traditions to a new vast country. No

Multiculturalism is the occurrence of multiple cultures within one society, fundamentally due to the influx of immigrant societies, or the approval and encouragement of this occurrence. Many people have different views of multiculturalism. The people who have a negative view towards multiculturalism tend to argue against the uniting of a wide range of different cultures, races and faiths, in their points of view multiculturalism would be seen as a “mosaic” form, which tends to occur more likely in the US than in Europe, as it would fundamentally mean that they are putting races, religions and cultures into different groups, however they are not uniting as one society, another word for that would be integration. Whereas, the people that agree