Immigrants; is integration required?
In the past individual immigrants were forced to integrate into their host country to survive, language and culture were adopted and they were adopted into the land. With the modern influx of Immigrants and/or refugees that come in swathes of thousands, they now have the ability to create small communities. New immigrants join these communities because they share culture and language.
Should they be encouraged or even forced to integrate into their host country's culture and language or should they have the right to actively maintain their cultural identity, completely independent of the host country's culture? I live in Canada, it's ever present but not talked about here.
Please let me know your opinion, don't worry about being labeled based on your thoughts, that would be arbitrary and inappropriate
Hello :) that is a great topic to discuss!
I think there are both good and bad things in only being encouraged to integrate and also both good and bad things in being forced to integrate.
As an immigrant myself, coming to Germany I was forced to Integrate into German culture. My brother and I were sent to an intensive german program where we learned the language in 6 months before being sent to german schools.
Getting to german school was either integrate culturally or die (you know highschool), also the schools system was completely different, if we wanted to graduate we HAD to adapt.
This was good because now, 5 years later, I speak fluent german and genuinely like german culture (in general) it has a way of making me feel kind of at home.
That being said, the argument you mentioned of now there being small communities so people don't HAVE to integrate to a new culture makes a lot of sense, and I have also seen very closely how people around me (and close friends) live that way.
Having the possibility of finding a community you belong to in another country is priceless and probably makes life at the moment way easier. But then because people are so comfortable they will never go out of their way to actually expand their knowledge learning a new language or interacting with another culture. I think that is a real shame.
But then again there isn't always a community you belong at, and even if there were, chances are not every person can afford international schools (which are very pricy). So then again in the end you are forced to integrate.
great comment, thank you. I never thought about the effect of the community, allowing you to feel more at home but it must be a very big comfort. Looking in from outside however it could be perceived as a neglect of the host country's culture, that's certainly my perspective. You have a great point and if both camps were to understand these perspective and if we create a dialogue maybe we could make progress in stead of no one taking about it and it eventually creating an explosion of blame and anger. That's how it is in Ontario at least.