The Benefits of Multiculturalism

Here is a lovely article about the benefits of multiculturalism. If you do not feel inclined to read it it basically says multiculturalism is good because it:

• Increases immigration
• Introduces new ideas
• Brings new types of food
• Brings new sports
• Enhances national unity
• Prevents your country from being boring
• Increases general creativity

They also mention that sometimes if the newcomers have differing values it can cause stress within society, but that's probably not important.

I will say here, that I am not a fan of anything, multiculturalism included, simply for the sake of it. If I do not see a compelling reason for it I am not going to be interested. So let's look at these ideas and see which ones make sense and how valuable they are.

Increases Immigration
Well, yes that is certainly possible. That largely is how you develop multiculturalism in a country. I do now however, see why that is an inherently positive thing. It really depends on who you are bringing in and what kind of support the immigrants need. If the immigrants are highly educated, well to do, or highly skilled then they stand a very good chance of adding value to society.

However, if they are mostly unskilled, poor, and uneducated they can be a significant drag on social services and hurt the poor people you already have.

Introduces New Ideas
This is certainly true. Different cultures have different strengths and weaknesses that can introduce new concepts, styles, and values that can make a society richer. I don't think multiculturalism is inherently required for this though. Especially today with the internet we can connect with people anywhere in the world and pull their ideas and concepts without the need for immigration at all.

Brings New Types of Food
This is true. I don't know how important this is overall. It can be nice though.

Brings New Sports
Like food, not a big deal either way.

Enhances National Unity
...what?!?! Now this is, to be polite, wrong. Unity happens when society has a common purpose and vision. You can have multiculturalism and unity, but you have to work extra hard the more diverse your country is. Diversity in general makes unity more difficult.

Prevents Your Country From Being Boring
Hm, nah. I'll pass on this one too. There isn't a boring country on earth. No matter how monocultured a country is it is not going to be boring. Boring is inside your head so not having a diverse enough culture is a really lazy copout.

Increases General Creativity
Creativity is an interesting concept, and one that has been studied a lot. I've read a little about it and a major factor is exposure to a diverse set of ideas and topics. So while cultural diversity is a part of that you can get a lot of it off the internet. The rest is more about topical diversity (engineering, biology, chemistry, etc.) and not cultural diversity.

Downsides
To address the minor downside of possible cultural differences causing strife I will agree. I will very strongly agree. Some cultures are pretty compatible. For example, during the late 1800's and early 1900's in the United States there was extensive immigration from Europe. It caused issues for quite a while. The Italians were disliked by the French and the Poles didn't like the Spanish. And everyone hated the Irish. But in the end they all integrated pretty well into society, generally lost their cultural identity for the most part, and all got along. The key though was they were all coming from generally Christian backgrounds. There certainly where differences, but the flavors of Christianity, and the Jewish groups, all managed to have pretty consistent values and they worked it out.

That has been less of the case with other cultural groups though. Groups that come from other religious backgrounds (Muslim, Buddhist, Tribal Religions) have had a much more difficult time integrating into American culture. It is possible, but it is harder.

There are also risks when there are large influxes of a very different culture into an area because it means that the cultural balance changes so much so fast that there is little opportunity for cultural absorption.

And when the underlying values are very different between two groups, you can end up with very significant problems. So, multiculturalism is great. Up until it isn't. Cultures are different and not all can get along with all others.