Orientation day
It would be very strange for me to oppose multiculturalism, since I can see with my own eyes that it works extremely well here in the Greater Toronto Area. However, there are at least two requirements for multiculturalism to work that are absolutely non-negotiable:
- It is actual multiculturalism instead of biculturalism, in which you have a majority and a single visible minority, a situation that will only lead to conflict and trouble. In proper multiculturalism, there are many different minority groups unable to create one unified "front", and all groups fully accept and integrate to the mainstream culture. Furthermore, all groups are so small so that none of them is able to insulate from others, but everyone has to interact daily with other groups on a healthy free-market basis.
- No matter what ethnicity and culture you belong to, you accept and advance the classical Western values of individual freedom, law and order, free markets and rationality, and behave accordingly.
These
requirements seem to be reasonably satisfied in the Toronto area. Of
course everything could always be better, but Toronto is at least good
enough in this respect.
Furthermore, instead of being a hollow
inner-city slum surrounded by sparse suburban sprawl in which great
distances are planned on purpose,
Toronto is a healthy, compact and living city with relatively little
segregation, which further lessens the problems of ethnic strife.
Something like 100,000 new immigrants from all around the world settle
here each year, and since they don't have the cultural background which
considers condo living and taking public transit as being somehow shameful, the city continues to develop in a very healthy manner.
Since
most people here seem to be new to the country, they can still remember
where they came from and understand how much better life is here. From
this, it is not a big step to understand why
life is better here and what it takes to have a good life. Since most
people here seem to be new, everybody gotten off the boat or plane some
time in the last decade, they get to live together without the burden
of history between their groups, something which would belong to the
old country anyways. For example, since Finns and the Chinese never had
any interaction until the modern times, there is no nasty past in which
my ancestors raped or enslaved some Chinese guy's ancestors or vice
versa, but we get to start as super friends from a clean slate.
I think it should be "the Chinese". Chinese is an adjective or the name of a language. So, you need to specify you're referring to the Chinese people. Similarly, you'd say "the English" when you mean the English people.
Posted by Anonymous | 6:16 PM
You comment about the lack of historical bad relations between the Finns and the Chinese got me thinking about the difference in American and European attitudes toward Muslim immigrants. The difficulties the Europeans are now encountering with their Muslim populations may in part (of course there are other factors) result from the fact that there's a long history of interaction between Europe and the Muslim world, going all the way back to the Crusades, and with few exceptions it isn't a pleasant history. Muslim immigrants in the United States tend to be better integrated, and it's worth noting that the United States had relatively little interaction with the Muslim world until after WWII. Coincidence?
Peter
My LIRR/NYCT blog
Posted by Anonymous | 9:59 PM
I think Muslims integrating better in the USA than in Europe may also be caused by the fact that the USA attracted better people from Muslim countries.
Posted by Anonymous | 3:23 AM
Addendum: You can also say "Chinese people" if you mean some Chinese people. But if you mean the Chinese people as a whole you say "the Chinese people".
Posted by Anonymous | 3:25 AM
'I think Muslims integrating better in the USA than in Europe may also be caused by the fact that the USA attracted better people from Muslim countries.'
You're kidding, right?
Check out what the somalis are doing in Minnesota
Posted by Anonymous | 9:44 AM