How Ethnic Group Identify Within a Multicultural Society (Coursework Sample)

Multiculturalism and ethnicity: How does an ethnic group identify within a multicultural society by relaying on their culture
Name
Institutional affiliation
Multiculturalism and ethnicity: How does an ethnic group identify within a multicultural society by relaying on their culture
Most demographics in our time are defined by multicultural policies and ideologies that vary widely (Harper, 2011 p. 50). Multiculturalism for the purpose of this essay is defined as demographical fact, set of beliefs and specific orientation by the government in regard to culturally diverse population. Cultural diversity is the result of immigration and gradual development of new ethnic groups from existing ones as a result of exogamic marriages. Endogamic marriages have done much for cultural diversity by maintaining particular groups. When different ethnic groups coexist, communicate and meaningfully engage with each other, a multicultural society is a result. There are however challenges associated with multiculturalism and governments around the world has done much by formulating policies and provisions that create a sustainable and peaceful multicultural society. The world is facing a number of challenges relating to multiculturalism.
For the purpose of this research, culture is a group of artifacts that may include art, beliefs, knowledge, morals and systems that are socially learned and passed down to lower generations within an ethnic group. Culture is a central theme in anthropology and has been described in comprehensive terms. Culture can be narrowed down to practices and believes observed by people belonging to certain groups. Some cultural artifacts are common to different groups while some are the preserves of the community that practices them. In this paper, I will discuss how perceptions have lead to modification of certain to match the expectation of other dominant groups. This way, there will be a clear understanding of multiculturalism and how government policies on multiculturalism have failed to create a condition where each group can fit into a multicultural society without necessarily modifying their culture.
Multiculturalism defined
Multiculturalism can be viewed in two ways;
1. As a descriptive term that describes the cultural diversity in a given territory.
2. As a perspective term that describe settlement policies and provisions adopted by a particular government authority to promote regimentation of cultural diversity.Thesis
Immigration is widely accepted as the cause of multiculturalism. People migrate to different countries for various reasons that may include security and economic motives. Multiculturalism has become a political philosophy that allows people of different ethnicities to coexist without necessarily changing their cultures. Can such coexistence be sustainable if the law operates uniformly on all groups? Should we consider other cultures non-progressive and discourage them for the purpose of integration?Affirmative actions taken by The US government
Affirmative action is a proactive move by the federal government to ensure that equal opportunities are given to everyone including minority group. Some institution has given priorities to the minority groups. A typical example is the Michigan State University that use to give preferences to minority groups until the ban that was upheld in 2006 by the Supreme Court (The Guardian, n.d.). Bases of discrimination vary but ethnicity as captured the attention of most people as it is the most prominent base.
Affirmative action is positive discrimination. America’s affirmative action was first coined by President Johnson Lyndon in 1961, through an executive order that gave directives to all government departments and contractors that selection and treatment of employee were not to be based on one’s skin color, nativity, race or creed (NCSL 2014). That help but it was not going be easy for some minority groups especially the African Americans who had been under slavery for long. Such a group could not match their counterparts, not at least in common ground. The executive order also established a presidential committee that was responsible for overseeing the implementation of the administrative order. A court decision followed the president’s good will for the African American, by outlawing school segregation. Colleges and universities immediately started to practice such policies in their admissions.
Affirmative efforts have been taken by most western governments. Positive actions are actively exercised by the following parties in the United States.1. Intuitions of higher learning
Global business environments and subsequent internationalization of education has position the management of education as an international phenomenon. HARDY, & TOLHURST (2014) in their research found out that, western and Anglo-American American cultures dominate business schools and virtual learning sites (HARDY, & TOLHURST, 2014) This is a clip of how minority groups play roles in gradual modification of cultures other minority cultures (HARDY, & TOLHURST, 2014). Scholar work has a potential to augment culture and management learning. Universities and colleges have been obligated to adopt multiculturalism in their admission policies. Such systems seek to offer equal opportunities to minority groups or marginalized. Most bases of by universities are the racial ethnicity. The complicated aspect equal opportunity is a complex issue and operations of the law have made an incision between equal opportunity and favors. The University of Michigan is a typical account of the way people react to (Bonenfant, 2013) multiculturalism. The University had given priority to minority group until a court sanction in 2006 that was prompted by public demand. (NCSL, 2014). The implementation of such regulations oversaw the need to incorporate facts about multiculturalism into the curriculum.
Diversity management has been adopted by many universities in the US and other Europe countries. This practiced is focused of ethnically diverse student body. Areas of interest include admission, course selection and student representation (Kulik, 2014)
2. Hiring (by government departments and contractors)
In relation to the prudential executive order, all federal contractors and sup-constructors are required to take an affirmative action by selecting qualified minority and advance them (NEDERVEEN PIETERSE, 2014). In this case, minority group relate to an ethnic group, women, people with disability and covered veterans. Affirmative action includes capacity building and training (USDL, n.d)
Ethnicity
An ethnic group can identify with each other on the basis of common ancestry, common believe, social and cultural experience, origin myths, symbolic systems, etc. (Bailey, 2010 p.389). Depending on the grounds for membership, ethnicity can be of different types that include1. Cultural, ethnic group2. Economic ethnic group3. Political ethnic group4. Holistic ethnic group
1 Cultural ethnic group
Cultural ethnicity can be termed as an affiliation of people who altogether share common values or mores that are different from those of other groups. It is a group with its unique culture.
The culture of a nation or country has a specific attributes or features including religion, language, and racial identity. It affects the way of life of a group, education, economic and political system and also the way of carrying out trade within the group. Culture can be referred to as a complex whole that includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs and other capabilities and habits required by human as a member of society ( Taylor, 1970). People of the same culture tend to be biased towards someone who is different in any way from themselves. Biologically, there is nothing as races, and the only differences are cultural. You can have two people of the same color who look exactly the same but originate from different cultures. They do not get along because their cultures are far much different, and neither one of them is open to the other. They speak differently, work differently and have far much varying values.
They can’t be termed as racists since any person has his or her race. They can be said to be cultureless as they favor their culture and to the exclusion of others who do not do think or act the same way on them.
When we talk of cultural bias, we refer to it as interpreting and judging on basis someone’s culture. For instance, one may be biased towards someone who does not fit into his or her culture. The business has a language all its own, those unable to speak the language risk of being left out of the loop. The presence of other people determines one’s behavior. You are forced to learn other people’s culture if they live around you.Effects of multiculturalism
Citizens of different nations/ countries are becoming more diverse as far as culture is a concern with time. A good percentage of most country’s population was not born in that country having mostly one parent being from another country. In Australia, there are people from more than 200 countries speaking different languages, people of many colors, accents and way of dressing and how they appear.
This cultural diversity grows continually since the different world’s situations bring new communities to a given country. It was rare to have Large groups of immigrants to any country butt globalization has contributed to the rise of multiculturalism.. And always have been from other countries or regions whose people have entirely different cultures from those of the people in the territory they are migrating to.Effects on food
So countries have products from around the world. For example i...