Preserving Culture and Immigration: Importance of Cultural Traditions (Essay Sample)

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Preserving Culture and Immigration
Immigration has been part of the globalization process for a long time now. Immigration is part of the growth process of every developed country in the world. This is because it is believed that these individuals immigrate into the country bringing with them particular skill sets that have not been utilized in the said countries. The immigrants bring with them new notions and ideas that can be incorporated into the way things are being done in the country, thus helping to improve the quality of work that is done in the country. On the other hand, there are people who believe that this rampant immigration will be the cause of the loss of identities and cultures. They believe this because they have predicted the erosion of cultures as they become diluted by the cultures of the immigrants, thus diluting the native cultures to a point where they will never be recovered.
Importance of Preserving Cultural Traditions
Traditions and cultures have been part of humanity since the beginning of time. This means that the things that people were taught when they were still young or as they continue to grow have been passed down from generation to generation. It is a form of identity as people use these things to remember where they came from. They use the passing on of cultural and traditional ideas to keep the spirits of their ancestors alive. Traditions require that people of a particular culture maintain and pass on their native speaking tongue from generation to generation as it is the most important of all cultural practices. Some people believe that their mother tongue offers them a direct link to their forefathers, thus helping them to keep in touch with their ancestry.
Different cultures often apply different customs as a form of identity. This means that the people that maintain their cultural backgrounds have different ways of doing things. This can be seen in many forms for example when people talk of getting food, some cultures believe in hunting in the wild to kill deer, antelopes, hares or other animals to provide food on the table. Other cultures depend on fishing activities to feed them while some depend on their farms where they go out to gather food by picking it from different plants. Different cultures practice different ways of feeding themselves thus allowing them to maintain a specific code of culture. Every culture believes in their practices and this is why believing in these cultures helps them to keep their identities. These cultures also helped in the creation and perfection of different skills that were passed on from one generation to another. These skills were unique to each culture, thus espousing the development of the techniques.
Culture as a Good Justification to Restrict Immigration
David Miller suggests that there should be deliberate efforts put in place in order to help people of different cultures preserve the traditional aspects of life learnt from their previous generations. This is because it is believed that when these practices fade away, there is no way that they can be brought back, thus their passing will always be regarded as unfortunate. Before man learnt how to make things easier using machines they were able to build a life within a community that was organized by playing different roles in the society. These were the tools that ensured the survival of these communities. Many communities were able to survive difficult situations by maintaining the things they learnt through their cultures. By allowing the uncontrolled immigration of people into the communities, a lot of these skills that were aquired will be lost forever.
When people from different cultures are allowed into these communities, they bring with them their own methods of doing things. Sometimes these skills that the immigrants come bearing are good and even beneficial to the community, but sometimes they lead to a form of cultural erosion that if not kept in check could be the loss of certain elements in their traditions. Cultural identities will in turn be lost to the dilution of the practices that their forefathers had used to brave some of the worst situations that mankind has faced. It becomes therefore imperative that these traditions and cultures be well maintained so as to preserve the historical elements that come with traditions. The dilution of practices by allowing different cultures into communities through immigration will destroy many cultures, thus leaving a new generation of people that will never understand the lives that their forefathers and ancestors lived.
Carens Denies Millers Position
Joseph Carens holds an argument that disagrees with the notion that David Miller had put across. Carens points out that the reasons that Miller intimates on the table are not legitimate and cannot be used as primary reasons as to why immigration should be limited. This is because there are a variety of reasons why people immigrate into different states. Some of these immigrants come from regions that are facing poverty conditions that are unbearable, some are trying to get away from a war torn region or regions that face threats of violence, while others are saving themselves from the effects of diseases and famine (Carens 284).
Carens argues that there is more importance to helping people that are facing these types of conditions compared to the initiatives that have been put in place to preserve some of the practices carried out by dif...