The Social and Cultural Effects of Immigration

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The Social and Cultural Effects of Immigration

• I am Benjamin Zeitlyn, I have been working as a
  research fellow at RMMRU and I did the MA in
  Migration Studies from Sussex University

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Key concepts

• Culture what is it?!
• Identity
• national identity
• Post modern identity
• Multiple or hybrid identities
• Integration
• Multiculturalism and assimilation

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Culture what is it?!

• We use the word culture in these two senses to
  mean a whole way of life - the common meanings
  to mean the arts and learning - the special
  processes of discovery and creative effort. Some
  writers reserve the word for one or other of
  these senses I insist on both, and on the
  significance of their conjunction. (Raymond
  Williams 19586)
• The concept of culture I espouse is
  essentially a semiotic one. Believing, with Max
  Weber, that man is an animal suspended in webs of
  significance he himself has spun, I take culture
  to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be
  therefore not an experimental science in search
  of law but an interpretative one in search of
  meaning. (Clifford Geertz, 19734-5)
• Culture is a battlefield, a contest between
  competing forces of society, dominated by the
  hegemonic group, all attempting to impose their
  interpretation of the meaning of objects or
  practices on the rest of society (based on
  Gramscis work).

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More culture Culture is what your butcher
would have if he were a surgeon Mary Pettibone
Poole, A Glass Eye at a Keyhole (1938)

• "the total way of life of a people
• "the social legacy the individual acquires from
  his group
• "a way of thinking, feeling, and believing
• "an abstraction from behavior
• a theory on the part of the anthropologist about
  the way in which a group of people in fact behave
• a "storehouse of pooled learning
• "a set of standardized orientations to recurrent
  problems
• "learned behavior
• a mechanism for the normative regulation of
  behavior
• "a set of techniques for adjusting both to the
  external environment and to other men
• "a precipitate of history
• a behavioral map, sieve, or matrix
• From Clyde Kluckhohn's Mirror for Man, via
• http//www.wsu.edu8001/vcwsu/commons/topics/cult
  ure/culture-index.html

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Culture and immigration No culture can live, if
it attempts to be exclusive.Mahatma Gandhi

• There is an argument that cultural homogeneity is
  necessary for the stability of a liberal
  democracy because the democracy relies on people
  feeling ties based on a shared culture (Perry,
  1995, in Schwartz ed. 1995113).
• Habermas says that immigrants should adapt to the
  culture of the society to which they migrate as
  liberal democratic institutions depend upon and
  presuppose certain cultural commitments (Carens,
  19956). This type of argument has been furthered
  by Michael Walzer who states that the production
  of a complex unique culture is a fundamental part
  of a liberal democratic state, and that it is
  legitimate for a state to protect its culture by
  restricting immigration (ibid.).
• Rawls and Dworkin disagree with Habermas and
  Walzer, in their extrapolation of the commitment
  to individual autonomy which requires liberal
  states to be neutral with respect to different
  cultures. (Carens. 19956)

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National Identity

• The idea of a nation is an imagined community
  which has constructed ideas of similarity or
  unity language religion etc. (Anderson B. 1983)
• One only knows who one is by who one is not. The
  processes of exclusion and rejection uncover and
  reveal and become constitutive of the national
  identity itself. (Cohen, 1994198)

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Post Modern identity

• Hall (1992) identifies three conceptions of
  identity.
• The enlightenment subject, which is an
  individualist, essentialist concept of identity
  in which ones identity is with one from birth.
• The sociological subject is a more modern
  interpretation, in which identity is formed by
  the interaction between the self and society.
• Finally, Hall concentrates on the post-modern
  subject fractured and de-centred, the
  post-modern subject is composed of several, often
  contradictory or unresolved identities
• (Hall, 1992275-6).

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Multiple or hybrid identities

• Ideas of post modern identity allow us to
  consider that a person may have more than one
  identity as British, as Bangladeshi, as a Muslim,
  and perhaps as a British Asian depending on the
  context.
• While immigrant communities may retreat into
  tradition they may also see a translation of
  their culture and identity. Translation of
  cultures may lead to the creation of new hybrid
  cultures (Hall, 1992310).

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Integration

• Integration means that immigrants become accepted
  into the host society and that they accept the
  core values of that society.
• As such it must be a mutual interaction between
  migrants and the host society.
• It must be a sustained process as it can often
  last for generations and is often measured by the
  status of the second generation.
• Integration will ideally lead to the creation of
  a changed, diverse but single society.
• This section is a synthesis of key elements of
  three definitions of integration from
  Papademetriou (2003), Penninx (2003), and Ray
  (2002).

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Multiculturalism and assimilation

• Assimilation implies a one way adoption of the
  hosts social and cultural values.
• It can act as a barrier to integration, delaying
  it, because it is often interpreted by immigrants
  as aggressive, hostile and unjust. It creates
  feelings of difference and persecution.
• Multiculturalism is another policy approach which
  celebrates diversity and sees a society made up
  of different ethnic groups as positive.
• Although attractive, it has been criticised for
  encouraging us to think about difference and
  ethnic divisions rather than inclusiveness and
  unity.
• Its important that in the name of
  multiculturalism oppressive practices that impede
  the integration of some groups within migrant
  communities are not encouraged.

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Why is integration important?

• Unsuccessful integration can lead to social
  exclusion, political turmoil and increased
  attractiveness of extreme political ideologies.
  (France?)
• Successful integration can lead to great economic
  and cultural benefits to both immigrants and the
  host society.

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Types of integration

• Brian Ray (2002) identifies five types of
  integration
• Linguistic integration, meaning the grasp the
  migrants have of the language of the host
  country, and the languages used in the home and
  public interactions.
• Labour market integration, including factors such
  as education levels, labour force participation,
  unemployment rate, income and socio-professional
  mobility.
• Civic or political integration, by means such as
  participation in political parties, unions,
  neighbourhood associations, religious
  institutions, voting registration and behaviour.
  
• Educational integration, such as relative school
  performance and drop out rates, higher education
  attainment and interaction with other students.
• Residential integration such as the degree of
  residential concentration or segregation,
  residential mobility, homeownership rates,
  dwelling size and overcrowding and discrimination
  in the rental markets.
• Siobhan

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Introduction

• My name is Siobhán McPhee. I recently arrived in
  Bangladesh to undertake a 6 month internship with
  RMMRU
• -I recently completed my MPhil in International
  Peace Studies from Trinity University in Ireland
• -Today I would like to look at the changing face
  of Ireland in terms of Multiculturalism,
  integration and identity

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Background

• Ireland was not a colonising force like the rest
  of Europe, rather it was in fact a colonised
  country
• No contact with other cultures a land of
  emigrants
• Ethnically and religiously homogeneous
• Rapid economic growth began in the early 1990s
  lead to immigration

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Quote no integration in the past

• "In an overwhelming mono-cultural Roman Catholic
  country with few minorities and an insignificant
  number of foreign-born residents not of Irish
  extraction, the prevailing attitude was probably
  less one of deliberate outright rejection or
  exclusion than an informally codified value
  system whereby those who were different knew
  their place." McEinri (2001), Immigration into
  Ireland Trends, Policy Responses, Outlook

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Irish identity

• Irish identity was constructed according the
  other in this case the English colonisers it
  has been constructed on layers of nationalism
• seemingly monolithic and homogeneous
  'traditional' Irish culture was in fact,
  constructed by revolutionary Irish nationalists,
  politically motivated ideologues intent on
  uniting the citizenry against their imperial
  English overlords" Kiberd, Strangers in their own
  country, Multi-Culturalism the view from the two
  Irelands (2003)
• Andersons imagined communities or myth-making
  the only unique thing about the Irish is their
  utter conviction that there is something unique
  about being Irish Kennedy, Being Irish (2000)
• There is no security in this identity therefore
  it is difficult for the Irish to accept the new
  Only a people secure in their national
  philosophy are capable of dealing confidently
  with those who come among them with deep
  commitments to alternative codes. Kiberd
• Others argue that this means that Irish are very
  flexible experience of emigration and change.

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Issues arising - are the people to blame?

• If Irish people are flexible why do issues of
  discrimination or racism arise?
• Lack of a formal sturcture for integration
  (including migrant workers)
• All immigrants are treated as a homogeneous group
  creates a sense of us against them
• Government has a laissez-faire approach when it
  comes to social and cultural aspects of
  integration we will provide the policies, the
  rest will follow!

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Peoples own initiative positive aspects

• A more diverse society has lead to greater
  awareness of the world outside
• 20 years ago the only foreign food in Ireland
  was pasta! Now every ethnic cusine is available
• Music and drama festivals have been orgainsied by
  different group (independent of the government)
  e.g. Dun Loaighe Music Festival of World Cultures
  has been running for 5 years now and attracts
  thousands of visitors
• Irish people are beginning to learn other
  languages
• A lot of new Irish are participating in sports
  removes their otherness

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Aims for the future

• Much more of an active role on the part of the
  government and offical bodies it is not only
  the responsibility of civil society
• The government with the involvement of different
  groups needs to develop an integration framework
  which focuses on social and cultural aspects of
  integration e.g. more sports, music
• Educating both all parties through more awareness
  campaigns e.g. posters, television

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questions

• What are the positive and negative social and
  cultural effects of immigration?
• What factors are most important in impeding or
  promoting integration?
• What policies will encourage the positive effects
  of immigration and promote integration?