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Originally Posted by Ryzorian
That's the issue I and Sangetsu are explaining here when we mean "assimulation". I am not against immigrants were ever they come from, provided they want to become Americans and not try to establish a " New- place country of orgin here" land.
I say this because histroy has shown us repeatedly that when large numbers of immigrants move to an area and refuse to assimulate to the local culture, war's erupt and eventually the natives are either driven onto "reservations" or the invaders are driven back where they came from.
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I don't quite agree with this. England has quite a diverse, multi-cultural culture at the moment - particularly in major cities - and I haven't seen any 'wars' or arguments or people 'driving' these immigrants back to their home countries or 'reservations'. I think most countries have a "Chinatown" and the likes, and I would ask how often protests or argumens break out. Here we have a large Indian commuinity, many of these people - some I know personally - still have the same religion, food, attire, languages, they haven't "assimilated" and yet they can still mix freely with 'natives' and there hasn't really been any issue whatsoever.
Do immigrants really need to give up their own cultural identity just to fit into another culture? I think both groups and individuals can be true to themselves and still fit into a new culture and achieve a healthy life, free from conflict. The majority of conflict I've seen comes from the 'natives'. The protests, the riots, the arguments - these are incredibly rare, but when they do occur its 99% of the time natives that are causing the conflict.
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Originally Posted by Sitron
Are immigrants in your country just as bad as here in Norway? And do you dislike immigrants in general?
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I won't respond to the majority of the original post by Sitron, as personally I found it offensive. I will say however that immigrants here are treated variedly according to what nationality they are, how well they fit into our culture, and where they are trying to live/work. Some nationalities have essentially become a
part of our culture, they have been here for generations, so that their children were born here and know no different, whereas others who have come here - mainly since the EU which allows free travel/immigration - get labelled badly because they are seen as taking advantage of our state and welfare.
Personally I'd say the issue of immigrants is complex. I'm not willing to speak for my entire country, nor am I going to lump all immigrants together and say 'this is how I feel' as no two people are the same. I will say that my best friend is an immigrant, she now has citizenship and speaks English fluently, and I admire her greatly. She's almost a role model to me. Her entire family have welcomed me and treated me with respect, and she's managed to hold onto her own culture and identity whilst adopting new traits from her new culture, and she's harder working and kinder than half the native English people that I know. So no, I don't generally dislike immigrants, because I refuse to tar a group of people with a bad image that's based solely on a rare few. There will always be good and bad, but a rash judgement and prejudices help no one.