Melting Pot
Melting PotSummary
MeltingPot is a political pattern. It may also apply to the growth of software companies.
Encouraging immigration is a strategic policy.
Context:
A rich or peaceful nation has a labor shortage.
Poorer or strife-torn nations have people that would like to build new lives somewhere else.
The nations have cultural differences, and could benefit from understanding each other better.
Process:
The MeltingPot nation accepts immigrants. It may impose conditions on the immigrants, such as:
Resulting context:
The population of the MeltingPot country grows faster than it would otherwise. The population of the immigrants' home countries grows more slowly, or even shrinks.
The MeltingPot country has access to a larger labor pool. This is supplemented by better trade ties with the immigrants' home countries.
The immigrants' home countries have access to a smaller labor pool. In most cases, this is more than offset by better trade ties with the MeltingPot country and money remitted by the immigrants to their families.
In most cases, the MeltingPot country's economy grows faster than it would otherwise. However, its unemployment may rise, and entry-level wages may go down.
The immigrants' home countries may grow faster or slower. Their unemployment is likely to go down.
In many cases, the immigrants have a higher birth rate than the natives of the MeltingPot. This increases the population growth rate of the MeltingPot, but can also increase ethnic tensions. It also increases the tax burden of providing public schools, but reduces the tax burden of providing public pensions.
Many immigrants live, at least for a while, in ethnic neighborhoods. If ethnic segregation becomes permanent, caste systems and resentments can arise in the would-be MeltingPot country. This can lead to ethnic violence and long-term problems.
To avoid this problem, the MeltingPot emphasizes assimilating immigrant and minority cultures. This creates tensions, as people with distinct cultures prefer to keep what makes them unique. To ameliorate these tensions, the MeltingPot can encourage people to retain aspects of their original cultures, to "celebrate diversity", and to be individualistic. A different approach is to thoroughly train people to be communitarian.
The MeltingPot adopts aspects of the immigrants' cultures. Many of the immigrants, and most of their children, are assimilated into the MeltingPot culture.
The people of the MeltingPot country have a better understanding of the culture of the immigrants' home countries.
The people of the immigrants' home countries have relatives in the MeltingPot country. There are also better trade ties between the countries.
It is likely that the people of the immigrants' home countries have a better understanding of the culture of the MeltingPot.
The countries have more sympathy for each other. They are more likely to form alliances. They are less likely to want to see each other embroiled in strife with third parties.
Because its population is growing, the MeltingPot country may seek to conquer new territory, or increase its exports (to support larger cities).
Because their population is growing less than it would have otherwise, the home countries may feel less pressure to grow.
Examples:
References:
Joel Millman. The Other Americans: How Immigrants Renew Our Country, Our Economy, and Our Values. Penguin Books. Copyright 1997.
Hardcover: ISBN 0-670-85844-7 Paperback: ISBN 0 14 02.4217 1
CIA world fact book - country profiles. http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
Discussion:
This page is not meant to start a flame war about immigration to the UnitedStatesOfAmerica. Flames posted here are likely to be deleted or moved to another page.
The MeltingPot pattern has advantages and disadvantages. Some countries have been successful MeltingPots. Other countries have tried it and failed.
Canada considers itself not a MeltingPot, but rather a mosaic. It's political and social cohesion difficulties may be attributable to that.
The above assimilation conditions allow for the existence of multiple common languages. Since language is part of a culture's foundation, are not multiple languages counterproductive to a single culture or MeltingPot?
A MeltingPot is a prerequisite to OneNationIndivisible?. Corollary: Nations which are not a MeltingPot may be susceptible to division. Further, when a sufficiently large portion of the population desires division, resistance to division will result in strife, which may in the long run be more costly than division. Just like to point out here that the MeltingPot doesn't ensure OneNationIndivisible?. Look at the (still occurring) tensions between the northern and southern states of the US. Suffice it to say that nations may be susceptible to division around issues other than ethnic origins.
The MeltingPot pattern may apply to the growth of software companies. Why just software?
Is the increasing desire by companies to employ foreign workers at home such as in India and China rather than bring them over as H1B's the beginning of the end of this strategy in the tech sector? I have been at companies where they laid H1B's off and told them they could still have a job in India. The company certainly had no interest in integration at all they just wanted absolute minimum labor costs.
What is an H1B? See http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/howdoi/h1b.htm#what. And a description of Hb1 concept http://www.visa2003.com/visa/h1-b.htm
Regarding the belief that the UnitedStates is a MeltingPot, whereas Canada is a "cultural mosaic"--is that really true? The "melting pot" theory assumes that 1) all immigrants to the US become assimilated into some homogenous velveeta culture within a generation or two (or even after hopping off the boat/plane); 2) retaining trappings of the home country (especially languages other than English) are highly discouraged.
I think this theory is highly questionable. In the US, one certainly finds lots of immigrant communities, especially in large cities, where most street conversation (and most buisness signs) are in a language other than English. A few blocks from my house, a good percentage of the businesses hang shingles in Spanish, and other streets in PortlandOregon (where I live) are dominated by signs in languages such as Chinese, Russian, Korean, or Vietnamese. In addition, there are many second- and third-generation wherever-Americans who still speak the language of the "home country" in their homes.
Regarding education. Some areas stress education in English, seeking to teach foreign children English as quickly as possible; others attempt to educate children in the native language (especially in an area where there are a large number of speakers of a given language, and qualified teachers who can teach in that language). Which way is better is often debated in the United States.
The U.S. currently (as far as I'm aware) has no "official" language; though everyone knows that English is the lingua francia (heh) 'round these parts. Some states/localities have attempted to pass "official English" laws; the extent of these generally is to require that government services be provided in (and government business conducted in) no language other than English. (I believe there is one town in Arizona or New Mexico which has adopted Spanish as its official language; needless to say that town is dominated by Spanish speakers). I know of no legal attempts to prevent immigrants (or anyone else) from speaking foreign languages at home, or from conducting business/commerce in a foreign language; were such a law to pass it would likely be struck down as unconstitutional.
Here in Oregon most businesses and government agencies operate in English; though many government publications/forms are offered in other languages (those with large numbers of speakers in the state).
Of course, there are also lots of immigrants who do assimilate rapidly. Especially those who marry outside of their nationality/culture.
My travels to Canada have been limited, but you folks up north seem to have a similar situation. Some immigrants to your shores assimilate the local culture readily; others keep the home-country culture for generations.
Thoughts?
"The Hawaiian language was banned in all private and public schools in 1896 until ... 1986. ... The legislation not only nearly exterminated the Hawaiian language and culture but also had disastrous effects on literacy, academic achievement, and even the use of Standard English among Native Hawaiians." -- http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/miscpubs/stabilize/additional/hawaiian.htm http://www.ksbe.edu/endowment/hawaiian/language/rohban.html
"Unique in the nation, Hawai'i has two official state languages: English and Hawaiian." -- http://blog.hawaiiankingdom.info/C259362623/E1826815468/
The MeltingPot works if when you follow an immigrant family over 3+ generations and find that after the 3rd, they appear to be just like someone whose ancestors arrived more than 3 generations back from a different part of the world (barring such trivia as hair and skin color). Thus, while there are currently many Central American enclaves speaking Spanish now, there are also many Vietnamese enclaves who speak Vietnamese only at home, and mostly to their elders.
EditText of this page
(last edited June 19, 2008)
or FindPage with title or text search