America, Melting Pot or Salad Bowl Society?

In the year 2013 there are slightly over 7 billion people throughout the world. This means that we have a wide variety of cultures, heritages, ethnic backgrounds, views and opinions. Thousands of people are immigrating to the United States for a number of reasons such as bettering their education and careers, as well as, getting a fresh start. Primarily, immigrants are moving here to take advantage of the many opportunities our country can make available. People are bringing their cultures and differences to the United States thus resulting in what is called a melting pot; however, I would argue that America should no longer be called a melting pot. The term melting pot suggests that immigrants should assimilate into American culture. Instead, America should be looked upon as a salad bowl society or a mosaic work of art allowing our newcomers to bring their racial and ethnic differences to the country. This allows our newcomers to “retain their own national characteristics while integrating into a new society” (“Melting Pot America”). We, as a country, should not be encouraging newcomers to leave who they are and what they value in order to become an American. In all reality, everyone is an immigrant. Someone’s grandparents came from another country to better their lives and had children who had children which end with our generation. Yes without a doubt we are natural born citizens, but our roots come from all over the world as do many other people. Although I am a native born citizen, my background is very broad and varied; however, I do not know much about it and that is where we find many American’s naïve to what makes them who they are. Language is becoming a prominent factor in how we will communicate with the immigrants that are coming into our country. I know from my own experience that my Spanish is not what it used to be, even though I took two years of Spanish in high school. I have not retained much more than a few words and phrases.

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