Social cohesion
Will immigration and multiculturalism be the end of the United States of America?
BLC Essay 2
“How do immigration and multiculturalism affect social cohesion in either the US or the UK?”
Will immigration and multiculturalism be the end of the United States? Many people know America as the “land of the free”, where the pursuit of happiness – the American Dream – was their utopia. However, this American Dream has in the past years been modified by the enforcement of President Obama’s new welfare system; The ObamaCare. Now, Americans have been forced to reset their “American Dream”, as the new ObamaCare intends to create a positive collectivism instead of individualism. This has created an imminent debate, where immigration and multiculturalism have been identified as ‘the enemy’. This essay argues that multiculturalism and immigration has affected social cohesion and created a negative attitude towards multiculturalism and immigration in the United States.
One of the main concerns of the American population, regarding the ObamaCare, is described by the British journalist David Goodhart: “The fact that as we become more different from one another in lifestyle, values, ethnic and national origins, we become less willing so sacrifice, trust and share”1. Some people are worried about the consequences of immigration in America – even though the US, in fact, is the country of immigrants due to their history2 - as they believe immigrants do not want to integrate themselves properly by, for example, learning to speak English properly3. This concern is based on immigration, multiculturalism, integration and national identity. David Willets describes this concern as a solidarity problem, where interdependence is a needed factor in a welfare state. The difficulty of sustaining a legitimacy of a “risk-pooling” welfare state is caused by an increasing immigration and multiculturalism, where people no longer can reflect themselves in one another, as
BLC Essay 2
“How do immigration and multiculturalism affect social cohesion in either the US or the UK?”
Will immigration and multiculturalism be the end of the United States? Many people know America as the “land of the free”, where the pursuit of happiness – the American Dream – was their utopia. However, this American Dream has in the past years been modified by the enforcement of President Obama’s new welfare system; The ObamaCare. Now, Americans have been forced to reset their “American Dream”, as the new ObamaCare intends to create a positive collectivism instead of individualism. This has created an imminent debate, where immigration and multiculturalism have been identified as ‘the enemy’. This essay argues that multiculturalism and immigration has affected social cohesion and created a negative attitude towards multiculturalism and immigration in the United States.
One of the main concerns of the American population, regarding the ObamaCare, is described by the British journalist David Goodhart: “The fact that as we become more different from one another in lifestyle, values, ethnic and national origins, we become less willing so sacrifice, trust and share”1. Some people are worried about the consequences of immigration in America – even though the US, in fact, is the country of immigrants due to their history2 - as they believe immigrants do not want to integrate themselves properly by, for example, learning to speak English properly3. This concern is based on immigration, multiculturalism, integration and national identity. David Willets describes this concern as a solidarity problem, where interdependence is a needed factor in a welfare state. The difficulty of sustaining a legitimacy of a “risk-pooling” welfare state is caused by an increasing immigration and multiculturalism, where people no longer can reflect themselves in one another, as
References: Goodhart, David (2013) The British Dream, chapter 6.