No, that isn’t the crux of out debate. It is whether multiculturalism is a failure. I should know, I started the thread.
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Back to the article you linked to.
No, multiculturalism is not a failure.
The real failure is not providing the immigrants with a fair and proportional stake in the economy, and hence the culture.
I’m not talking about “giving away” anything to undeserving people. But when a country receives new population, it must build a framework by which the new immigrants can acquire an equity stake in the economy.
The problem with France and Europe it that they have millions of destitute immigrants who are not feeling any liberty, Equality, Fraternity.
France is an “old” country where the political and business elites are nearly all graduates of a few elite universities. Aside from the main state directed economy, there are few viable parallel immigrant communities/economies where immigrants can thrive.
The French system is good for the French but it needs to be reformed to welcome and assimilate the immigrants of a globalized world.
It’s a failure of the French political and economic system, not a failure of multiculturalism. Sarkozy is pandering to the right wing of French voters. Same goes for England and the other countries mentioned in the article.[/quote]
And this is where that “loss aversion” comes into play.
Humans have a herding instinct, and we form groups that we feel will optimize our access to resources and territory. We are territorial, and defend our territories as a herd.
The resistance to “multiculturalism” is basic to human nature. It has nothing to do with religion (or race, or culture), specifically, and everything to do with trying to control certain resources that “belong” to the group.
When a new group with different characteristics (religion, color, language, culture, etc.) encroaches on an existing group’s territory/resources, they are demanding access to the resources that the existing group perceives as their own.
It is about hoarding behavior and access to resources; and it is as basic to human (and animal) nature as eating and procreation. It’s a survival instinct, and it’s ridiculous to think that we can change something that is so intrinsic and essential to our survival.
