Immigrants ought to fully assimilate culturally for the good of the host country

Foreign interaction We live in a globalized world. Chances are, most members of society will have to deal with people of other cultures sometime in their career, especially if they join a trans-national company. Would it not be easier for people of different countries to interact if they were already used to the idea of multiculturalism? Furthermore, multiculturalism in a country encourages interest in bilingualism. In Canada, for example, it is mandatory in five provinces to learn French and in one to learn at least one second language [1], largely due to the fact that historically, it has been a multicultural country. This also helps with foreign interaction, but it has also been found that bilingual people tend to do better academically [2] [3]. It was also found that in America, children of immigrant households of varying origins that were bilingual were less likely to drop out of school than the children of immigrant households that spoke only English (or mainly English) [4]. Full assimilation is also often forced, due to the fact that it is rare that immigrants wish to completely lose their original culture. This thus promotes the idea of cultural imperialism in the host country, which also is not conducive towards international relationships. Loss of beneficial cultural traits To give an example, East-Asians, a large part of the immigrant population in many countries such as America and Canada, tend to do better in school than their non-immigrant counterparts. This has been determined to be the result of a culture that believes academic success to be a result of hard work rather than of innate ability [4]. This improves the national academic standing of the host country. Of course, this cultural belief can often lead to East-Asian children having more psychological issues, such as low self-esteem, due to the high expectations placed upon them [5]. If non-immigrants assimilated the aforementioned East-Asians' cultural ideals to some extent, while East-Asians assimilated non-immigrants' cultural ideals to some extent, the result would be the best of both worlds. It was also found that in America, children of immigrant households of varying origins that were bilingual were less likely to drop out of school than the children of immigrant households that spoke only English (or mainly English) [5]. By exposing people to many different cultures, they are allowed to draw from whichever of their cultures they wish without fear of ostracization, which allows for greater creativity, instead of being stuck in a rut of what society expects of them. Less rebellion, more unity Some may claim that full assimilation is necessary to prevent social problems. But partial assimilation and multiculturalism can do just the same, in an arguably better way. In Canada, 94.1% of immigrants are citizens [6]. Canada makes the citizenship process relatively easy compared to other places, with even free English and French language classes for immigrants, allowing them to partially assimilate within the host country [7]. It still then turns around and often offers multilingual services in many public services, such as schools and public libraries for example: the Vancouver Public Library's website is available in eight different languages [8]. By doing this, Canada encourages the idea that Canadians are still Canadian no matter what their native language or culture, allowing people of different cultures and origins to identify as Canadian. This is done without creating resentment by heavily discouraging their native culture, as full assimilation often means. Thus, in sum, the assimilation of immigrants is detrimental towards the good of the host country. [1] http://www.cea-ace.ca... [2] http://ijb.sagepub.com... [3] http://www.cbc.ca... [4] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com... [5] http://www.latimes.com... [6] http://www.thestar.com... [7] http://www.cic.gc.ca... [8] http://www.vpl.ca... [9] http://swampland.time.com...