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

Re-rebuttals Foreign interaction "It is obvious that the operative words of "interact" and "living" are not equivalent in meaning, hence the false equivalence." While "interact" and "living" are not equivalent in meaning, it does not change the fact that "living" with different cultures is conducive towards "interacting" with them. When people live in a monoculture, it tends to be that people pretend- or even genuinely believe- that racism and other culture-related social issues do not exist, as can be seen in countries such as Japan [1] and Sweden [2], to name a couple. Certainly there are still issues of racism in multicultural societies, but even recognizing the problem is much better than pretending it does not exist. "Please explain how knowing more words helps children do this and is not simply associated." It has been found that bilingualism in itself indeed has positive effects on the brain. "To maintain the relative balance between two languages, the bilingual brain relies on executive functions, a regulatory system of general cognitive abilities that includes processes such as attention and inhibition. Because both of a bilingual person"s language systems are always active and competing, that person uses these control mechanisms every time she or he speaks or listens. This constant practice strengthens the control mechanisms and changes the associated brain regions." [3] This helps with learning abilities (explaining why monolingual adults have a harder time learning a second language than bilingual adults have learning a third language, for example), and even can help stem age-related decline [3]. It is of course true that bilingualism has been found to have some negative effects, such as possibly hindering communication due to the interference of another language [3]. However, this effect can be lessened with practice as the brain's control mechanisms improve, and the numerous positive effects, such as increased visual-spatial skills and social benefits from interacting with different cultures directly, clearly outweigh them [3]. Forced full assimilation The examples of Aboriginals in Canada, America, and Australia clearly show the cultural imperialist nature of forced assimilation: in Canada for example, Aboriginal children were wrenched from their parents into residential 'schools' where they were malnourished, beaten, and even sexually abused- something that the Aboriginals greatly objected against [4]. As in the examples of Japan and Sweden, having a monoculture encourages racism due to cultural beliefs that it does not exist in their country, which does lead to problems internationally. For example, Japan is often at odds with South Korea and Chinese due to its refusal to recognize its racist actions both in the past and the present, even pretending that they did not exist altogether: something that would be much more difficult to claim in a multicultural society [5]. Academic success I recognize that my claim was ill-worded. However, it does not change the fact that culture does play a part in academic success, since as Pro mentions, family environment, which is based heavily on culture, is a significant factor. Furthermore, a multicultural environment attracts more immigrants, which in turn would attract East-Asians who've been as mentioned before found to be doing better academically, which contributes to the economy. Natural divisions People cannot help their race, and race cannot change no matter how assimilated one becomes. Even if people will naturally divide, dislike and discriminate, better that they recognize that it is an issue and work past natural impulses than live in a monoculture that refuses to acknowledge their racism. Rebuttals "People prefer other people of the same culture; having different cultural identities creates disunity." I concede the point that people tend to prefer people of the same culture. However, as interaction with different cultures and ethnicities is inevitable in today's society, multiculturism is important to allow people to work past this natural impulse, as monocultures breed ignorance, as mentioned before. Even in a world where it were possible to completely assimilate all immigrants to the dominant culture, if they were still of a different ethnicity, they would still face racism, according to Pro, given that she quotes that 'age, ethnicity, and education' scores higher than other factors in terms of correlation with spouse and best friend relationships. Of course, as Pro noted previously, correlation does not imply causation. She claims that "people are definitely basing relationships on cultural factors," but there is no evidence that the two are not simply associated with each other. Furthermore, 'opinions and attitudes' can differ within the same culture, which does not necessarily mean that having a monoculture will result in more amity between people. Language barriers Pro claims that bilingualism harms a country due to the fact that the United States is primarily monolingual. To begin with, the United States is simply one example: numerous other countries in the world are multilingual. In Canada, for example, 98% of the population can conduct conversations in either English or French (the national languages) [6], and it was found that 56% of the EU is multilingual [7]. The United States is a country that comparatively makes it difficult to be an immigrant and to learn the language, as mentioned before: if it would adopt a similar practice as Canada, who provides free English and/or French lessons for immigrants, there would likely be much fewer problems with a lack of English proficiency. Pro also talks of the lower vocabulary of second-language speakers. Testyourvocab.com is not a trustworthy source- it likely includes many, many users from foreign countries who are not immersed in an English-speaking culture. In fact, Pro's source itself states: "Anything much beyond 10,000 words generally only comes from living abroad in an English-speaking country for a significant period of time, or else spending tremendous amounts of one's own time exposed to English media (books, sitcoms, movies, etc.)." In other words, living in an English-speaking country increases vocabulary. This brings us back to the point that some amount of assimilation is necessary, and learning the host country's language falls under that category. Providing immigrants with the tools they need to learn the host country's language properly: such as setting up free classes: will ensure that there is a common language spoken among the populace. Even if as consequence as the generations pass, the first-generation immigrant's language is lost, this is not full assimilation as long as other cultural aspects are retained. Back to Pro now. Thanks. [1] http://america.aljazeera.com... [2] http://www.washingtonpost.com... [3] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... [4] http://www.cbc.ca... [5] http://www.cfr.org... [6] http://www12.statcan.ca... [7]https://dana.org...