Read the following essay: https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/09/10/does-immigration-strengthen-or-undermine-tolerance
The author is an 18 year old who entered The Economist's Open Future essay competition - the task was to write an essay to the question “Does immigration strengthen or undermine tolerance?” .
Write your own essay to the above question (no more than 1,500) and send to me. I would love to see your ideas on this powerful and, at times, controversial question.
Part 1 out of 2
ReplyDeleteImmigration is an important modern day issue with constant news reports and conversation between people in real life and especially on social media, throughout this essay I will use British society to illustrate this. About 70% of the population increase between the 2001 and 2011 censuses was due to foreign-born immigration. From April 2013 to April 2014, a total of 560,000 immigrants were estimated to have arrived in the UK, including 81,000 British citizens and 214,000 from other parts of the EU. So although migration is becoming a more regular occurrence does it mean it is being more tolerated?
Research was led by the National Conversation on Immigration and carried out by ICM polling and they asked 3,667 nationally representative adults. 40% of people do not agree that diversity benefits British culture. This shows how globalisation and social media have led to the global sharing of cultures, languages different ideas in society but the British public is still choosing to only listen to those in politics who are constantly in the news promoting tighter borders, deportation and hostility to anyone who does fit what they envisage is a British citizen, but the idea of what a “British citizen” looks like and how they act has completely changed over the last 100 years, and immigration is a major factor in that.
However, as a teenager I can see a clear change in perspectives between generations. With the younger generation being more accepting of different cultures than adults, I can see this in the clear difference of opinion between my friends, compared to my parents or my grandparents. This is supported by the fact that from the survey they found that people who lived in cities or who were under 45 were more likely to see diversity as a positive. Perhaps this is because teenagers have always known a society with social media where different cultures are shared constantly, and those in cities are always surround by those from different backgrounds due to the educational and job prospects English cities have to offer.
So I don’t think its immigration that is the cause of the simultaneous strengthening and undermining of tolerance in the UK. It is people’s personal opinions that cause the reactions. I believe this is particularly evident in the contrast in opinion on Brexit in adults and those aged between 16 and 17 that wanted to vote but couldn’t. One of the main reasons I have heard the adults around me say is the reason they voted leave, was because they wanted to tighten the borders and allow less migrants into the UK. However, The Student Room forum created an online poll for 16 and 17 year olds to vote on what they would have voted had they been allowed to vote. It was found that because there are 1.46 million 16 and 17-year-olds in the UK - and with that 82 per cent voting Remain - the number would have matched the 1.2 million difference between Out and In, potentially changing the result completely. This clearly shows the contrast in tolerance between generations. This is further evident in the statistic of seventy-five per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds voted to Remain in the EU, meaning the Leave result was largely swung by the over-60s demographic. These facts clearly show the simultaneous strengthening and undermining of tolerance between generations.
Part 2 out of 2
DeleteAlthough, I think the use of the word “tolerance” is incorrect. By definition tolerance is “the ability or willingness to tolerate the existence of opinions or behaviour that one dislikes or disagrees with.” This suggests that the UK and other countries aren’t embracing other cultures and learning from them. Instead it is something we dislike but are putting up with because we have no other choice, which I think is completely wrong. As a country we have grown. To think that in the 1950s (only 60 years ago) with the arrivals of the wind rush generation, Black immigrants from the Caribbean came to England but often could not find housing as there was no anti-discrimination legislation to prevent landlords from refusing to accept black tenants. A survey undertaken in Birmingham in 1956 found that only 15 of a total of 1,000 white people surveyed would let a room to a black tenant. As a result, many black immigrants were forced to live in slum areas of cities, where the housing was of poor quality and there were problems of crime, violence and prostitution. Whereas now in London there is a thriving Notting Hill Carnival, showing the valued Caribbean culture of the many people with Caribbean heritage that live there. It was first held in 1966, with only 500 attendees but now it expects more than one million people to attend over the carnival weekend. So although the UK has got a long way to go with the ever present hate crimes towards those of different cultures, it is clear how we have evolved as a society to embrace the cultures of those different from us.
In the future, when the generation who have grown up with racism all there life have gone, I think cultures will begin to merge immensely and possibly create new cultures of more than one country together, or to create one culture throughout the world as every citizen has understood the importance of mutual respect of cultures and differences. Immigration will be a huge factor in this with the physical introduction of new cultures, but so will globalisation which allows people to virtually understand these different cultures also.
Overall, I think in British society there is a clear contrast in beliefs between tolerances towards immigration, which is closely linked to the different beliefs of generations. But it is evident that with every new decade and generation the British population becomes more diverse and cultures interlink and learn from each other hugely, to the point where I believe that the majority of the British population is passed the point of merely tolerating other cultures, but due to introduction of other customs and beliefs not just through immigration but from social media also, but they understand and respect those that are different to them.
On the one hand, immigration helps to strengthen tolerance. Since the mid to late 20th century and particular in the 21st century, more and more immigrants have entered the country to live permanently. This has meant that the British public are more accustomed to living in a society with foreign people, particularly people from Asian and Eastern European countries. In many cases, this can help improve tolerance - British people seeing and talking to those of different nationalities can lead to British people becoming more friendly and familiar with these people - after all, foreigners and Brits are only separated by language and perhaps beliefs. What can also help tolerance of immigration is immigrants integrating and getting day to day jobs in the community where they would come into contact local people very often e.g. in a local shop, restaurant or barbers etc. Immigrants can also help themselves by going to social events in the community and meeting new people there, as they will most likely be welcomed, befriended and accepted just like anyone else.Therefore, as long as immigrants immigrate and become at least a semi-active and productive member of the community, tolerance of immigrants will improve.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, immigration can undermine tolerance. This tends to happen when different cultures and British people don't have much contact with one another. If immigrants and Brits don't come into contact in day-to-day life, and EITHER party decides to not make an effort to accept the other, then this is where problems start. Also, delud-sorry political groups such as the BNP, EDL and UKIP cause tolerance to be undermined by fear-mongering and promoting action against ALL immigrants, not the minority who are unemployed/commit crime. Moreover, companies such as the BBC can hinder tolerance by making reports and articles overly biased and centred towards foreign-born populations. These articles can irritate people and only cause more bitterness and intolerance towards immigration, when this can be avoided.
Overall, I believe that over time, immigration will strengthen tolerance as immigrants in the UK will be a constant for all those living here. Generations born in the 1990s onwards will be more familiar with living with a large immigrant population and therefore be more tolerant. I myself have always lived in a society with many immigrants and immigrant families, so I am used to this and despite the fact there are negatives to immigration, I accept and tolerate immigrants and have experienced no issues or problems in my own life as a result of this. On the other hand, older generations haven't always lived in a society with immigrants, so they find it harder to tolerate and become used to them. Therefore, immigration both undermines and strengthens tolerance, but immigration will improve the most over time.
I think to some extent immigration strengthens tolerance. The increase of immigration in the majority of countries has led to increased communication between people of different ethnicity. This could lead to not only crushing some stereotypes but realising that just because they haven't come from the country they live in doesn't mean that they are necessary different to people who were born there. I think as immigrants make up a higher percentage of society, there will be a higher rate of tolerance, as they become a continuity. I think as immigrants make more effort to create an intertwined society, they will gain a higher level of tolerance rather than keeping to their own groups where many people see as them rejected society. However, I think when you are new to a country, maybe you don't speak the language or know many people, it's difficult to feel and even be part of the community.
ReplyDeleteTo a larger extent I disagree that immigration strengthens tolerance. However narcissistic and nationalistic this is, I think unfortunately many people still have the opinion they are "better" than immigrants. As the number of immigrants rises it gives right-wing political parties a podium to create more anti-immigration viewpoints which more people will adopt as they see more immigrants around. Natural events like being unemployed or having to wait in a waiting room now can be easily be blamed solely on immigrants for no apparent reason however it's an easier way rather than admit their own complacency.
On one hand immigration does strengthen tolerance as it helps to allow people born in their home country to understand other cultures so their beliefs ideas what they support and don’t support, what their life is like as a whole and their routines etc., compared to ours. So in one aspects I think it does help to strengthen tolerance however I would say it not only strengthens tolerance it can also possibly strengthen acceptance to immigrants and the cultures they bring with them to new countries such as Britain. This is because for a long time ever since the early 19th century to now immigrants have been immigrating here for a number of reasons, a new life or a prospect of living a better life compared to where they used to live. So I would say that immigration has always been there but people are only really realising about it in the 21st century now that there are more media outlets reporting about it and more awareness about it happening. However, I would say it’s a medium sized ideology that immigrants are these awful people who come to other countries to take benefits and claim asylum etc. When really they’re coming here for a better life as where they come from may be a war torn country or a country with very low living standards. When really a lot of them just want to live a normal life. And this idea that they “take our jobs” is right and wrong. This is because yes they technically do “take jobs” but a lot of these are low skilled low paid jobs where the companies can take advantage of the fact they don’t mind taking low wages as low wages to them is a lot of money. However, a lot of these jobs are jobs that are sometimes seen as ones which are too low status for their reputation, such as being a cleaner or other lower skilled jobs. So a lot of views about that are true and false. But sadly this is one of the many views people take against immigration to say that it’s bad however if you look at it in terms of what it does for the economy it’s very beneficial. Many economists agree that immigration brings a range of skilled workers anywhere from low skilled workers to high skilled workers that can fit well into the economy such as taking the low skilled jobs or filling in the higher skilled jobs such as nursing careers or other careers in technology. So I believe it does strengthen acceptance and tolerance.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, however immigration can undermine tolerance. This is due to lots of people not being tolerant to other people’s cultures and ideas so a lot of people can grow hatred and dislike for people as they would see them coming in and getting jobs very easily meaning people in low skilled work or people who are unemployed get annoyed and grow hatred towards those people. This hatred would mainly be directed at the fact that they’re different from the general populace here in Britain so the people would try to target them due to this and this would cause tolerance to be undermined as they aren’t helping as people are becoming angry and directing their anger and hate towards them as they’re supposedly becoming a problem for Britain. This is because a lot of media outlets seem to portray immigration being a bad thing that’s very detrimental for our country. Also the fact that lots of statistics and outlets and politicians portray them this way so people who are intolerant or don’t have much knowledge can easily be lied to by these people saying that immigrants are all bad. When in reality they’re very beneficial for any countries economy and this has been proven by many economists for a long time. Plus, the fact that they also do bring in new cultures and ways of life with brings new much needed diversification for any country. But this still doesn’t help strengthen tolerance to immigrants as people may not believe that they’re useful for our country and might just say that they aren’t helpful to the country in any way shape or form.
Part 2 of this question:
DeleteOverall in my opinion I would say that immigration does help strengthen tolerance but it helps bring more acceptance for immigrants and the cultures they’re bringing to our country as it shows people what their beliefs are. However, I would also say they can cause a lot of commotion and problems with people in our country meaning they can also slightly undermine the tolerance for immigrants in our country as they can make people annoyed that they may be stealing their jobs. Which is slightly true but only because they accept lower wages.