What is meant by multiculturalism?

You'd better ask the Scots if they feel wearing kilts and blowing bagpipes is a 'stereotype and a negative way of viewing them'. 🙄
I am a Scot and yes it is.

Parsley3

^You'd better ask the Scots if they feel wearing kilts and blowing bagpipes is a 'stereotype and a negative way of viewing them'. 🙄^
I am a Scot and yes it is.

That's very sad. Don't you still have the Highland Games and lots of other events involving kilts and bagpipes. They were a favourite of the Queen and I think most people appreciated the bagpipes being played at her funeral. There's nothing negative about them.

Having travelled widely and seen many cultures “at home” what seems attractive on the surface is often very repressive under the surface.
Individual rights, women’s right and class discrimination, many of those cultures are now established in the UK, in many cases they have not integrated, while retaining their cultural practices. Some applaud the diversity, to those I say scratch below the surface and think would I accept that culture as mine.

Witzend nowhere have I suggested that the crimes that you have described as "cultural" don't exist, having worked with a number of the ethnic groups that make up the UK's diverse society, I am very well aware that unpleasant illegal things take place but they are not cultural norms and communities should not be stereotyped in this way. Forced marriages, FMG, the grooming of vulnerable girls etc must be called out for what they are ie illegal abusive acts rather than described as "cultural", that is the way you educate people about what is acceptable or not.
Katie59 I do celebrate diversity.
You said in your post, "Individual rights, women’s right and class discrimination, many of those cultures are now established in the UK, in many cases they have not integrated, while retaining their cultural practices."
For generations people have settled here from other countries and contributed to our prosperity, surely the degree to which they "integrate" should be their choice as long as they adhere to our laws and why they shouldn't maintain their own cultures? If English culture is (as some suggest) The Chelsea Flower Show, Wimbledon, The Boat Race etc, I'm not surprised they don't want to integrate. I don't want to either! It worries me very much that whenever there is discussion about the different ethnic groups that make up the UK, the talk is always about forced marriage, FMG, Rotherham etc, never about the very many good things that make up different cultures and the contribution that they make to our society. Is it racism or is it just thoughtless stereotyping? fwiw, scratch the surface of any culture and you will find vile people who do vile things and we are no different, the difference is that we don't describe them as "cultural" if they are white British.

Oh I don’t mind them continuing their good cultural practices, it’s the many bad ones that don’t met our standards that I object to

Katie59

Oh I don’t mind them continuing their good cultural practices, it’s the many bad ones that don’t met our standards that I object to

What are they?

I'm assuming this thread was brought up because of your Home Secretary's speech recently. Let me know if I'm wrong.

Our Multiculturism Act, made into law in 1988 preserves and enhances cultural diversity. But of course laws are written at a static point in time, and countries are always changing, and immigration has changed. What was once a country of mostly British and European immigrants now has large populations from the far East and Asia.

If I were to immigrate to the UK, I wouldn't stand out as being from a different culture, but I would still take time to adjust. But if 20,000 Canadians immigrated and centred themselves in one area of your country, started turning cricket fields to hockey arenas, and wanted to drive on the 'right side' of the road in our neighbourhood, I'm sure many of you would object. You would expect us to assimilate to your culture.

I think governments need to have a good look at their policies, which must constantly be fluid, to accommodate the new incomers. To celebrate diversity while protecting the original culture of the country.

For instance, we have one area of Vancouver that had a large influx of immigrants from China in the 1990's. Many businesses had opened with Chinese only signage, and some residents had objected. Surprisingly, the bylaws of the city regulated how large your sign should be, and if you need a permit, but it didn't say anything about which language your sign should be. It wasn't until just a few years ago that the bylaw was changed to regulate that 50% of the sign should be in English.

This is just an example of governments, both local and national having to adjust to an ever changing population. We can never stay static, and it's a tough balance to get right.

The Danes have come up with this proposal to encourage multiculturalism.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12601127/danish-law-ghettos-immigrants-fury.html

Chestnut

Parsley3

You'd better ask the Scots if they feel wearing kilts and blowing bagpipes is a 'stereotype and a negative way of viewing them'. 🙄
I am a Scot and yes it is.

That's very sad. Don't you still have the Highland Games and lots of other events involving kilts and bagpipes. They were a favourite of the Queen and I think most people appreciated the bagpipes being played at her funeral. There's nothing negative about them.

It isn't sad, because there are still plenty of kilts about - some of them are on splendid men with the physique to look good in them, some are on lesser specimens. Bagpipes too can still be heard, preferably in a Highland Glen with a good space between the player and the listener.

The problem comes when non-Scots think that kilts and bagpipes are the only thing the Scots "do". The natives get very bored at the preponderance of postcards that show a kilted bagpipe player with ginger hair and a red nose and cheeks playing "Scots wha hae" to Nessie. I am sure the inhabitants of Cornwall feel the same about Piskies,. We are more than the stereotypes!

That's very sad. Don't you still have the Highland Games and lots of other events involving kilts and bagpipes. They were a favourite of the Queen and I think most people appreciated the bagpipes being played at her funeral. There's nothing negative about them.

I haven't had time to be sad today as I have been so busy darning a hole in the knee of my kilt and blowing into my bagpipes.
Stereotyping is what I see as negative not the items referred to.

Redhead56

Multiculturalism a society that exists of people from different cultural backgrounds ethnicities and religions.

Your definition is fine as far as it goes, but unless every group in a mulitcultural society has equal rights and are respected equally the minorities in any society are not going to feel respected, are they?

And how do we get it to work?

For example: public holidays in Europe are mainly days that are Christian festivals. Good enough, but what about the other religions represented in our societies today?

If we all have a day off on Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish holidays there would be no working days left in a year, And there would still be religious groups who would have been left out.

So should we ask people to choose whether they want to have time off on their own religious holidays or on the public holidays that have no religious significance for them, or for atheists in ethnically Christian societies?

Could this ever work? It would mean having people off work or school on a lot of days that do not coincide with the present days off.

And this is only one aspect of what respecting everyone's cultural or /and religious background would mean.

It seems to me that British 'culture' is constantly changing. Aren't we absorbing new behaviours and attitudes all the time? The USA has had a big influence e.g. the big fuss made about Halloween, 'elves on shelves', music etc. Other countries like Italy and India have donated food favourites like pasta and curry. The list goes on and on. I'm not sure there ever was an 'English' culture either, somebody from England in 1723 would be puzzled by our behaviour and attitudes in 2023.

It means different ethnic/cultural groups retaining their identity while co-operating within the general society. It requires a willingness to accept from the existing residents and a willingness from the newcomers not to isolate themselves.

I wouldn't venture to define English culture but one word that perhaps used to feature does not exist much these days. It has been downgraded and replaced by fear and loathing.
Tolerance.

Of course the Rotherham grooming was cultural ….they were all Asian men and ALL white girls! To argue it wasn’t is downright foolish and irresponsible ….and doesn’t help!

The world, our country, our neighborhoods, our churches/community centers are becoming a big melting pot. To me, a beautiful humane thing.

Multiculturalism (the term) is always bandied around by racists who are very afraid of losing their identity. They’re exhibiting traits that are very assertive and frightening.

Where will this end up?
USA Gundy

I always understood multi-culturalism to mean that no cultural group would be forced to integrate. Each community would be free to follow their lives following the same cultural norma as they did in their country of origin.

In practice that means cultural ghettos, where women, in particular are denied by their community elders(all men) from the freedom of marriage choices, education, careers etc that the wider community takes for granted. It has made police and outside groups very unwilling to interfere with these groups to ensure that all members have the same rights as the wider british community and has led to the unwillingness to investigate crimes like those sexual exploitation cases in Rotheram and Oxford, where the men involved came from a specific ethnic group.

I am all for all ethnic groups continuing to know and cherish their ethnic traditions. I am half Irish and treasure my Irish ethnicity and I remain a catholic, but my adherence to the churches teachings, for example, is voluntary, and my family do not reject me or persecute me for breaking them, no one tells me who to marry, nor stops me from getting a good education, or harms me in anyway if I do anything they disapprove of.

Now many ethnic group communities from all over the world have integrated into Britain as the Irish have, but some have not and British authorities have protected them by refusing to challenge unacceptable behaviour.

Alison it has been said a hundred times on here Halloween was taken TO the USA by Scots and Irish settlers (immigrants) its not an american import .Its always been here just not in your part of great Britain.Thats perhaps the intolerance mentioned above,if you dont like something or somebody its because you dont see it as "native" when many things were/are just not native to England.

Witzend

The trouble is, to many people IMO it’s meant turning an official blind eye (for fear of accusations of racism) to cultural practices like forced marriages of very young girls and FGM.
Not to mention all the Rotherham grooming business.

i think that is what was meant. I think, more subtly that that fear of being accused of racism can result in the oppression of women due to a culture's ethnic or religious beliefs being applied to the extreme. I will absolutely support a woman's choice to be hijabi, to wear burka and niqab in public, to go into an arranged marriage, to not work outside the home, to shave her head and wear a shtetl, to have a large family because her church forbids contraception and so on...but it should be HER choice.

M0nica

I always understood multi-culturalism to mean that no cultural group would be forced to integrate. Each community would be free to follow their lives following the same cultural norma as they did in their country of origin.

In practice that means cultural ghettos, where women, in particular are denied by their community elders(all men) from the freedom of marriage choices, education, careers etc that the wider community takes for granted. It has made police and outside groups very unwilling to interfere with these groups to ensure that all members have the same rights as the wider british community and has led to the unwillingness to investigate crimes like those sexual exploitation cases in Rotheram and Oxford, where the men involved came from a specific ethnic group.

I am all for all ethnic groups continuing to know and cherish their ethnic traditions. I am half Irish and treasure my Irish ethnicity and I remain a catholic, but my adherence to the churches teachings, for example, is voluntary, and my family do not reject me or persecute me for breaking them, no one tells me who to marry, nor stops me from getting a good education, or harms me in anyway if I do anything they disapprove of.

Now many ethnic group communities from all over the world have integrated into Britain as the Irish have, but some have not and British authorities have protected them by refusing to challenge unacceptable behaviour.

you put it better than I did.

I just looked up Rotherham exploitation; I was unaware of it. How horrible and shocking, especially that it had been reported on for years and nothing had been done.

The trick is for governments to celebrate and protect multiculturalism within the bounds of the existing laws. The age of consent here is 16; any suspected wrongdoing would be reported and acted upon.

There are rights for people to have interpreters if they are required in a court of law, whether being charged, or acting as a witness.

There are now rules about when a burka can be worn (or rather, when it must be lifted for purposes of identification).

All of these changes have taken within recent history, and have caused debate. Society and laws must be always adjusting to encompass multiculturalism. It's not always popular, and I think this is why we have so much right-wing radicalism these days.

Is the Australian National anthem not a wee bit ironic, given the legacy of colonialism and massacre of the First Nations people; long standing appalling treatment of refugees and asylum seekers to Australia and, currently, what is going on with The Voice referendum? If a ‘No’ vote is returned Australia should, justifiably, be steeped in shame.

Elegran: I'm sure the inhabitants of Cornwall feel the same about Piskies.
I'm Cornish and have never heard anyone so much as mention a pisky here. But take pasties... if there was a movement to replace Cornish pasties with, say, meat pies there would be uproar.

Saggi

Of course the Rotherham grooming was cultural ….they were all Asian men and ALL white girls! To argue it wasn’t is downright foolish and irresponsible ….and doesn’t help!

Incorrect and a very damaging statement. The behaviour of these men is not cultural. The majority of Pakistani heritage people will find their treatment of vulnerable children as abhorrent as you do and I do. It was ignorance like this that prevented the police from taking action as soon as they became aware of what was happening and continuing to describe their behaviour in these terms is what is really irresponsible. As someone else has said these men were vile people doing vile illegal things to vulnerable children. They were criminals and also dealt in drugs,used alcohol, were violent etc All of these things are forbidden under Islam.

It’s all about interpretation, the Koran says that women should dress modestly, I have no problem with that, walk through the city streets in UK you will see that interpreted in a very extreme way.