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A great deal of attention has been paid in recent years to another aspect of cultural diversity—multiculturalism, or an environment in which cultural differences are accepted and appreciated both by the state and by the majority group (Pakulski 2014). The cultural groups may be based on race, ethnicity, nationality, or language. They may also be based on age and other dimensions of difference. People in the United States, for example, generally accept that young and old people have their own cultural preferences. Americans for the most part tolerate—sometimes even celebrate—the coexistence of different cultural groups within the larger culture.

When it comes to ethnicity and national origin, however, multiculturalism has not always been celebrated in this country. The dominant culture has been interested primarily in assimilation, or integrating the minority group into the mainstream. As a so-called nation of immigrants, the United States has always had to resolve issues of cultural diversity. Until late in the twentieth century, most immigrants to the United States were from Europe, especially eastern and southern Europe. Many of these groups did assimilate to a large degree, even if their assimilation occurred over a couple of generations. Today we do not think twice about whether Polish Americans or Italian Americans, for instance, are “regular” Americans.

But immigrants from the next large wave, in the 1990s and 2000s, have not assimilated so well. Figure 3.3 demonstrates that the largest flow of immigrants is now from the Americas, with another large—and growing—group from Asia. These immigrants, especially those from Mexico and China, often live in largely separate enclaves and often speak their native languages (see Figure 3.4 for a map depicting the percentage of the population speaking a language other than English at home). They also often retain their basic cultures, such as their tastes in food. It remains to be seen whether, and to what degree, these groups will be assimilated into mainstream culture or their culture will be accepted as a valued element of American culture.

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Figure 3.3 Regions of Birth for Immigrants in the United States, 1960–2016

Sources: Migration Policy Institute (MPI) tabulation of data from U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 and 2017 American Community Surveys (ACS), and 2000 Decennial Census; data for 1960 to 1990 are from Campbell J. Gibson and Emily Lennon, “Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-Born Population of the United States: 1850–1990” (Working Paper No. 29, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, D.C., February 1999).

In the past, Muslims have generally assimilated well in the United States (Freedman 2016). The future of their assimilation, however, is in doubt (Bulut 2016). This is a result of the current widespread hostility toward Muslims (especially toward radical Islamic extremists) because of their perceived association with 9/11 and terrorism in the United States and many other parts of the world. This hostility increased greatly during the 2016 presidential campaign and in the early years of Trump’s presidency when he suggested and then implemented a temporary ban on Muslim immigration to the United States. In mid-2018 the Supreme Court upheld the ban on immigrants, but only from five primarily Muslim countries. It remains to be seen how long this ban will remain in effect, but Muslims, as well as members and supporters of the rights of all minority groups, have every reason to be alarmed.

Muslims who have already assimilated may face more hostility in the future, and newcomers may have a harder time assimilating. This hostility toward Muslims in the United States (and elsewhere) exists even though many of the attacks by radical Islamists have taken place in Muslim-dominated countries and Muslims have constituted a disproportionate percentage of the victims (Barnard 2016).

Multiculturalism is a relatively recent issue for many European societies, particularly the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands. They have traditionally been almost monocultures, and even now, during a period of widespread global migration, they have a smaller proportion of foreign-born residents than the United States has. However, beginning in the 1950s, many European countries began to experience labor shortages (Fassmann and Munz 1992; Fielding 1989). Large numbers of people from poorer southern European countries, such as Spain and Italy, migrated to northern European countries. Later, migration flowed from less developed countries outside Europe, such as Turkestan; other largely Islamic countries; and many African countries. The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought additional eastern Europeans from places such as Albania. Many northern European governments had intended for these immigrant workers to stay only a short time. However, the immigrants built lives for themselves, brought their families, and chose to remain. The result is that European countries today are far more multicultural than they were several decades ago.

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Figure 3.4 Percentage of U.S. Population Speaking a Language Other than English at Home, 2016

Sources: American Community Survey (ACS), U.S. Census Bureau (Department of Commerce)

Ask Yourself

If you were born in the United States, imagine yourself as an immigrant to another country, one to which you have no cultural or genealogical ties and where you know no one. What would you do on your arrival in order to survive? Would you seek out other Americans? Why or why not? Would you try to assimilate? How?

More recent immigrants to largely Christian Europe bring with them very different cultures and very different religions (Islam, for example). They are also likely to be relatively poor. As a relatively small, monocultural country, the Netherlands has had trouble digesting its roughly 850,000 Muslim immigrants, and relations between Muslims and non-Muslims have grown increasingly polarized (Maliepaard and Alba 2016). The same is true in Belgium, which has sought to accommodate the burgeoning Muslim population by de-Christianizing its own holidays (for example, All Saints Day was renamed Autumn Holiday; Kern 2014). In spite of such efforts, concerns about the Muslim population in Belgium continue, epitomized by the coordinated attacks in Brussels in March 2016, which killed 35 people and injured hundreds of others.

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