“In the world, immigrants have brought different cultural manifestations”

The clause above is supposedly an excerpt from an argument of who defends the immigration and is against the nationalism. We can’t deny, in fact immigration have brought different cultural manifestations from a country to another around the world. It’s a pleasure when we can access and know a big diversity of cultural manifestations in a same place. Our country, Brazil, is the great example of multiculturalism in the world. We have several regions, states and cities each one with its own particular cultural variety. Also, our country has received a lot of cultural influence from various places of the world as Africa, Asia and Europe.

Recently we have seen a kind of ‘nationalist awakening’ around the world in reaction to the increasing global migration flows. There are countries suddenly closing the doors for immigrants or hindering the immigration process to people from other countries. In some cases, it is not a political position but a people’s choice, as happened in England recently. Among the various justifications, we have one that deserves our attention: “that mass immigration can negatively affect the customs and culture of a target location”. Some surveys claim that most immigrants come from poorer countries, often politically and economically unstable. They also say that these immigrants have extremely high birth rates and will at some point overtake the number of natives, and that would change or even extinguish the local culture and customs. Auster (1990).

I can not say that multiculturalism is negative, but the idea of becoming a minority in your own home is a very unfortunate reality. What happened to my beloved homeland Cuiabá, is an example of this. One of our most precious cultural assets, our characteristic language and accent, was practically extinguished due to the large influx of immigrants from the south of the country in the 1940s and 1980s. The people who arrived brought with them their own customs and culture and unfortunately The language cuiabano was hard discriminated by the people who arrived here. The result is that today we do not hear more people talking in that way peculiar, that way of speaking only resists in some riverside and peripheral communities.

There are many arguments for and against immigration, and this is a complicated and challenging issue for all countries and people involved in this migration process. I do not have much knowledge on this subject but I risk to show some suggestions. I think the immigrants would be nicer as they strive to adapt to the customs, rules and cultural of the place where they are immigrating. And the people of the receiving countries should develop the idea that moderate immigration only enriches the local culture and economy.

References:

Mass Immigration ─It's Effect on Our Culture. Disponível em<http://www.mnforsustain.org/auster_l_mass_immigration_effect_on_culture.htm>

AUSTER, L. The Path to National Suicide. An Essay on Immigration and Multiculturalism. 1990. Disponível em <http://www.jtl.org/auster/PNS.pdf>

PERDOMO, P.R. Os Efeitos da Migração. Disponível em <http://files.bvs.br/upload/S/1555-8746/2007/vn4/a111-123-2.pdf>

Notas sobre a colonização de Mato Grosso. Disponível em:<http://upcommons.upc.edu/bitstream/handle/2099/14123/DACUNHAGALVAO_Josiani.pdf?sequence=1>