vivalarevolución wrote:
But this quote leads me to an interesting question: What exactly is the larger culture in the USA? How do we characterize this larger culture that immigrants should assimilate into?
Generally speaking, at least as I see it, the US is host to a variety of regional cultures. New England is different than the Deep South, which is different than Southern California... It is hard to pin down. Europe at very least has languages to compartmentalize things.
That being said, there are a few principles that I feel (personally) are uniquely "American" (sometimes for better or worse)... the pioneer "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" attitude is one. The "my home, my castle" mentality. The 6 days Secular; 7th day Christian. The "I have my rights" while others are "getting away with something".
I think one of the most fundamental is the respect for individual liberty. This is why people on both sides of the political fence find people like Mike Pence so offensive. Basically, if you do your job, pay your taxes, are a good neighbor, and generally don't act like an asshole, you can more or less do whatever you want in your own home, so long as it doesn't harm others. You can worship who you want. With re: to civil rights, you can marry whom you want. You can (providing certain requirements for safety and criminal status) own a gun. You can think whatever you want to think.
Generally speaking, history has bore that if this principle is upheld and immigrants aren't held to a higher standard, they assimilate (while keeping what pieces of their culture they wish). My mother's family immigrated from Poland in the 60's. Even if they eat weird Polish shit on holidays or celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, nobody bats an eye. One of my close friends where I grew up in Central PA was half Iraqi and half German-American. Nobody really batted an eye at his family, even if his father was Muslim and his mom was Presbyterian. Nobody gave a crap that the Kononovs down the street would take off time from school in early January, since they celebrated Christmas on the Orthodox calendar. It was nobody's damn business and they were productive, normal citizens.
I think people's fear is that because that many recent waves of immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East come from very restrictive cultures, that they will want to extend that to American life. If you don't hold them to a higher standard, they aren't going to be interested in instituting shiria law on the populace, because you aren't shoving Christian bullshit down their throats. Everyone is allowed to do as they please, so long as they don't hurt people. If their culture condones what is broadly considered societially harmful behaviors (child marriage, force marriage, etc.) we already have laws for that, which everyone is accountable to... not just them.
I think putting the razor focus in the US (and in France) on fresh Muslim immigrants and refugees only serves to make them *less* American (or French or whatever). Also, what people often forget, the ones who immigrate are often those with slightly more means the average (hence being able to get so far, and not wind up in a camp in Turkey or something), probably have marketable, if not valuable skills, etc. I bet, if you take a look at the Iranian immigrants to the US during the late 1970's, at least half were engineers, doctors, etc. Why? The smart and well to do can jump ship quicker in times of crisis, and wind up someplace better. I actually think most people I know who were of Persian extraction who grew up in the US (at least in the Northeast) had white-collar parents.
Likewise, I have a Syrian refugee family next door. I'm not even kidding. The condo next door, in a nice Stockholm suburb is a husband, wife, and 1 year old baby who moved from Damascus. He used some of his business contexts to basically get the fuck out there before the shit that has been going on in the east is happening in the capital. He's white collar and they are both very nice. Are they the rule? No... but they are not a rarity. They aren't winding up in camps or ghettos, obviously, but this shit happens.
My grandparents were fairly well to do. They owned their own business. They were much much more comfortable in Communist Poland than 90% of people. However, in talking with my grandfather, he said he couldn't stay when he knew people were being taken by the police randomly and interrogated, and regardless of how he and his wife successfully navigated the system, that his three children would not necessarily be guaranteed the education or career they wanted. So he moved. They wound up in rather blue-collar jobs until they retired, but their children went to what school they wanted (including two with Masters degrees) and their kids lived lives for greater freedom.
I think this is what makes Americans American. Conversely, if we punish those fleeing from shit situations because we are afraid of a couple bad apples, then we literally build communities of non-Americans in our country.
Anyway, I am probably ranting. As a child of an immigrant and as a immigrant to another country, I have a little more stake in the matter.
Also, perhaps informative of what I am about, I grew up in Lancaster, PA. The county (primarily founded by those escaping religious persecution) has I think more churches per capita (and of more denominations and religions) than I think any other place in the US. Even though the city is slightly "blue", the area is pretty solidly "red" politically. Suburban Republican... so not particularly crazy religious-right type, but now taxes, family, and "all politics is local".
Here is what Lancaster is like in re: to immigrants/refugees/etc.:
https://theoutline.com/post/985/where-t ... mmigration
Also (and I can find the article... will later... but should get back to the grind), the county boast 0 homeless veterans. The Democratic and Republican leadership worked through several initiatives against homelessness, giving priority and precedence to vets. So regardless what what some people in Washington say, if you work hard enough on it, you can make the principled initiatives and make them stick.
I think, fundamentally, the Republicans in Washington, DC have largely forgot about what it is to be an American, and the Democrats, in being so desperate to stop the bleeding, try to push whatever they can to try to fix it, whether or not it actually is implemented in a way that works. Honestly, most Republicans I know actually wish there was a good single-payer insurance system... just that Obamacare was a half-measure that winds up costing more than it should, due to the pharma and insurance lobbies still holding the government by the balls. The Democrats *basically say the same thing*, the implementation was kind of half-assed, but was a necessary start. You can cite that in MA, when Romneycare (which was completely bi-partisan) was put in place (and basically the same thing), the State government adjusted the standards for insurance operators in the state to comply or not operate in their market.
I think the current batch in Washington (especially rallying around Trump) are making themselves look like cartoon villains rather than politicians seeking to serve their constituents and their needs. Which is a shame. You look at Republicans on the State-government level, and they are still focused more on the needs of their community and even though philosophically opposed sometimes to the Dems, generally work as a team to get the compromise that works the best for the greatest amount. DC politics has degraded to "which hill do we want to die on" all or nothing bullshit and unfortunately, the GOP is looking more and more arbitrary and foolish.
It's sad.
