America is a country built by people from different backgrounds. It is a nation comprising of people who migrated from other parts of the world, some willingly and others forcefully through slavery. All these people have their different cultures and the majority of them hold to them making America a land of cultural, racial and religious diversity.
The people who founded and built America migrated from various places of the world and they included the Europeans, Jews, Italians, Germans, Filipinos, Indians, Africans and the Irish among others. Even now, America still experiences massive immigrations mostly from Latin America, Asia, and Africa. The increased development of different cultures in America as well as social, political economic, racial and religious diversity affects the American nation in many ways.
There are both merits and demerits of the diversity in America. This diversity has enabled the people from different backgrounds to live together and understand the diverse cultures and practices of other people. The diversity is important in the educational processes of the American people as they learn from what is practically present with them.
These people also participate in these educational processes, which contribute to their development. Cultural diversity is important in economic development. It gives people involved in business to know the desires and needs of other cultures in the world and thus help them to come up with business strategies. The diversity in language is well exploited in this process.
Diversity also determines the health of a country or region. The more diverse a country is, the more innovative its citizens are likely to be and less resistant to innovations and change. It also gives individuals an opportunity to develop their personal skills by learning from each other. This not only leads to personal growth, but also leads to economic, social, spiritual and political growth.
On the other hand, diversity in the American nation has a number of negative effects. Segregation and discrimination in America has led to a heterogeneous nation divided along racial lines. This affects development negatively as the segregated group does not get enough opportunity to exploit their potential. They also pull back in developmental issues, which can impair the development rate of the country. Conflicting cultures also create conflicts between the citizens thus disrupting the unity of the nation.
Most of the immigrants to America came in with their traditional heritage and they are determined to maintain their practices. In this way, these immigrants overlooked the heritage of the traditional Americans.
The issue of maintaining a diverse heritage in America is what brought a misunderstanding between the communities involved and led to the marginalization of the immigrants. Some of the immigrants, such as some groups of the African Americans, felt inferior in their culture and decided to drop their heritage in favor of the original American heritage; however, they did not succeed.
Still, the traditional heritages of the immigrants make it easier to draw clear lines between the different communities holding different heritage practices in America. Their heritage makes them to be more unacceptable by the early American nationals who demand that the immigrants be assimilated to the American culture.
In order for a nation to remain one, the people have to accept the diversity of cultures in the nation and appreciate each other’s culture. The governing bodies should also do away with discriminative policies and come up with those that can unite the country.
In conclusion, America is a country that was founded on “the back of immigration” and therefore has people with different cultural and historical backgrounds. To unite this country language is a major tool to use and the American people should learn diverse languages. The citizens should appreciate each other’s culture and learn to live together as a united nation.