Importance of Diverse Populations Essay

Immigration in the US has been a common practice for quite a long time now and this has resulted into rapid accumulation of diverse populations within America. However, reaction to the diverse population caused by immigration is mixed. Some states are much friendly to foreigners who happen to find their way in their territories while in others, immigrants are highly despised and are treated unequally (Alvarado, 2009).

Diverse populations are significant in strengthening political ties as well as the social-cultural values among people of different backgrounds. Discrimination against immigrants however, has been a regular habit in some parts of the U.S. and this has continued to thwart developmental efforts in the country.

It may not be in the interest of people to offend one another but it is not always easy to avoid conflict and clashes in a diverse population group. In most cases, diverse populations would instill misunderstanding among people. According to Schoenberger (1993), the unmerited prejudice and misunderstandings from her professor would make her more uncomfortable when the professor made offensive comments about her faith.

Schoenberger felt that a lack of education about her faith was the cause of this ignorant statement, and that people must be informed about the truth surrounding her faith. Ignorance does not only exist in religion, but also in conversations between Americans and non-Americans.

In the article ‘Mother Tongue’ the author states that the American public did not listen to her Chinese mother owing to her broken English and as a result of this, her mother’s life in the foreign country would be problematic.

Immigrants do not enjoy equal treatment in some states due to discriminative perceptions and attitudes in various sectors. In ‘Two Ways belong to America,’ the author observes that based on the new anti-immigration bill, green card immigrants are not able to enjoy equal treatment as the genuine American citizens.

Her Indian sister is outstanding in pre-school and contributes her creativity and professional skills to the American education system. However, she had to give up the original nationality to achieve health care and welfare in the U.S. Immigrants are the vulnerable groups because they are not fully protected by the laws in the foreign countries.

In ‘Indian Education,’ although young Sherman did nothing wrong and had spelled all the words in the test rightly, the teacher crumpled up the test paper and made him eat it for the ridiculous reason that he needed to apologize for everything. Physical punishments had broken Sherman’s heart and would cause fellow students to bully him for the teacher had set a bad example by openly executing actions defined by racial differences.

Prejudice is very problematic and could lead to serious problems such as direct conflicts between two parties or groups (Alexie, 2003). The racism prejudice Sherman faced was an example but it did exist commonly in most parts of the country.

Diverse populations help in closing the gaps that exist between people of different cultures however, it is obviously understandable that people would always make much efforts to group themselves with others who belong to their own culture (Brooks, 2003). Segmentation occurs by nature and so local people would tend to keep distance from the immigrants.

According to Brooks (2003), Democratic lawyers within Washington DC would tend to dwell in suburban Maryland while the Republican categories of lawyers lived in Virginia. Both categories however, are not willing to move and they indicate their attitude to each other negatively.

The benefits of having diverse populations in a common environment are many compared to the consequences this is likely to have on the masses. Diplomatic ties among countries are certain to be achieved and strengthened through multicultural interactions, especially through the concept of immigration.

Possibilities of misunderstanding among people of different races, cultures, and traditions can only arise where it is encouraged through discrimination and segmentation. Misunderstanding and prejudice of any nature could be hazardous to the good multicultural relationships that need to be established in the contemporary world where immigration has become more rampant.

References

Alexie, S. (2003). Indian Education. Ten Little Indians. New York: Penguin publishers.

Alvarado, E (2009). Attitudes toward immigrants and multiculturalism in contemporary America: The role of foreign language fluency. Sociation Today, 7 (2), 167-198.

Brooks, D. (2003). People Like Us. Atlantic Monthly, 292 (2), 29-32.

Schoenberger. C. (1993). Getting to know about you and me. Newsweek Magazine, 17 (5), 103-117.