Introduction
With the world’s globalization, immigration rules are being softened resulting into increased immigration, especially in developed countries. However, this increasing immigration has experienced sharp criticism from different organizations and individuals. In Australia, for instance, many people believe that immigrants pose great threats to the local Australian society. Debate rages on the contribution of multiculturalism to a country.
This paper intends to point out that the competitiveness and development of any country can greatly be boosted if the society is multicultural. This thesis is evidenced by the fact that multiculturalism creates employment, leads to a harmonious coexistence and finally, it leads to an increase in GDP and skill level. As a result, countries should encourage immigration so that they acquire a multicultural outfit for their own good.
Job opportunities
Multiculturalism acts as tool by which a country can promote its job opportunities. Studies point out that through a multicultural society; the residents of the country are subjected to job opportunities that were initially non-existent. This statement is very unreasonable in the eyes of a multicultural critique. Most of these critics have argued that multiculturalism which is characterized by immigration results to unemployment.
As a basis of their argument, they point out that the increase in number of immigrants’ leads to an increase in competition for jobs. This perception is especially identified from people from low salary jobs, which need fewer skills. The natives of the country feel that immigrants struggle for survival forces them to compete for the available opportunities that would have been enough for the natives. As a result, some of these natives have to remain jobless as their would have been job positions are taken up by the immigrants. Based on such perception, they remain convinced that immigrants are a form of competition for job openings.
However, scholars find this argument unsubstantial. According to Day (n.d), well-targeted migration policies are great contributors to economic prosperity of a country. Day further argues that economic studies have shown that immigration creates jobs for the natives. For example, Australian job market experiences a boost when immigrants increase in the country. One of the ways through which jobs can be created is through demand created by the immigrants to learn new languages and the physical demands that give Australians business opportunities.
They argue that immigrants cannot survive in the foreign country without equipping themselves with relevant tools that would enable them to get a job. One of these tools is learning the language of their new country. The natives, therefore, take this opportunity to teach them and earn some money. As a result, new job opportunities are created.
Harmonious coexistence
Secondly, multiculturalism leads to a harmonious and peaceful coexistence. When a country is characterized by different cultural and social setups, its chances of living in harmony are increased. Contrarily, critics of multiculturalism argue that with multiculturalism, a society is bound to witness uprisings and intercultural frictions. In fact, some of them purport that multiculturalism leads to terrorism. On his part, William Pfaff pointed out that the “catastrophic” endeavor towards multiculturalism directly resulted into terrorism as witnessed during the London bombings (Hammond 2007).
However, this paper argues that these assertions are baseless and unfounded. Rubble (2006) argues that Washington was a divided city in the lines of race. There was a distinct fault between these two races, a phenomenon that caused frictions. On the other hand, Montreal was a city divided into two distinct groups. Many of the inhabitants of Montreal were distinctly divided in terms of language –those who spoke French and those who spoke English.
Considering this argument, it is important to argue that multiculturalism acts as a tool against ethnic and cultural frictions. As a good example, he cites examples of the two mentioned cities where racial frictions and the frictions between Francophones and Anglophones dominated the scenes. However, with the increased immigration of Hispanics and Asians, the cities have become peace full harmonious. This is further strengthened Hammond (2007) who points out that multiculturalism does not lead to friction. It leads, contrarily, to harmony. He points out that multiculturalism leads to harmonious coexistence between the diverse ethnicities in a country as every minority and religion is respected.
However, in a society that does not embrace multiculturalism, minority groups are not recognized and are suppressed for the dominion of the main group. This resulted in into riots in Macedonia, Croatia, Macedonia, Israel etc. The riots were sparked by suppression of the minority groups. As a result, multiculturalism promotes a country’s cohesion. This could equally be applied on the arguments of terrorism. It is clear that terrorism is a result of a group of people who believe that they are being suppressed.
This can only happen in a society that does not embrace multiculturalism. If the society embraced multiculturalism, the minorities would not be suppressed. They would be accepted and hence a harmonious coexistence would be established. This means that multiculturalism is a good tool that can be used to fight against terrorism and hence critics should not take it the other way round.
An increase in GDP and skill level
Finally, multiculturalism leads to an increase in GDP and skill level. With immigration policies, well-organized, new skills are brought in the country. As a result, the inhabitants of the country may learn the new skills. A raised level of skills leads to an increased production level. Consequently, this raises the GDP of the country. Unfortunately, critics argue otherwise. To them, an increase in the number of immigrants leads to competition on the limited resources and hence an overall reduction in the country’s GDP.
However, studies have shown otherwise. According to Day (n.d), research carried out by Australian National University’s Glenn Withers points out that Australian GDP receives an additional $2 trillion whenever the immigration rate increases by 1%. This means that multiculturalism increase the country’s productivity. This increase in productivity is witnessed from increased level of skills and increases the country’s technological links to the outside world. Victor Chang who assisted form a technological link between South Australia and the United States of America’s company EDS demonstrates a good example of how technological links with the outside world can be helpful for the development of a nation.
In addition, the same individual led to the linkage with Aerospace of Britain. These two companies influenced greatly on the lives of Australians. In addition, the study pointed out that the skill level of the native Australians was comparatively lower than the immigrant skills. Similarly, Chang contributed greatly in the importation of skills form the outside world to South Australia. This led to a general increase in production of the natives. This means that the immigrants increased the skills of Australia as a country. This means that multiculturalism leads to increased production and hence improvement of GDP as natives acquire economic survival skills (James 1998).
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is clear that multiculturalism has been viewed by critics as a way through which unemployment is created, increased competition for resources and public funding, source of terrorism and other intercultural and political conflicts, et cetera. However, this has been found out to be ill founded. For instance, multiculturalism has been found to increase job opportunities within a country, reduce ethnic and racial conflicts, reduce terrorism and finally, it increases the skill level of a country and hence increasing the country’s GDP by arming the natives with relevant skills for an economic survival.
Considering these arguments, it is clear that well planned immigration policies could result into positive impacts on the economic development of the country. Consequently, countries should revisit their immigration policies so that they embrace diversity in races and cultures because this will be essential for their economic development. This can be achieved through simple immigration policies.
List of References
Day, B., n.d. Safety in numbers.
Hammond, J., 2007. Multiculturalism: The ‘pluralism dilemma’. Multiverse. Web.
James, M., 1998. Cultural pluralism: The case for Benign neglect. Institute of Public Affairs, 50(4): pp, 14.
Rubble, B., 2006. Mélange cities: The disruption that immigrants bring is often a benefit. The Wilson quarterly.