Multiculturalism in the United States of America

         This next post will discuss the role multiculturalism has played in the United States of America since it has been a nation. It could be argued that America is a huge success story for multiculturalism. People from so many different places travelled to America to start a new life when it was a new nation. This means that the people who live their today have a vast range of ancestry.

People from many different European countries and African countries went to live in America. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Census-2000-Data-Top-US-Ancestries-by-County.svg, this diagram shows the main ancestral background in different states of America. It is incredible how much of a variation in different cultures we see here, ranging from English to Eskimo. America has gone on to be a very powerful country in the world, so this early diversity clearly contributed to the nation’s success.

 For most of recent history, America has seen a large settling of Mexicans in their country. Historically, Spain colonised a lot of South America, and they also had a presence in North America, notably Mexico. There is a large amount of Spanish talking people in the southern states of the US, showing that there has always been a Hispanic presence in the country, but is this a bad thing? At the very least, it shows that immigration to America is not a thing of the past, it still happens on a large scale.

Many Americans are against Mexican settling in their country, but is there any real reason for this? http://mexicanmigration.wikia.com/wiki/American_Views_and_Opinions_(Negative), this link explains how Mexicans are discriminated against in America. The website claims that the everyday American believes that Mexican immigrants will take their jobs and change American culture. But these individuals fail to recognise that their own ancestors emigrated from another country, and the country has gone on to thrive as a result. The Mexican population in America provide much needed help with jobs that need to be fulfilled to ensure America’s continued success.

Multiculturalism has always been a part of America’s heritage and success. The fact that the country now has its own identity and culture, shows that people from different backgrounds can integrate together in order to make one bigger united society. Can the rest of the world’s nations take a leaf out of America’s book, and accept the ideals of various different cultures? My prediction is that eventually we will see something similar on a global scale, and we will have a United Nations of the World scenario, where every individual is vastly cultured, and people do not conflict with each other over petty ancestral differences.