Politehnica University of Bucharest

FILS

MULTICULTURALISM
and

NATIONAL IDENTITY

Professor,
Ovidiu Caraiani
Students,
1212E

1. Multiculturalism
Definition:
Multiculturalism is the acceptance or promotion of multiple ethnic cultures, applied to the
demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g. schools,
businesses, neighborhoods, cities or nations. In this context, multiculturalists advocate extending
equitable status to distinct ethnic and religious groups without promoting any specific ethnic,
religious, and/or cultural community values as central.
The policy of multiculturalism is often contrasted with the concepts assimilationism and social
integration.
Support for multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is seen by its supporters as a fairer system that allows people to truly express
who they are within a society, that is more tolerant and that adapts better to social issues. They argue
that culture is not one definable thing based on one race or religion, but rather the result of multiple
factors that change as the world changes.
Opposition to multiculturalism
When criticizing multiculturalism, it is important to first define the term. Andrew Heywood
distinguishes between two overall forms of multiculturalism: descriptive and normative. "The term
multiculturalism has been used in a variety of ways, both descriptive and normative. As a
descriptive term, it has been taken to refer to cultural diversity As a normative term,
multiculturalism implies a positive endorsement, even celebration, of communal diversity, typically
based on either the right of different groups to respect and recognition, or to the alleged benefits to
the larger society of moral and cultural diversity.
Nation states that, in the case of many European nations, would previously have been
synonymous with a distinctive cultural identity of their own, lose out to enforced multiculturalism
and that this ultimately erodes the host nations distinct culture.
Other critics argue that multiculturalism leads directly to restrictions in the rights and freedoms
for certain groups and that as such, it is bad for democracy, undemocratic and against universal
human rights.
The anti-thesis of multiculturalism is moral, religious, and cultural solidarity among the people
of a nation. Belief in one's self and the ultimate good of his people. A cohesiveness that produces a
national vision, with set boundaries of acceptability and unacceptability in the affairs of a nation,
while allowing for the natural differences in men. Multiculturalism as a tool of warfare becomes
impotent and rejected in such an environment.
Can Multiculturalism Reduce Prejudice?
The term multiculturalism has recently come into usage to describe a society characterized by
a diversity of cultures. Religion, language, customs, traditions, and values are some of the
components of a culture, but more importantly culture is the lens through which one perceives and
interprets the world.
In the past several years there has been a growing trend towards multiculturalism in many areas
of our society. Most of these trends are found on college and university campuses. we think this is
likely due to a belief that the traditional Christian American values and views are unable to deal with
the growing numbers of various ethnic minorities in our society. Although this trend would seem
able to change society for the better,we believe that it has been and will be largely ineffective. It
does, however, have some possible advantage over society's traditional view.
The Contact Hypothesis states that increasing contact between groups can in some
circumstances decrease prejudice between them. It is possible that education about various cultural

groups alone, could reduce prejudice similarly to actual contact; by increasing recognition of
similarities, providing information that goes against the stereotypical grain, and breaking down the
illusion of out-group homogeneity. It would likely do so less than contact.
Multiculturalism might be able to reduce prejudice without building the resentment among different
nationalities.

2. Globalization
Multiculturalism also rises the problem of globalization, the name of a process of increasing the
connectivity and interdependence of the world's markets and businesses. This process has speeded
up dramatically in the last two decades as technological advances make it easier for people to travel,
communicate, and do business internationally.
Globalization, or the increased interconnectedness and interdependence of people and countries,
is generally understood to include It is recognized that globalization has both positive and negative
impacts on development.
Contemporary analysts associate globalization with deterritorialization, according to which a
growing variety of social activities takes place irrespective of the geographical location of
participants.
Even though geographical location remains crucial for many undertakings (for example, farming
to satisfy the needs of a local market), deterritorialization manifests itself in many social spheres.
Business people on different continents now engage in electronic commerce; television allows
people situated anywhere to observe the impact of terrible wars being waged far from the comfort of
their living rooms; academics make use of the latest video conferencing equipment to organize
seminars in which participants are located at disparate geographical locations; the Internet allows
people to communicate instantaneously with each other notwithstanding vast geographical distances
separating them. Territory in the sense of a traditional sense of a geographically identifiable location
no longer constitutes the whole of social space in which human activity takes places. In this initial
sense of the term, globalization refers to the spread of new forms of non-territorial social activity.

The negative effects of globalization:

Opponents of globalization point out to its negative effects. Some of them are listed below.
Developed nations have outsourced manufacturing and white collar jobs.
That means less jobs for their people. This has happened because manufacturing work is
outsourced to developing nations like China where the cost of manufacturing goods and wages
are lower. Programmers, editors, scientists and accountants have lost their jobs due to
outsourcing to cheaper locations like India.
Globalization has led to exploitation of labor.
Prisoners and child workers are used to work in inhumane conditions.
Safety standards are ignored to produce cheap goods.
Job insecurity. Earlier people had stable, permanent jobs. Now people live in constant dread of
losing their jobs to competition. Increased job competition has led to reduction in wages and
consequently lower standards of living.
Terrorists have access to sophisticated weapons enhancing their ability to inflict damage.
Terrorists use the Internet for communicating among themselves.
Companies have set up industries causing pollution in countries with poor regulation of
pollution.
Fast food chains like McDonalds and KFC are spreading in the developing world. People are
consuming more junk food from these joints which has an adverse impact on their health.

The benefits of globalization is not universal. The rich are getting richer and the poor are
becoming poorer.
Bad apects of foreign cultures are affecting the local cultures through TV and the Internet.
Enemy nations can spread propaganda through the Internet.
Deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS are being spread by travellers to the remotest corners of the
globe.
Local industries are being taken over by foreign multinationals.
The increase in prices has reduced the governments ability to sustain social welfare schemes in
developed countries.
There is increase in human trafficking.

The positive aspect of globalization

Globalization has a positive side as well. Supporters of globalization argue that it is good and
beneficial. Some of their arguments are listed below.
- Globalization has created the concept of outsourcing.
- Work such as software development, customer support, marketing, accounting and insurance is
outsourced to developing countries like India. So the company that outsourced the work enjoys
the benefit of lower costs because the wages in developing countries is far lower than that of
developed countries. The workers in the developing countries get employment. Developing
countries get access to the latest technology.
- Increased competition forces companies to lower prices. This benefits the end consumers.
- Increased media coverage draws the attention of the world to human right violations. This leads
to improvement in human rights.
Cultural effects of globalization
Culture" is defined as patterns of human activity and the symbols that give these activities
significance. Culture is what people eat, how they dress, beliefs they hold, and activities they
practice. Globalization has joined different cultures and made it into something different. As Erla
Zwingle, from the National Geographic article titled "Globalization" states, "When cultures receive
outside influences, they ignore some and adopt others, and then almost immediately start to
transform them."
One classic culture aspect is food. Someone in America can be eating Japanese noodles for
lunch while someone in Sydney, Australia is eating classic Italian meatballs. India is known for its
curry and exotic spices. France is known for its cheeses. North America is known for its burgers and
fries. McDonald's is a North American company which is now a global enterprise with 31,000
locations worldwide. This company is just one example of food causing cultural influence on the
global scale.
Another common practice brought about by globalization is the usage of Chinese characters in
tattoos. These tattoos are popular with today's youth despite the lack of social acceptance of tattoos
in China. Also, there is a lack of comprehension in the meaning of Chinese characters that people
get, making this an example of cultural appropriation.
The internet breaks down cultural boundaries across the world by enabling easy, nearinstantaneous communication between people anywhere in a variety of digital forms and media. The
Internet is associated with the process of cultural globalization because it allows interaction and
communication between people with very different lifestyles and from very different cultures. Photo
sharing websites allow interaction even where language would otherwise be a barrier.

3. Cultural nation. National identity

The concept of cultural nation poses one of the major problems in the humanities since there
is no consensus how to define it. A base line would be to say that the members of a cultural nation

are aware of constituting an ethical-political body together, which is differentiated from others by the
members sharing a number of defining cultural features. Those features can include language,
religion, tradition, or shared history. All this can be taken as a sign of a historically evolved distinct
culture. The question whether a nation needs to have an associated territory is subject of debate.
The concept of cultural nation is normally coupled with a historical doctrine taking as a
principle that all humans can be divided into groups called nations. In this sense, we are dealing with
an ethical and philosophical doctrine which is at the basis of the ideology of nationalism. The
members of a nation are distinguished by a common identity and generally by a shared origin and
the sense of common ancestry.
National identity specially refers to the distinction of specific features of a group. A vast array
of different criteria are used, with a range of different applications. Like this, small differences in
pronunciation or different dialects can be sufficient to categorize someone as a member of a different
nation. On the other hand, some persons can have diverging personalities and beliefs, live in
different places and speak different languages and still see each other as members of the same
nation. Furthermore, there are cases in which a group of persons defines itself as a nation not based
on the features they have, but for the features they lack or dislike. The feeling of belonging to a
nation is then used as a defense against other groups, even if these other groups would appear to be
closer in matters of ideology cultural practices. Finally, members of a nation can emphasize their
common history despite ethnic and linguistic differences, as is the case of Switzerland, which sees it
self as a "Willensnation" (nation by will).
The cultural nation and the state
A state which identifies itself explicitly as the home of a cultural nation is a nation-state.
Many of the modern states are in this category or try to legitimize their existence in this way,
although there might be disputes and contradictions as to the appropriateness of this. Because so
many of the states are nation-states, the words "nation", "country", and "state" are often used
synonymously.
If the cultural nation is conceptualized as exclusively ethnic, and not as requiring a territory, a
number of nations without land can be found. A prominent example would be the "gypsy nation"-- a
cultural nation can exist without having an independent state, and not all independent states are
cultural nations. Many independent states are simply administrative unions of different cultural
nations or peoples.
Other examples of cultural nations without states are the Jews before the creation of the state
of Israel. On the other hand, states like Belgium consist of several cultural nations, most prominently
Flemish and Walloons. The question of whether the state of Canada harbours one cultural nation or
two (British Canadian and Qubcois) has been object of political debate as well. It could also be
said that the nations of the English, Scottish and Welsh are also nations without states as they exists
as a larger sovereign state known as the United Kingdom.
Common language
A language is the primary ingredient in the making of a nation. Without a common language
a nation cannot evolve. A common Culture, a common History is dependent on Language. Also to
deal with everyday affairs within a group of people living in a specified boundary need a common
mean of communication to trade and socialize. Thus even if a group of people sharing common
Language, Culture and History may live in different countries but would still consider themselves
attached to their respective nations as long as they share the same language.
Common culture
Many nations are constructed around the idea of a shared culture, the national culture. The
national culture can be assumed to be shared with previous generations, and includes a cultural
heritage from these generations. As with the common ancestry, this identification of past culture with

present culture may be largely symbolic. The archaeological site of Stonehenge for instance is
owned and managed by English Heritage, although no 'English' people or state existed when it was
constructed, 4 000 to 5 000 years ago. Other nations have similarly appropriated ancient
archaeological sites, literature, art, and even entire civilizations as 'national heritage'.
Identity is defined as when you ask yourself "who we are and with whom we fit". There are
many kinds of social identity such as national identity, regional identity, and racial identity, ethnic
identity, economic super-regions etc. National identity mean "relating to, or belonging to a nation as
an organized whole". Ethnic identity mean "relating to a sizable group of people sharing a common
and distinctive racial, national, religious, linguistic, or cultural heritage", and "Being a member of a
particular ethnic group, especially belonging to a national group by heritage or culture but residing
outside its national boundaries".
National identity, according to Parekh encompasses three components:
a) a common constitution of a political community, including agreed rules, laws and norms,
b) images of the nation, shared between members of a national community and
c) a sense of personal commitment to the community.
All the above are characterised by a degree of subjectivity and dynamism. That is, none of
them can be precisely circumscribed or unanimously defined, nor can they remain static in place and
time. With respect to the importance of the national identity in a persons self-identification, it seems
that the second and third element play a significant role and are related to fundamental psychological
processes.
A fundamental constituent of a nation and a common element that functions as a unifying
factor is its shared traditions. There seem to be two categories of tradition; the first includes 'pure'
ones, those that their roots lie in the past and have been preserved in time, interwoven with the
nation's habits, norms, values and practices and that are an integral part of people's national identity.
The second category refers to the traditions which are invented. These are artificial outwardly
'imposed' to the nation and might serve political or other purposes, functioning as a unifying factor
or a factor enhancing faithfulness to the nation. Eric Hobsbaum distinguishes between three types of
tradition. The first includes traditions that reflect the social cohesion of a nation, the second includes
traditions that operate for the interest of the ruling classes and the third the medium for implanting or
'enforcing' ideals, values or rituals. The two latter types are examples of invented traditions.
The negative element of invented traditions is that when called for the manipulation of the masses
can function as a covert way of fanatising people, cultivating racism and prejudice and intolerance
for every out-group. Similar feelings of national pride or faithfulness to the national group were
exploited by the Second-World-War Nazi authorities in order to bring about the Jewish holocaust as
part of an "ultimate mission". The symbols of the Nazi invented traditions were their anthem, the
swastika, the formal military salute and many other which helped the representatives of the "Arean
Nation" to establish the sense of uniqueness and superiority and to strengthen the sense of unity and
solidarity.
Religious faith is in important constituent of national identity. The intensity of identification
with a religion is iften positively correlated with the strength of one's national identity. However, it
seems religion itself is something obscure and indefinite, not to mention every individual's
perception of his religion and his interpretation of what religious faithfulness means. Baumsteer
"Meanings of Life 187-189 approaches the issue critically noting that in many instances in the past
religion has "cheated" its "pure" character by serving political interests. He adds that religion often
becomes rigid (one example being Catholicism), thus not satisfying people's emotional needs as they
evolve along with social changes in time (Religions are rigid becase they cannot follow sociocultural
changes in time, thus they cannot satisfy people's evolving emotional needs.

Apart from constituting a source of life meaning, the construction of national identity
provides a link with the past - a kind of "collective memory" of the common national origin one
wants to consider him/herself a member of. Additionally, it provides an orientation for the future; it
inspires a sense of aspiration, or an ideal. One function of this orientation for the future might be the
rationalisation of labour and production as a bestowal to the nation and, accordingly, the production
of children as a way of contributing to its preservation and expansion.
Two institutions that play a significant role in the construction of a person's national identity
are the family that undertakes the primary role in the person's socialisation and the school, which is
the secondary socialisation institution. They both provide sources of historical information, national
ideals, attitudes, values, emotions, that are transmitted to the individual and contribute to the
formation of his / her national identity.
What the claim of the scholars might imply is that the content of the national identity is so
wide, complex and fluctuating, that it cannot justify some people's strength of beliefs and rigidity od
attitudes as it happens in cases of negative nationalism (as opposed to liberal nationalism), racism,
national stereotyping or chauvinism.

Conclusion
Whether national identity is a fictive characteristic or not, should be judged from the
consequences on personality and communication. That is, however subjective, obscure and elusive
national identity itself may be, it is more important to determine the ways in which it influences or
even determines thought, emotion and behaviour. Especially when feelings of national pride and
patriotism are manipulated by political and military authorities for the sake of imperialistic or other
unethical purposes, it is crucial to examine it further. The fact that the content of national identity is
something conventional, has been clearly illustrated by many scholars. All its constituents, traditions,
borders, customs, cultural elements and so forth are "agreed" and established through repetition or
preservation in time. What is more, national identity is, as mentioned above, completely subjective
and idividualised; it cannot be circumscribed precisely. Two people may not share common history,
land religion, race, customs, values or they may share some or all of the above in different degrees
and combinations. Nevertheless, they serve a very important purpose, fundamental for the people's
emotional well-being: the sense of belonging, security, satisfaction of social needs (solidarity,
production, undertaking of responsibility). Thus, we come to the conclusion that national identity is a
powerful symbolic link that connects people in place and time, and at the same time a dangerous
"seed" that can be cultivated to cause dissention, disruption of the social order and alienation.