Immigration, Simlarity and Diversity!

"Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

The desire to be similar


When my daughters were young my second daughter Noele used to delight in finding things that looked similar. She like matching out-fits. When she saw that we were wearing similar colors she would say with delight, “We are twins”. Have you ever experienced this kind of simple delight?If you have then you will understand this next post better. The desire for homogeneity, which means wanting thing to appear and be the same, is strong throughout history. Although most societies value homogeneity, Tribes’ countries and peoples with geographic features that isolate them tend to hold onto homogeneity longer. For example Japan maintained feudalism much longer than Europe. They did not develop a constitutional form of Government until Douglas Mac Arthur forced then to. When you look at the map below you can see the trends of immigration and emigration in the world.

The United States is one country that has many immigrants every year. Generally the more affluent a country is the better they are able to embrace diversity. This is because technology can ease the conflict of change by creating safe harbors of protection for those that would resist change. The blue portions on the map need to have structures in place to facilitate change in their institutions. The yellow countries are very stable and can continue to use existing institutional structures.



Homogeneity has its benefits. When everyone has the similar desires, then value systems change becomes undesirable. An example of this could be sports entertainment in the countries of Japan and the US. In Japanese baseball a team member is praised for his ability to be a team player. In the US the praise goes to the individual. Individualism lends itself to diversity and homogeneity lends itself to team dynamics. Because of this dynamic we could say that the United States values purpose over belonging as a need and chooses Identity over intimacy or even Generatively.


Diversity demands that change take place in political, educational, economic and social institutions. These built in conflicts and its resulting pressures can slow down progress in fields like politics and religion and speed up innovative progress in fields like Science and technology. Old structures that are meant to facilitate progress become road blocks when they conflict with the existing structures they were designed to help when immigrant’s desires and needs are hindered. Sometimes these road blocks become acceptable in certain areas of the country. These are the roots of prejudice that can also be viewed as a reactionary desire for what is traditional.


The Immigration and integration of Middle Eastern people into the Western world has set up the need for unprecedented institutional change. The Middle East is a diverse cross section of many tribes and three sects of Islam. In The United States the stereotype in New Jersey of the Middle Eastern Gas station attendant is good example of an immigrant taking a less desirable job. This is genuine service that the immigrant has provided to the people of New Jersey. Unfortunately from the previous post it is evident that the stereotype breaks down into a form of racial profiling for Middle Eastern Airline passengers.


Immigration forces us to nurture the values of tolerance and institutional change. Institutions are not easily changed but, the messy immigrants with their foreign and dissimilar ways can force change. One current change occurring in education is the cyber schooling movement in the US. In this case the immigrants were families of the religious right who chose to educate their own children. When this was just home schooling it did not drastically affect the public school system. Now that is funded by government money there are changes taking place that border on a revolution of American Education. I am very much a part of this revolution. My wife and I home schooled our 5 children and we are now teaching in a cyber school funded by public monies. In many ways we feel like immigrants in a foreign land. It is the author’s opinions that embracing change in institutions that are brought on by technology and choice can create values that better reflect our ideals in a world filled with change. Perhaps this is the golden door of opportunity for people outside of traditional institutions clamoring to get in.