WIELOSTRONNY Projekt Partnerski Szkół
Multicultural Society Debate
On the 11th February our students took part in a debate concerning multicultural societies. Prior to that they had spent some time researching the subject, searching for information and confirming it. Students had to answer a few questions raised by the host; they discussed advantages and disadvantages of multicultural societies, talked about benefits and dangers both sides are exposed to in such a situation, also tried to answer the question whether cultural integration can kill individuality or is an advantageous factor.
Students came up with a number of advantages of multicultural societies: meeting new cultures, gaining new experiences, increasing level of tolerance, learning foreign languages, it also leads to development of our cultural awareness – we see there are other lifestyles, equally valuable and it enables us to realize how rich or how poor our own culture is.
There are also quite a few disadvantages of multiculturalism: population growth which may lead to lack of places to live, work or other social problems, many immigrants also have problems with adjusting to new conditions, have communication problems – all these aspects may result in racial or religious conflicts. It can also repress indigenous culture because of so many influences from the outside.
Emigration plays quite a big role. Qualified people, such as doctors or scientists, leave their homeland to work abroad, which results in decreasing number of native inhabitants. It causes negative changes in the structure of population, separation of families as well as separation from own culture. However, students were able to find some good sides of emigration: unemployment rate is lower or financial status of emigrant families is better.
To sum up, multicultural societies have many advantages, such as developing and enriching native culture, giving new opportunities to foreigners, personal development, tolerance and openness towards the unknown. It also has some bad aspects, such as communication problems, worse working and living conditions, overpopulation leading to conflicts on different grounds. In our opinion, however, good sides overpower bad sides and we all agreed that multiculturalism is a great thing.
