Take a look at this picture:
For this week's blog, I want you to think about Assimilation and Identity. Find a news article that examines this question - what happens when a person, or group of people, lose their culture? What happens when one culture cannot assimilate into another one?
Your blog posts should be at least 150 words, but more is better. Please give a brief summary of the article (5 W's) and a connection from that article to assimilation and identity.
18 comments:
Brenner, Yermi. "Refugees Struggle to Assimilate in Germany." Refugees Struggle to Assimilate in Germany. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.
According to Aljazeera News, Syrian refugees are still struggling in many European countries, particularly in Germany. They are having difficult times by complying with the countries policies and the way people treat them. Brothers named Ahmed and Abdul Rahman who took shelter in Berlin mentioned that many refugees like them are being exposed to degrading treatment of the local people. Moreover, they had been waiting for twelve days to find an asylum. Summary of the news given above clarifies the fact that refugees sometimes might be pushed out of the society or not welcomed just because they have difficult times by getting used to a new country. Most of the refugees are Muslim, they have a different culture which they can’t forget easily. They have different clothing compared to Europeans, they speak Arabic and celebrate Muslim holidays. They go to mosque to pray, they don’t speak the language of the country in which they are found, they have different education, culture, behavior, they wear different clothes and have different physical appearances. Therefore, locals find them strange and put a distance between themselves and refugees. People stay away from these minorities because they refuse to understand refugee’s aspect unless these people learn their culture. If they can’t, they won’t easily find a job, a home, a social sphere. They will be treated like a second class citizen. Also, they will struggle a lot. If they can assimilate, then they will forget their culture and live like Europeans. They will lose their identities and culture. If this happens they will live in Europe easily but they will have lost a special value which makes them different and special in good way. They will forget about their past. Unfortunately, people who lose their cultures and identities are more likely to be controlled by other groups of people. People who don’t know their past, culture and identities will never have a real future.
Kane, Laura. "‘She Was Happy. She Was Loved’: Metis Toddler Taken from B.C. Foster Parents, Moving to Ontario Soon." National Post. Canada, 22 Sept. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.
Assimilation and Identity
A British Columbia foster mother’s, who lives in Vancouver, Matis child was taken away from her by the Ministry of Children and Family Development on a Sunday in January 2016. Little girl was taken away from her foster parents after they lost two appeals in B.C.’s highest court. The woman’s lawyer said that the ministry is planning to move the kid to Ontario the other week to live with her older sisters and adoptive parents, who she has never seen. The foster mother told that “She was growing in a community where she would know her birth parents and her culture. And now the ministry has stripped her of all of it.” because she was Matis too whereas the adoptive parents in Ontario are not. She told that according to Metis customs, she and her husband have already adopted the girl, but under B.C. law, ministry has the authority to select the girl’s adoptive parents.
Every human being has an identity according to where they born, they are counted from their father’s religion, and they have an ID number. Most of the people assimilate where they born and slowly build their life at there. Unfortunately foster kids don’t have this chance. Most of them have to change families several times, like the girl in the news above, until they become adults and can live alone. During the time of changes, only the lucky ones are able to protect the culture of their birthplace. Rest of them have to learn and harmonize with the culture of their new foster parents. This way, their pasts become complicated and as they grow up, they might not be able to decide what culture they should fit in. The confusion of culture causes the foster kids’ characteristics to appear later than normal kids, and it will even cause problems with self-confidence. As it is mentioned in the news, the Matis toddler is taken away from her foster mother, who she’s been living with since she was two days old, to a family in Ontario. Because she is still a child, she wouldn’t understand why she is moved to another country and that her “parents” left her, but she’ll quickly learn to harmonize with the new culture. In time, she might forget her birth place and real culture.
Lost Childhood of the 'stolen Generation'" BBC News. BBC, 10 Aug. 1999. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.
The news story -taking place in Australia- is about how 30,000 native American children victims were taken from their families, -between the beginning of the 19th century and 1970s- and were forced to adapt to the "white" culture -such as the church- and assimilate. After many years, when these people tried to track down their parents and their homelands, some found nothing, some reached their missed parents and their lost identity, some found out that their moms were already dead while they were left with a broken heart and obscurity. "We were mistreated badly. I was abused by the missionaries from all angles - sexual, physical and mental." a victim explains dreadfully. The story also adds that the children were locked up in the night time and were hungry most of the time.
Assimilating into a different culture -considering these people were native American and had to suddenly adapt to a modern culture- especially with the people around you that enslave, abuse and insult you, must be a real struggle. Even "moving" to another city/country is, hard to adapt to nowadays. The people, the culture, the beliefs, the food, and etc. of that place is a whole new thing for you and you need to get used to those in order to fit into the society so that you don't feel like a stranger. The people mentioned in the news story experienced the exact same thing except the fact that the conditions were a lot more difficult. Because these native Americans were taken by Australians when they were just little children, they do not know anything about their country, culture, language, people, so when they try to find out and learn more about them -as I mentioned earlier- they are not always succeeding. In addition to them being without a homeland, some of these people can't fully feel like an Australian either. So, it becomes worse, because that way, they don't feel like a part of anything. They feel left out. Even if they do adapt to the Australian culture, they still want to learn about their ancestors, tribe, family and their people since they are a part of their lost identities. ”I will never meet her; I will never know her. I will never speak my mother's tongue. I lived 32 years of my life not knowing who I was, where I came from and which racial group I belonged to," says Julie Lavelle who was taken by authorities when she was 3 weeks old and found out 32 years later that her mother was dead.
France’s ‘Burkini’ Bans Are About More Than Religion or Clothing
- Amanda Taub, New York Times
The New York Times states that France has banned Brukinis, a type bikini that cover the whole body which muslim women can wear to enjoy the sea while still complying with the islamic modesty standard. The reason for the ban was apparently to protect muslim women from the patriarchal opression. However, it seems as if that is not the reason for the ban. “This, of course, is not really about swimwear. Social scientists say it is also not primarily about protecting Muslim women from patriarchy, but about protecting France’s non-Muslim majority from having to confront a changing world: one that requires them to widen their sense of identity when many would prefer to keep it as it was.” wrote Amanda Taub in the Article. She really has a point. People feel comfortable in the world they know and grew up in, where others are the same as them. However this doesn't justify the attempt to assimilate another culture. Even in this time and age, people are yet to realize that there are other cultures living among them. This being said, I believe that no law should be applied that goes against freedom of religion or freedom of clothing, which both have been done by this ban. By oppressing another culture, that has done nothing violent or intrusive, just because people prefer to stay ignorant and blind to cultural differences, freedom is taken away from all. Furthermore, assimilating another culture to the point where they can’t wear what they want is inhumane. In conclusion, banning Burkinis is disrespectful and assimilative to muslim women and takes away the freedom of being true to ones beliefs, which should not be done in any democratic republic.
Marine Le Pen: 'Assimilation is a form of violence, but it's a sacrifice'
This woman generally talked about her own idea that she thinks assimilation is a violence. This made me shocked because it was a modern thought in my own thoughts. This quote was a very true quote in these days in our world.
When a language, a culture or a tradition disappears; we’ll lose all the ideas, ideologies or arts in that culture. So many old cultures disappeared because of the colonialism. For example, in Australia, there were so many tribes before the British invasion. But now all their cultures disappeared. Nobody knows what was their point of view.
Assimilation and Identity
Death toll in migrant shipwreck off Egypt rises to 300
Because of several reasons; such as poverty, war, bad life conditions people try to move to another country. Each year the number of people moving to another country is getting more and more. Not always every migrant is successful to move another such as this news story tells. A shipwreck off Egypt caused three hundred people to die, which is the new record unfortunately. Of course there are always problems when migrants are moving to another country but sometimes they are successful. When they become successful they face another problem. This problem is assimilation and identity. For example, there is a civil war going in Syria and Syrian refuges come Turkey to have a better life. But as they come to Turkey they bring their culture along them. As the years continue and they become a part of Turkish nation and culture, they are assimilated due to being influenced by their environment. The new generations will be born in Turkey if the family is settled and further generations of these Syrian birth people will be Turkish citizens and then lose their identities. As a result, I think until the global problems end, people and some cultures will assimilate and lose their identities unfortunately.
Kingsley, Patrick. "Death Toll in Migrant Shipwreck off Egypt Rises to 300." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 2016. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.
Huffington Post-Want To Prevent Lone Wolf Terrorism? Promote A ‘Sense of Belonging’ Among Immigrants
When I first saw this topic, terror and chaos came to my mind immediately. In my opinion assimilating people and kicking them from their own homelands, or trying to change them is the key to the terrorism. People who are immigrants, tend to act more violent, main cause for this is the people who kicked them from their homeland, or the events that are being going on their country because of other countries. So this makes the immigrants or people who lost their identy by assimilation, attack or join to terrorist forces because these extremist groups make them believe that they will get the revenge on those people, who drove them away from their home and made them to belong nowhere and lost their identity.
I tried to look at this topic and issue at a different perspective, I looked at a more political way, what it causes to our world and all of those things that happen bombings, suicides etc. Assimilation and Identity has a direct relationship between them, and with assimilation comes the lost of identity, which creates terrorisim. And this is only one of the problem it creates, I am not even mentioning the family problems, homesickness etc..
According to "Haber Türk" many refugees from syria are having hard time.
For sum it up, Many refugees are having hart time all over the world because lot's of them can't get used to a new country because of that reson they can't act like a person from coutry they take refuge in. And this bring hate with it for example one years ago refugees were running from police between the Hungary-Serbia border and a cameraman kick and tacle a refruge. So I want to say that this is so similer that what okonkwo had seen, diffrence always brings hate with it.
Nguyen, Viet Thanh. "The Hidden Scars All Refugees Carry." The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 Sept. 2016. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
When I was trying to find a story that i can compare with the "Canadian" kid, i found the story of Viet Nguyen, a Vietnamese refugee who had to flee to the USA because of the war. He lost his origin and culture. He had to grow in a society where they treated refugees like third class people and blamed them for stealing their jobs.
The Indian/Canadian kid in the picture had the same problem as the vietnamese refugees. They both lost their culture and origin in order to gain such little respect across the country they fled to. This is similar to "Things Fall Apart", not by the topic of refugees but the fact that they are forced to change the way they have to live in their own countries.
"Assimilation Report." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 03 Sept. 2016. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
After the 2016 summer there are roughly 600.000 refugees in the Germany right now. For a while they entered Germany by illegal ways but then Angela Merkel accepted them and there had been a real refugee wave from Balkans to Germany. That much of people is a big amount. They live in Germanyof course but they are also trying to keep their cultures alive. But this situation brings some problems as well. Syrians who act like this are denying to "assimilate" or denying to be integrated into Germany.
Actually they are doing a good thing by protecting their cultures but they are also denying learning German or working in German businesses or local stores. That means tons of people on streets doing nothing. According to Bassam Tibi who specialized in the area Euro-Islam, this situation is also fault of German government. They are avoiding the challenge of teaching refugees German and getting them jobs. But it is really about identity if this situation continues German society will fail anyway.
Pleitgen, Frederik. CNN. N.p., 24 Sept. 2016. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
According to CNN news, Syrian people are still in a war and they can’t live their normal life. They are still hiding and trying to live. They are going to different countries for job and food.
“The ceasefire in Aleppo was still tentatively holding, and the 12-year-old boy was taking advantage of a lull in the fighting to carve out a new place to live.” From this sentence, we can see that 12-year-old boy can’t live his normal life. A child has to play games at the age of 12 but that Syrian child is hiding from rockets to live. That is the main problem.
According to LA news, Trump has a very big nationality idea that he thinks that nobody can live in the US if they are not american. However if we think how the America is founded or how it rises it is all about immigration from all the country's around the world. Some of these people lost their identity's and some of them has the identity's but if trump wins the elections only the god know what is going to be happens in United States.
According to "Hürriyet" Syrian refuges are trying to live in peace at Turkey but nowadays some bomb attacks and terrorism events happened. Syrian refuges trying to live like the way we like. They will act like Turkish and dress like us in a few years later because they are living with Turkish people. Like this native Canadian boy act and dress like "modern" because He moved to another culture and lost his own culture. Losing your own makes you a different person. When you dress and look different then you will act different too. Syrian people live together in a refugee camp. Refugee camp is in Kilis nearly 300.000 people live together in Kilis. Some of the refuges moved to İstanbul. 270.000 Syrian refuges live in İstanbul. They try to gain money at the streets, in factories. They start to be assimilated in Turkey like that Canadian boy. It will be hard for Syrian Refuges.
10F-179
Russia’s Brutal Bombing of Aleppo May Be Calculated, and It May Be Working
Accordıng to New York Times,
The effects of Russian’s bombing campaign the Syrian city of Aleppo — destroying hospitals and schools, choking off basic supplies, and killing aid workers and hundreds of civilians over just days. The strategy, more about politics than advancing the battle lines, appears to be designed to pressure rebels to ally themselves with extremists, eroding the rebels’ legitimacy; give Russia veto power over any high-level diplomacy; and exhaust Syrian civilians who might otherwise support the opposition. Also because of the war lots of people have to immigrate from their society. They are going to lose change their culture because they are going to start to live another society and the culture will be change.
I found this news article online from BBC news. It tells about hundreds of refugees have been arriving on trains from across Europe everyday. Among them recently was Ali, a young Iraqi in his 20s who says he spent 29 days travelling over sea and land to escape his conflict-ridden homeland in the hope of a better life in northern Europe. So we can see many examples and news articles about refugees and I think this topic is a really good example for assimilation. People escape from their countries to find better lives. By the time people will change and people will assimilate the country that they live. They will learn new cultures and new traditions by the time they are going to be a part of that country.
Post a Comment