Spaces and exchanges: How multiculturalism is understood and perceived in different countries ?

Today, we are going to speak about the notion “spaces and exchanges”. Spaces can be virtual like social network or real like countries or cities. Exchanges can be exchanges of things, of person or exchanges of culture. Now, we are going to speak about exchanges of people and the emigration. Indeed, all countries which welcome immigrants receive them differently. That’s why we can compare some of them as a melting pot and other as a salad bowl. But what is the difference and what those metaphors refers to ? It’s about multiculturalism and racial integration in different countries with different communities. So, we will ask the problematic : How multiculturalism is understood and perceived in different countries ? in order to answer at this question, we will begin by explaining what the melting pot refers to and take the example of USA. Then we will talk about salad bowl and illustrate it with the example of UK and Canada. Finally, we will explain why immigrants ask themselves the question of identity.

First, the melting pot is when immigrants abandoned their own culture in order to become a part of their receiving country. For example, it’s the case in USA, indeed, people who want to live the American dream have to change and forget their country of origin’s culture and become American people entirely. It’s the case of Gogol, the protagonist of the movie : “The namesake” who is the son of Indians who moved to America. Gogol doesn’t feel integrated in the American society. In the trailer, we can see a woman ask Gogol how old he is when he moved to America however, he was born in USA. So, it shows us that Gogol is perceived as a stranger in his country of origin. That’s why he wants to change his name, he wants to be perceived as an American citizen even if it means that he deny his father’s culture. Here, we can say that Gogol want to assimilate to the American society despite of the racism still present in USA. To conclude our first part, USA can be describe as a melting pot, a place where a lot of different people come to assimilate to the American society.

Now, we are moving to our second part. Some countries are melting pot but the other can be describe as a “salad bowl”. Indeed some culture considered multiculturalism as a positive thing and encourage the development of the cosmopolitanism. People of different countries live there in harmony like a lettuce, tomatoes and carrots in a salad. That’s why we call them salad bowl. It’s the case of UK and Canada. Those countries favor the multiculturalism and the integration in order to do a mosaic of cultures in their country. Is it the case for Karim Amir, the narrator of the budha of suburbia. He is the son of an Indian father and an English mother. They can keep their culture of origin and live in community. It is the same in Canada, the live together in harmony  but separated in different neighborhoods. Canadian are very proud of this multiculturalism, indeed, more than 200 languages are used in this country and there are laws that promote this multiculturalism. To conclude our second part, some countries are in favour of multiculturalism and integration of a lot of different cultures.

In this third part, we will talk about the question of identity which is asked by son or daughter of immigrants. Indeed, they don’t know which culture is their because they are between two different cultures. It is the case for Gogol but also for Hanif Kureishi, the writer of the book Budha of Suburbia. Indeed Gogol hesitate between American culture and Indian one, so it shows us the question of identity of Gogol because he doesn’t feel as an American and he doesn’t feel as an Indian too. It is the same for Hanif Kureishi as he says in the opening paragraph of the budha of suburbia, he’s not English enough because of his brown skin and not Indian enough because he have never been there. So he’s asking himself who he is. To conclude, immigrants or children of immigrants ask themselves a question of identity and it happened in every country, melting pot or salad bowl.

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