Immigration and the significance of culture

Abstract

Immigration leads to changes in both the origin population and the immigrant population. Attempts to stop these inevitable changes, often by trying to preserve a particular culture, are misdirected. General right to resist changes demanded by the host society is not granted to immigrants; conversely, the host society has no general right to impose constraints based on preservation of national culture. Immigrant preservation policies should allow freedom to structure lives with reference to diverse values, practices, and ideas. Legitimate preservation consists of the creative extension of inherited practices, customs, ideals, and traditions. Justice for immigrants is understood not to include special cultural rights but full access to basic rights, liberties, opportunities, and economic resources within a liberal framework. The nation’s public political culture has a different status than other cultural traditions: it cannot be treated by the state as just one culture among others. Changes in language, laws, and institutions inevitably occur due to this political culture, so the pressure that it exerts is not unjust in itself. Accommodation within the territory of informal accommodation is essential to the functioning of any society that includes a large group of new immigrants. – AI-generated abstract.