America’s great success, up to now, has been the ability to absorb masses of immigrants from all over the world and assimilate them within two or three generations into a more or less homogeneous American culture, with reasonably common shared values and cultural expectations and world views.
Immigrants often preserve and contribute to the rest of the American culture wonderful parts of their own cultural heritage such as second languages, local customs, and regional cuisines, but at core they eventually become Americans.
Europe seems to be having trouble doing this. Immigrants, especially North African and Middle Eastern Muslim immigrants, seem to be settling into European countries in enclaves where instead of assimilating they preserve their culture and their languages intact, becoming small offshore extensions of their own home countries. In some places the national police can’t even operate safely within these enclaves. In some places repugnant customs from the home country, such as honor killings or blood feuds, have been transplanted wholesale into a European country.
If this persists, these European countries face a difficult, divisive and dangerous future. Such enclaves, usually with very high rates of unemployment, become nurseries for breeding dissatisfaction, radical movements, and revolution.
We in America need to pay attention to this, and not let this separatism breed here as well, or we will face the same sort of dangerous and divisive future. On the one hand we need to be sure that our immigrants can get jobs, have equal access to the American dream (whatever that may be), and are not hampered by prejudice and bias. On the other hand we need to insist that if people want to immigrate to America, they are willing to become part of the American culture, learn English, and abide by American laws and customs, rather than walling themselves off from the rest of America.
Language is one of the key factors here. We certainly ought to encourage immigrants to maintain their own language as a second language if they want to. Far too many Americans speak only one language as it is. But we ought to have one and only one common nationwide official language to bind us as a nation. Well-meaning attempts to give Spanish or other languages equal official standing are, in the long run, dangerous and lead to the sort of separatist problems Canada has with Quebec.
Education is another key factor. We ought to be careful that large numbers of immigrants aren’t opting to educate their children outside of the American mainstream so as to preserve their original national identity instead of assimilating. This too in the long run will lead to the difficulties and divisions of separatism.
Multiculturalism, though it is promoted by people with the best of intentions, is a danger here. Certainly we ought to celebrate the diversity of our roots, but that is not the same thing as encouraging people not to assimilate but rather retain a separate identity as something other than Americans.
America is a large nation. Its strength is that despite its great size it is culturally one nation, though with some regional differences.
If it ever succumbs to separatism it will fracture and divide, and a Balkanized America will no longer be a superpower.
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