The Influence of Immigrants on American Culture

Culture is a very abstract concept. When talking about culture, we inevitably need to find the externalized forms of various cultures. As far as a country is concerned, especially a country with many nationalities, a large population and a vast territory, its culture often has a strong constructive color. This is especially true in the United States, because another important factor in the United States is that the United States is an immigrant country with diverse sources of immigrants. With the continuous migration of immigrants from all over the world to the United States, it is more difficult for American culture to find a globally representative form of externalization. Perhaps the most prominent feature of American culture is that there is no unified and diverse cultural form.

Of course, although it is difficult for American culture to find a strict and unified cultural expression, it is still possible to find something more * * * from its numerous cultural forms. Respect for diversity is a very important concept of the same culture. This is inseparable from the spirit of freedom advocated by Americans. Undeniably, the development of freedom in the United States is also a process. Early America was dominated by European immigrants, and the spirit of freedom was not so prominent. Even if it is indeed freer than continental Europe, it is mainly aimed at people of the same cultural group. For other cultural groups, such as Indians and pagans, diversity seems to be not respected and cultural intolerance occurs from time to time. Many examples can be found in American history, especially the religious continuation of the so-called heresy of witchcraft and other religions in continental Europe.

However, more and more immigrants, especially those from other cultural groups, have greatly promoted the development of American freedom. With the emergence of more and more immigrants with other cultural backgrounds, the United States has gradually realized the importance of respecting cultural diversity. Compared with heterogeneous and pluralistic society, homogeneous society has lower tolerance and freedom. The emergence of immigrants from many other cultural groups makes it difficult for a unified cultural identity to reappear. Perhaps for the first few generations, the impact of this cultural collision is unbearable, but with the continuous life of * * *, on the one hand, different cultures began to merge with each other to a certain extent, on the other hand, this cultural difference has gradually become a normal state accepted by people. Therefore, the increase of immigrants from different cultural backgrounds is one of the important factors to promote the free development of the United States and form a cultural concept of respecting diversity.

It is necessary to distinguish the functions of different forms of immigration here. Here, immigration forms are divided into two categories: individual immigration and group immigration. Group migration mainly occurred in the early stage, and there were two climaxes: one was the period when immigrants from the European continent migrated to America, and the other was the period when the United States moved westward. Group migration is often the collective migration of people with the same cultural background, which makes group migration tend to retain the original cultural forms and social relations. For example, the immigrants on the Mayflower are typical of group immigrants. The immigrants on the Mayflower come from the same cultural background. Before they landed, they had made arrangements for the future forms of community organization, which inevitably reflected the situation before these immigrants, such as social status and wealth (although it is undeniable that personal ability is also an important factor. At that time, ability was often linked to status and wealth, at least in people's minds, the two were positively related). This phenomenon is more obvious in the westward movement, which is often an organized migration under the management of the government and the army, so it is often a copy of the original situation to a great extent. Immigrants are different. As the name implies, individual migration refers to the migration form of a single individual or a single family. Individual immigrants appear more frequently than group immigrants, and their influence on culture is quite different. Individual immigrants tend to integrate into the existing culture more actively on the basis of retaining the original cultural form, but compared with group immigrants, individual immigrants have less cultural heritage. Therefore, it is difficult for a single immigrant to have a significant impact on the whole culture in a short time. However, due to the persistence of individual immigrants in the United States, both internal and external immigrants are frequent, and the total amount of immigrants is also very large, especially the formation of many large and small minority communities (such as Chinatown). ) will have a profound impact on culture for a long time. It can be seen that the role of immigrants in culture is complex and cannot be generalized. As far as American culture is concerned, its foundation is European culture with Britain as the main body, but this subjectivity is only relative, in other words, it still accounts for a small proportion in American multiculturalism. British culture has become the main body of American culture because of its early immigration, mostly in groups and a large number of immigrants. However, due to the numerous sources and large numbers of other immigrants, the diversity of American culture has also formed the concept of respecting cultural diversity.