Changing Culture

European culture is changing rapidly these days, and the expansion is contributing to a new Europe that is more diverse.

Today, commonly held values of European democratic countries, are encouraging new arrivals from the Middle East, the Balkans and North Africa to join and become a part of a smaller world.

As with the Algerian immigrants who came into France after the Second World War, the new arrivals are bringing with them a culture that will challenge Europe.

The original Algerian immigrants who arrived in France though the 1950’s and 60’s may or may not have assimilated well into French culture but I would suggest that their children are French.

An example of how these two cultures have combined is evidenced in the language, as we see the mixture of Arabic with French, first as slang and now as commonly known terms.

The challenges that have become evident in this developing culture, I believe originate from the differences in education and theology, with the language barrier as a catalyst.

In many cases new arrivals will congregate in neighbourhoods with others from their home countries, forming exclusively immigrant zones with limited education and employment opportunities all contributing to feelings of non-acceptance by the indigenous population. [1]

Unlike the previous immigrants to France, in the middle of the 1900’s, the segregation of more recent arrivals has contributed to a new generation of young people who do not identify with the values of the European countries in which they were born. [2]

As the world gets smaller we will need to achieve a peaceful ideological amalgamation where theologies can live side by side in mutual respect.

In Abu Dhabi recent UAE legislation established religious freedom allowing for a new Hindu temple to be built, a first in the region. [3]

How quickly can we change with our new world?

Freedom of speech and the rights of women are fundamental to our world.

A young man arriving from Pakistan spoke into the camera on the news, he said that he just did not want to fight somebody else’s war.

Will it be possible to keep radicalism away from our shores?

By Blake and Boky

1.- Disentangling neighbourhood problems: area-based interventions in Western European cities. By Wouter P. C. van Gent. University of Amsterdam, Institute for Metropolitan and International Developmental Studies

2.- ibid.

3.- http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/08/uae-allocates-land-abu-dhabi-hindu-temple-150817062426501.html

3 thoughts on “Changing Culture

  1. I fear for my European friends that the tide of radicalism is going to overwhelm the more moderate in every indigenous culture throughout Europe, save those that have the military strength and will to turn the tide.

  2. I would hope that Europe can turn the tide with education and tolerance rather than force, but that seems unrealistic.

  3. I agree whole heartedly and would love to see everyone “get along”. It just doesn’t appear that the idiom is part of of the increasingly secular reality, that the EU is becoming.

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