Topic 7: Multiculturalism Flashcards
Examine the ideology of multiculturalism
The points below are extracted from the reading for this topic by Berry et al. (2011).
All societies are culturally plural
Multicultural societies such as the Australian society aim to enhance and maintain diversity.
Such societies encourage all groups to participate in an equitable manner.
The multicultural ideology encourages everyone to live harmoniously in a plural society.
The dominant group in any culture also needs to change their behaviour to increase mutual understanding between different groups.
The level of ethnic tolerance varies across countries and across time. In some countries there is greater tolerance. Take New Zealand (NZ) for example, they have a treaty with the Maori people and the Maori language is regarded as an official language in NZ. However, we still do not recognise any of the Indigenous languages as an official language in Australia.
However, while New Zealanders may be more accepting of Maori people, are they also accepting of other cultural groups? Consider the massacre of 50 Muslim people who were praying at a mosque last year. If NZ is such a tolerant society, why does tolerance apply only to certain groups? Or, are most people there tolerant?
We also know that the multiculturalism ideology is used in politics, more so in the current situation across the world.
While multiculturalism is seen as positive, politicians could also use this term as a weapon to segregate people.
Throughout the course of history, there have been differing levels of ethnic tolerance towards different cultural groups within a country and across countries.
Explain the multiculturalism hypothesis.
- There is a relationship between within group security and the acceptance of other groups.
- There is a relationship between ingroup association and outgroup rejection.
- There are different notions of multiculturalism by dominant ethnocultural groups compared to non-dominant ethnocultural groups.
A sense of security in one’s identity is essential for the acceptance of people from other cultural groups.
If the sense of identity or security is threatened, then people will reject others from other cultural groups.
Research shows that three aspects of security, including cultural, economic and personal security are positively related to each other, and to the acceptance of multiculturalism, immigrants and people from other cultural groups.
Research also shows that groups that had achieved a sense of security had more positive intergroup attitudes than groups with an insecure cultural identity.
Thus, security in one’s ethnic identity is related to positive attitudes to other ethnic groups and “mature intercultural thinking”.
People will have positive attitudes towards immigrants and to immigration policies when they have a strong multicultural ideology, greater level of contact with other groups, and low levels of threat from other groups.
Relatedly, the integrated threat hypothesis suggests that when there is a sense of threat to a person’s identity, it will lead to a rejection of the group that is the cause of that threat.
The different types of threat include:
realistic threat – where is there a conflict due to tangible aspects such as resources;
Symbolic threat – where there is conflict regarding values and beliefs; and
Intergroup anxiety – where people are unsure how to relate to the outgroup.
Thus, various feelings of security and threat are related to the psychological underpinnings of the acceptance of multiculturalism
There are clear links between being accepted by others and accepting others.
Evaluate the role of contact theory on prejudice
According to the contact theory, the greater the interaction between people, the greater will be the mutual acceptance of people
This will also reduce prejudice
Think about why there might be prejudice in society. Why are people biased towards others? Is there a way in which prejudice could be reduced?
According to researchers, there is a relationship between the level of contact between people and prejudice. They found that 3 variables influence this relationship:
1. the amount of knowledge people have about the outgroup
- an ability to reduce the level of anxiety between intergroup contact
- and increasing empathy and having a better perspective.
A greater level of interaction between groups should be encouraged for people to have more positive attitudes, live harmoniously, and to reduce the level of prejudice.
Identify the role of ethnocentrism theory on intergroup relations.
According to the ethnocentrism theory, a strong ethnic identity and positive evaluation of the ingroup are related to outgroup rejection
So, this theory is converse to the multiculturalism hypothesis.
There are three kinds of groups in plural societies: ingroups – groups that a person belongs to, and identifies with their norms; outgroups – groups that a person does not belong to, and whose norms they do not identify with; and positive reference groups – these are groups a person does not belong to, but whose norms are acceptable to them.
The patterns of attitudes among the three groups are explained by the ethnocentrism theory.
The positive reference group could be the dominant group in some cases
The positive reference group could be the dominant group when people are trying to integrate or assimilate with this group.
However, the dominant group could be the outgroup when people are trying to separate from this group or, marginalise it.
According to LeVine and Campbell (1972), ethnocentrism is a social and psychological universal, which means that all cultural groups assess their own groups more positively than their assessment of outgroups.
According to Brewer (2007), the within group assessment bias may not always be associated with outgroup rejection.
Berry et al. (1977) concluded that while ethnocentrism is present in all ethnocultural groups, some groups are more ethnocentric than others.
