你的问题:整合还是同化?
Laura Maguire

20 March 2019

In response to our recent show "Immigration and Multiculturalism" with guest Prof. Sarah Song, listener Judy asked:

First, I would like to have known what was meant by Dr. Song's comment that immigrants are obligated to integrate. What does integration mean, and how is that contrasted to assimilation?

Second, I heard her say that immigrants' opinions have nothing to do with culture. What?? Did I hear wrong? If not, I don't get it because such opinions have everything to do with culture.

Now, she said that something to the effect that immigrants deserve full participation in America, and that this entails the right to change the culture. This is precisely where things become fraught. Again, what is "integration"? How much integration do we have a right to expect? What kinds of changes become intolerable?

I struggle with this question, and I'm wondering how other people see it?

Sarah was kind enough to write a response:

我把同化和整合区分开来。同化与大熔炉的理想有关，在这种理想中，移民被期望放弃他们独特的集体身份和文化习俗，而采用与主导文化有关的身份和习俗。相比之下，融合是一种理想，要求移民接受他们所迁移社会的基本价值观和原则(如平等和尊重法治的价值观)，但移民可以保持他们独特的文化身份和实践。这种融合的理想与一系列多元文化主义政策是相容的;事实上，旨在适应移民文化习俗的政策为移民融入社会提供了更公平的条件。

You are right that the question of how much integration is a fraught one. If immigrants hold beliefs and engage in practices that contravene liberal democratic norms, such as gender equality, then you're faced with a conflict between respecting cultural differences and upholding important norms. There is no general or easy answer to such conflicts; much will depend on context. I write more about such conflicts in myStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophyessay on multiculturalism.

Thanks, Sarah!

If you have a question or comment that did not get addressed during the show, feel free to leave a comment on the website or send us an email atcomments@philosophytalk.organd we might just feature it here on the blog!

Comments(3)

Tim Smith's picture

Tim Smith

Monday, April 1, 2019 -- 9:18 PM

Here we go...Judy said.

Here we go...Judy said.

现在，她说，大意是说，移民应该充分参与美国的生活，这包括改变美国文化的权利。这正是事情变得令人担忧的地方。再说一遍，什么是“整合”?我们有权利期待多大程度的融合?哪些|类型的更改变得无法忍受?

我不认为这是一个值得完全参与、融合或正义期待的问题。融合是自由的，没有权利伤害他人——尤其是脆弱的共同居民。如果纳税了……我对试图改变我们文化的移民很在行。没有人能长期控制文化。

meganf's picture

meganf

Wednesday, April 3, 2019 -- 12:57 AM

Tim is making a good point.

Tim is making a good point. Culture is not a constant. Sometimes, people like to regard it as "consistent" by saying that society prefers certain "values," but even values are just social claims that serve a prescriptive forward-looking function or serve as means of characterizing retrospective judgments on past social behavior. I would argue that the social values of our country have changed throughout the years as public opinion has changed.
去年秋天，我请莎拉做了一门课的教授，她在课上简要地谈到了移民和成员资格问题。我记得其中一个观点是，如果我们将约翰·罗尔斯的“原始立场”这样的方法应用到更广泛的体现移民的全球视野中，移民对一个国家文化的影响不应该是一个相关的道德考虑，除非自由民主价值观受到了真正的威胁。除了宪法中公民与国家之间的基本社会契约外，我不确定一个主权国家是否包含任何基本的文化方面。从这个角度来看，只要新移民遵守社会契约的条件，融合似乎是可以接受的。
出生地和它所赋予的公民身份对个人是任意的。在我个人看来，一个公民声称他们有任何排斥移民的优越权利似乎是相对没有根据的。值得一提的是，20世纪20年代之前，美国的移民政策相对开放(《排华法案》除外)，这标志着护照的使用和1924年限制移民流入的《移民法案》的出现。
对新移民施加文化同化的压力会引发文化优越感，接近道德优越感，而这种优越感是相对武断的。文化同化通过交流哪些文化更容易被社会接受来消除隔阂，而文化融合则承认每个人都有自主的权利，而不会错误地将个人(文化)身份视为“外来的”和反对国家。相反，一种不那么排外的方法将试图从这些个人已经是国家的一部分的背景来解决这些社会冲突。某些移民输入了“倒退”或道德败坏的文化的论点是一般化的，并假定移民不能或不愿意遵守他们选择移民的国家的社会契约条款，这种行为通过各种方式表明，他们表明他们承认自己的意图是像该国管辖范围内的任何其他公民一样在法律上受到这些规则的约束。但是，这一点也提出了一个问题，如果我们真正寻找的不是人类的社区，人类天生就会犯错，而不是种族，而是道德上可以接受的公民的社区，我们为什么不选择驱逐那些天生就有道德上犯错倾向的公民呢?我们的国家不公平地赋予了出生在这里的人比出生在这里的人更多的权利和保护。我认为这显示了我们面临的一世界杯赛程2022赛程表欧洲区些冲突，当文化被视为冲突或阻碍公民参与时。

Harold G. Neuman's picture

Harold G. Neuman

Monday, January 31, 2022 -- 5:51 AM

This is pretty far after-the

This is pretty far after-the-fact. I too was uncertain about the usage of integration. That term is charged from the get-go. Assimilation is a softer way of talking about people fitting in. Dr. Song's points are well-taken by myself (and probably others). But, her explanation, I am certain, missed the mark for sensitive folks who have seen negative outcome, no matter which term is applied. Whether we are talking about swords ( double-edged):; razors (thin and sharp): or brooms ( tending to miss important minutiae), things get missed, if not lost, in translation. Some people, otherwise fit and willing to do so, have no wish to either assimilate or integrate. They simply desire the freedoms for which a free society claims to stand; the opportunities unavailable elsewhere.

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