A Multicultural Society in a Monoculturalist State
People had always encountered with new cultures throughout the history. This fact becomes more frequent as the borders disappear or become symbolic, contrary it becomes rarer as the borders get strict. Considering that we are living in a global age it becomes easier to come together with different cultures. So it can be clearly said that the age we live, is the age of identities.
Salih Canbaz | Writer
Nowadays it is really hard to find homogeneous societies in the world. There can be pointed several causes such as the consequences of the wars, migration etc. The cultural diversity had always been welcomed, till the modern times when the national states firstly appeared. These states desired to shape a homogeneous country in order to maintain their existence while the empire states were falling day after day. This attitude can be appreciated if the homogeneity refers to a nation that consists a cultural diversity. However, the national states mostly desired an ethnical homogeneity instead of a national homogeneity with all of their diversities.
As mentioned before we are living in an age of identities which makes it hard to maintain the ethnical homogeneity. The US, one of the states known with its multicultural structure seems to be a multiculturalist state but the consequences show us that it is not true at all. First of all, the education process ends up with the melting pot which can be considered as a kind of an assimilation process. The strategy of the melting pot has an aim of assimilating the cultural diversity by the education in order to bring out an American society with same ideas.
Today the American model is strictly criticized nevertheless some states could have not reached even that level and they keep going as a hard national state. The case between the most common two cultures in Greece would be a nice example. People in Western Thrace had been living in peace for almost a century, since a few decades ago before the Treaty of Lausanne came into force.
For example, in Xanthi and Komotini, there is a warm relationship between the minority and the dominant group. Yet, there are still some problems faced when the ethnic identity of the minority is declared. Any other ethnic group except the Hellenic is rejected and it does not allow to maintain the peaceful ambiance.
It may seem to be as an existential effort but it is a threat not only for the minority but also for the state. In this age, states are growing up by removing their borders and accepting the diversities. This fact is linked both with economy and politics. Considering that Greece still suffers from the economic crisis, they should immediately change the policies according to the global conditions.
