Rashid's Blog: A Place for Inquisitive Souls

Culture is  the way of life shared by a group of people, including the way they obtain food, the way they raise their children, their values, beliefs, language customs and religion.

Differences in Cultures Include…
Language
Religious beliefs
Celebrations, holidays, and activities
Produce goods and provide services in different ways
Education
Have stories, art, music, and dances to show how they live in their culture

A large reason people migrate is because of religion. In some countries people are persecuted for their religion. For example, in North Korea, being Christian is strictly outlawed.

Language
Language is one of the most important parts of culture. Language is a medium to communicate our thoughts,our ideas.People use language to take power and gain control. A language can tell a lot about a culture such as their values; and you can communicate with lots of different kinds of people with languages.

Independent Cultures
Sometimes cultures want to have their own land separated from the country they are currently in. They want to have their own identity. Lots of Aboriginal groups want their own land to protect their culture. Often times the people who want to separate from the main control are not being allowed certain human rights and/or being restricted from traditions or religion. They feel their culture will be lost without independence.

How Migration Affects Culture

When cultures meet or collide different things can happen. They could learn from each other, they could not agree on certain beliefs or traditions and end up fighting, or one of the cultures could think they are superior and try to force their culture onto the other culture.

Religion
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Class  Interaction

Interaction of Social class  and castes is also a factor in affecting the culture on both sides.

Extinction of Cultures 
Culture assimilation is when one culture tries to overpower and take control of another culture. This doesn’t always work out well for anyone. For example, when someone comes to Canada from a different country they don’t always have the credentials to get a job.

Gender Orientation
Back before 1980 most long distance migrants were men. This was because women migrated short distances, mostly within their own country. Women moved mostly for harvest time work, or to work as nannies or house keepers. This has changed. Now a days women migrate more often. When women migrate they mostly find jobs in domestic work, food services, or health care.

Sometimes migrants are mistreated. The governments are doing what they can to prevent migrant workers from inadequate living conditions, unfair and low wages, and sexual abuse because this is what happens to a lot of them.
The amount of migrant workers has increased by 15 million since 2000. The cause of this is there are not enough jobs available in peoples home countries, especially in developing countries. More than 191 million people, or 3 percent of the words population, are working in a country other than their home country.
Cultures didn’t start to affect other cultures until more recently. Japan, South and North Korea, China and Mongolia had Police to keep migrants and foreigners out. This allowed them to stay isolated and out on their own unlike Europe or North and South America. There was also the fact that these counties and Europe and the Americas were very far apart. In order to get to them you’d have to take a very dangerous journey.
Some cultures have been destroyed, overcome, or lost. Others have just been forgotten. Some cultures are more advanced than others so it makes it easy for the stronger cultures to overrun the smaller ones.
Some small sicknesses and illnesses can be deadly for other cultures because they are not immune or used to it. One example is in the Amazonian. The Europeans brought disease there, some as small as the common cold, and since the people had never been exposed to the illnesses thousands died.

Why Do Cultures Change in the First Place?
There are many reasons for culture changes. One example is when a new culture either comes and forces another culture to change, or another culture takes land or resources from another culture, which forces them to find new ways to live.

How Migration Creates Wealth and How Migrants Add to Our Culture
When migrants arrive they need new things, like appliances for example. The more products people buy, the more workers stores will need. Some migrants may start a business, therefor creating jobs. They also increase the number of workers in our country.
When people come to  a country they bring their culture with them. This means we can learn about them, and grow in our knowledge about them. They bring new foods, music, literature, dance and new ideas. This also teaches us to appreciate other ways of life and cultures.Annexation also brings new influences on culture.

When young people migrate from a small community, like a tribe for example, there are advantages and disadvantages. Advantages are that when the young people move they have a bigger chance for a better future. But a disadvantage is that the culture is losing one of its members. If the community is already small, and mostly consists of elders, the traditions and maybe even the language will be lost.
When people move to other counties they feel safer in counties that are similar to their own. Some people look for similar language, religion, music or history. When one moves to a place completely different he/she can feel out of place and out of your comfort zone.
Within cities there are small groups called enclaves or ethnoburbs. They are small groups from big cultures. Chinatown is an example. It is to be noted here that these terms are not same. Fine differences are there.

Link(s) and Source(s):

Prezi

Wikipedia