Essentials of Sociology. George Ritzer

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СКАЧАТЬ Bureau, 2010 and 2017 American Community Surveys (ACS), and 2000 Decennial Census; data for 1960 to 1990 are from Campbell J. Gibson and Emily Lennon, “Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-Born Population of the United States: 1850–1990” (Working Paper No. 29, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, D.C., February 1999).

      In the past, Muslims have generally assimilated well in the United States (Freedman 2016). The future of their assimilation, however, is in doubt (Bulut 2016). This is a result of the current widespread hostility toward Muslims (especially toward radical Islamic extremists) because of their perceived association with 9/11 and terrorism in the United States and many other parts of the world. This hostility increased greatly during the 2016 presidential campaign and in the early years of Trump’s presidency when he suggested and then implemented a temporary ban on Muslim immigration to the United States. In mid-2018 the Supreme Court upheld the ban on immigrants, but only from five primarily Muslim countries. It remains to be seen how long this ban will remain in effect, but Muslims, as well as members and supporters of the rights of all minority groups, have every reason to be alarmed.

      Muslims who have already assimilated may face more hostility in the future, and newcomers may have a harder time assimilating. This hostility toward Muslims in the United States (and elsewhere) exists even though many of the attacks by radical Islamists have taken place in Muslim-dominated countries and Muslims have constituted a disproportionate percentage of the victims (Barnard 2016).

      Multiculturalism is a relatively recent issue for many European societies, particularly the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands. They have traditionally been almost monocultures, and even now, during a period of widespread global migration, they have a smaller proportion of foreign-born residents than the United States has. However, beginning in the 1950s, many European countries began to experience labor shortages (Fassmann and Munz 1992; Fielding 1989). Large numbers of people from poorer southern European countries, such as Spain and Italy, migrated to northern European countries. Later, migration flowed from less developed countries outside Europe, such as Turkestan; other largely Islamic countries; and many African countries. The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought additional eastern Europeans from places such as Albania. Many northern European governments had intended for these immigrant workers to stay only a short time. However, the immigrants built lives for themselves, brought their families, and chose to remain. The result is that European countries today are far more multicultural than they were several decades ago.

      Description

      Figure 3.4 Percentage of U.S. Population Speaking a Language Other than English at Home, 2016

      Sources: American Community Survey (ACS), U.S. Census Bureau (Department of Commerce)

      Ask Yourself

      If you were born in the United States, imagine yourself as an immigrant to another country, one to which you have no cultural or genealogical ties and where you know no one. What would you do on your arrival in order to survive? Would you seek out other Americans? Why or why not? Would you try to assimilate? How?

      More recent immigrants to largely Christian Europe bring with them very different cultures and very different religions (Islam, for example). They are also likely to be relatively poor. As a relatively small, monocultural country, the Netherlands has had trouble digesting its roughly 850,000 Muslim immigrants, and relations between Muslims and non-Muslims have grown increasingly polarized (Maliepaard and Alba 2016). The same is true in Belgium, which has sought to accommodate the burgeoning Muslim population by de-Christianizing its own holidays (for example, All Saints Day was renamed Autumn Holiday; Kern 2014). In spite of such efforts, concerns about the Muslim population in Belgium continue, epitomized by the coordinated attacks in Brussels in March 2016, which killed 35 people and injured hundreds of others.

      Trending The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America (Princeton University Press, 2018)

      Robert Wuthnow

      © Princeton University Press

      What are the daily experiences of Americans living in rural areas? What values are most important to them, and how do these influence their political views? Is rural America homogeneous? Robert Wuthnow and his research assistants conducted in-depth interviews with over one thousand residents in rural areas to discover the answers to these questions. Their main finding is that rural Americans belong to moral communities and feel a special sense of place and obligation to each other. Most rural residents live in or near small towns, where they work, shop, attend schools and church services, and socialize. These towns are the physical spaces that reinforce the local norms and customs of moral communities, such as attending community events and interacting regularly with their neighbors. But moral communities are also imagined in the sense that although not all who belong to them personally know each other, they feel like they do and share the same values. Wuthnow (2018) argues that “rural America is not a homogeneous census bloc,” so we should be careful not to essentialize its residents (5). However, most are white (85 to 90 percent) and politically and socially conservative. Therefore, their moral communities are often shaped by exclusion or “othering.”

      Many moral communities in rural America feel threatened by social forces beyond their control. The population has been declining in most of these areas, which has resulted in local businesses and schools closing. In addition to a lack of jobs, lower education levels, higher rates of teenage pregnancy, and drug addiction are struggles that rural communities face to an inordinate degree. The moral communities that Wuthnow studies blame Washington, D.C., and Hollywood for the moral decline in America and fight to protect their culture and uphold their social norms. A vote against their economic self-interest is often a vote for their cultural—and in particular religious—beliefs. ●

       Visit edge.sagepub.com/ritzeressentials4e to

       Read an interview with Robert Wuthnow on Vox.

       Watch Wuthnow discuss his book on C-SPAN.

      Southern Europeans, especially in Italy, are increasingly having difficulty in dealing with waves of immigrants from North Africa. In fact, many would-be immigrants are dying in accidents at sea before they even get to Italy as they seek to navigate the Mediterranean Sea in overcrowded and rickety boats. For years Italy and other countries sought to prevent migrants from leaving North Africa, especially the failed state of Libya. However, a 2012 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights stopped them from doing so. The resistance of Italy, Spain, and other southern European countries to such immigration, like that in northern Europe, is motivated in part by economics and the fear that immigrants will cost natives their jobs. However, it is also cultural in the sense that the different cultures of these immigrants are seen as a threat to Italian, Spanish, and other European cultures.

      In short, European countries today have more cultural diversity than ever. However, the situation is fraught with tension, conflict, and danger as people from very different cultures, religions, and languages struggle to find a way to live side by side. Given these recent developments in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere in the world, some are declaring multiculturalism a failure. States, and especially majority groups, are growing less appreciative of, and less willing to accept, groups that represent different cultures (Gozdecka, Ercan, and Kmak 2014).

      Identity Politics

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