Immigration, multiculturalism, and American identity: a critique of Samuel Huntington
The late Harvard University professor of Political Science Samuel Huntington, famous for his notion of a “clash of civilizations”, alleges that American national identity is threatened by multiculturalism and immigration, as transnational and subnational identities displace an e...
| Published in: | Ciências da religião história e sociedade |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Ed. Mackenzie
2014
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| In: |
Ciências da religião história e sociedade
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| Further subjects: | B
Multiculturalism
B Diversity B Immigration B Huntington B Identity |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | The late Harvard University professor of Political Science Samuel Huntington, famous for his notion of a “clash of civilizations”, alleges that American national identity is threatened by multiculturalism and immigration, as transnational and subnational identities displace an essential core culture. Here I critique Huntington’s construction of American national identity as a fixed Anglo-Protestant cultural core prior to the 1960s that has been deconstructed by multiculturalism and is being fragmented by the current wave of immigration from Asia and especially Latin America. I argue that cultures are not fixed entities but have always been fluid in their assimila-tion of, and accommodation to, diverse elements, and that the dynamism and adaptability of a social system requires the creative transformations effected by the injection of new, partially differentiated elements in order to avoid stagnation and decline. Thus immigration and multiculturalism potentially nourish and enhance a vital national identity rather than un-dermining it. |
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| ISSN: | 1980-9425 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Ciências da religião história e sociedade
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