286
The migration phenomenon that represents the temporary or permanent
residence of persons in other countries and as a matter of fact in other cultures,
becoming in this way the most important context for the development of
intercultural communication processes, has acquired in the second half of the
20
th
century new dimensions and unexpected valences. Indeed the entire
colonialist history from the late 15
th
century till the middle 20
th
century was
marked by massive
movements of population, or by wilful migration of
millions of Europeans to America and Africa, or by the slave-trade and forced
relocation of indigenous people from their native countries by European
settlers, as it happened in South and North America, in Australia and Africa.
The migration movements of the last century, that began in the context of the
Second World War and were amplified after 1950, have gone but much
shorter periods of time; they have had a much deeper emotional charge and
so for migrants have been more traumatic.
The economic and implicit social differences between developed
capitalist countries of Western Europe, but also of North America have led to
a split of different types of societies. High living standards and greater
possibilities of finding a job have become points of attraction for millions of
people who by their own decision chose to live and work in a different society
than the home. That divided the world into countries receiving foreign-labour
and less political refugees and countries exporting cheap labour. People on
both sides were not ready for this impact, because the receiving countries in
Europe haven’t faced up to the middle of the last century with an ethnic,
cultural and linguistic diversity
in
their well-defined territory,
multiculturalism meant to start homogenization, unique culture and language,
cultural chauvinism and separatism. Migrants in order to survive had only one
option: complete adaptation to the culture they lived through affiliation and
dependence. Migrants and members of the new cultural group could not
develop a dialogue.
Migrant adaptation is based on direct experience and observation. By
comparison and imitation a migrant believes that he adapts to a new cultural
environment, but the subject does not involve reflexivity, self-questioning
and questioning of what surrounds him. On the other hand, the members of
the
cultural group, whom they want to belong, are not willing to engage a
dialogue, because migrants are often perceived as intruders, as disturbing
factors of the existing identity, a cultural, religious and linguistic balance. The
lack of dialogical experience is evident in both parties.
At this level of
everyday social life cultures in a spherical shape, as they were described by
Herder, are the most relevant image. Interacting cultures collide and the
collision causes an evident rejection.
287
Preserving cultural identity requires a cultural transmission, which is a
complex phenomenon because of its ramification on at least two levels: on a
temporal level (the diachronic and synchronic image of the perpetuation of
the common cultural background of a human community) and on a spatial
level (the image of transgression of the own cultural area) [2].
Social phenomenon in terms of acculturation is specific in multicultural
contexts, and not only in those contexts that openly declare their trends to
assimilation, segregation or integration. Through acculturation the individual
takes values, norms, conventions, and behaviour from individual or a group
with another cultural identity than his own, but the takeover is not subject of
reflection and interpretation
of various reasons such as age, education,
profession, available time for comprehension. In most cases acculturation
mechanism produces fractures of identity because of the individual’s inability
to form the bridge between two cultures and different realities.
Multiculturalism through its indifference to anindividual and by reducing or
rather annihilating alterity and diversity has very serious effects on human
existence. Anindividual remains suspended between two cultures, unaccepted
by the target culture and rejected by the home-culture; this is manifested in
practice by exclusion or marginalization, and the behavioural actions of
individuals are dominated by anxiety, depression and the identity-crisis. The
attempt to impose replacing of a mental construction or behaviour takes the
individual to a denial of self-identity and an award of another identity, that he
can’t admit, he is not able to assimilate the new identity.
Multiculturalism is therefore a specific phenomenon in societies where
different cultures coexist in a peaceful way. Individual is still firmly anchored
in his own closed cultural context, which does not allow the development of
dialogue, on the contrary, it separates and excludes. Herder’s image persists:
the spheres collide but they don’t interact with each other.
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