Distrust of Those Not Like Us

 When I was growing up, our families, teachers, and community leaders worked very hard to both introduce us to other cultures, but also to promote the idea that, at heart, foreigners were very much like us.

We were encouraged to focus on the similarities, not the differences.

Later on, I had friends who married someone raised in different cultures. Sometimes, the marriages worked out well. Often, those were marriages where the cultural blending was relatively easy:

• Both were White Europeans, but from different language groups
• They shared the same religion, perhaps different denominations
• They both came from the same economic/social background
• They met in college, and shared many experiences

Sometimes, one partner made major adjustments, taking up an unfamiliar language or culture, sometimes converting to another religion. Who they had been became subsumed into another identity.

Sometimes, they were successful in casting off their old identity. Often, over time, that person found the effort could not be sustained. Sometimes, the marriage collapsed.

The closer the family connections were to their 'old self' the harder it was to change. If the newcomer had family that stayed in the Old Country, change was easier.

If that family or community surrounded them, cultural change is nearly impossible.

And, that is the situation with many immigrants, particularly the Somalia s and other recent immigrants. They don't leave their home, they bring it with them.

They don't assimilate. They don't integrate. They bring the home country with them. They stay in their ethnic enclaves.

This is not solely a characteristic of Africans. Many of the European colonizers of the past stayed within their own ethnic enclaves. They did not engage socially, explore the native culture, learn the language, or otherwise become a part of that country. They considered the natives beneath them.

Eventually, resentment grew in the native cultures, and they kicked the invaders out.

There is a lesson to be learned here.

For a different perspective on the migration of Non-Euro's into a foreign culture, you might want to read this person's Substack.