Communities: Integrate or Segregate?
| Why do some people strive to integrate minorities into the community and others strive to segregate them as much as possible? |
Having seen how different communities operate in a few places round the world I have draw a generalization that the communities favor to some degree integration and segregation.
An example of an integrated community is one where the members of the community can come from many backgrounds each with different values, beliefs, needs, etc, yet they choose to live a shared life with the local businesses employing and being run by a proportionate cross-section of the community. Holidays are respected and often shared.
An example of a segregated community is one in which within the greater community exists sub-communities when certain beliefs or cultures are far more prevalent. Businesses and holidays within these sub-communities are mostly run by and employ members of their preference. Schools, hospitals, police, and even government can be controlled within the sub-communitiy.
I understand that these are two extremes and that in most cases, both will exist to some extent, I am just curious as to how one gains weight against another and what benefit you believe each has.
From my background, I favor more integration then segregation where everyone can feel like the entire community its their own and not be restricted.
Inevitable change to way of life
Thats an interesting distinction there. I can see where the extremes of things like the Malcom X movement, and even things like the local china town you see in a lot of cities can be seen as a segregated communities.
Things go both ways. In a china town the chinese tradition is upheld more than if one did not exist. Yet if there was no china town then the tradition of the whole community would be more representative of its people, yet those people would lose more of their individual tradition. This is like the typical 'Way of Life' debate. An introduction of different cultures changes the way of life regardless of which type of community is formed, the only difference is the degree to which each changes for the individual.
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