Reyhan KESKİNOĞLU

Ignoring the cultural, religious, and ethnic identities of individuals living within the borders of a particular nation-state within the 20th-century state understanding, which the impact of the concept of globalization on our social and political life has become undeniable, leads to the emergence of critical reactions. The fact that the impact of globalization is felt more in the cultural sphere than in the economic and political spheres has been influential in the quest for a different definition of citizenship. With the increasing visibility of differences in this sense, pluralistic policies such as multiculturalism have started to come to the agenda.

Multiculturalism, by definition, is the situation where more than one culture coexists in the same society and within a single political entity. On the basis of the concept lies in the coexistence of different cultures within the framework of mutual respect and tolerance. Multiculturalism policies, which began to be discussed in the 1970s, are a concept that criticizes the practice of nation-states defining a normatively described citizen identity within a society, leading to the exclusion of individuals who do not fit this description or subjecting them to various pressures based on their identities, preventing them from existing with their own identities. According to this understanding, the coexistence of different cultures in public space is the key to a healthy social structure.

As Amy Gutmann asks, many people wonder, “How should our identities as men or women, African-American, Asian-American, or Native-American, Christian, Jew, or Muslim, British, French, or Canadian matter to the public?” with questions similar in content to it tries to determine the place of the individual in the society and to interpret the perspective of the majority group towards minority groups.

Nation-states emphasize that a homogeneous social structure should be adopted for better and easier management, ignoring the differences in society. The only identity that is accepted is the cultural identity that forms the dominant group in the relevant state. For individuals who come together around values such as language, culture, and religion factors seen as other are viewed as problems. For this reason, factors that are defined as problems and have a foreign identity are seen as problems that need to be solved. Multiculturalism essentially highlights the differences within a society. The phenomenon of migration is accepted as an important parameter in the emergence of differences, therefore in the formation of a multicultural society. The increase in diversity increases the demands for the recognition of their differences instead of being lost in the culture of the dominant group at the same rate. Because not being recognized or misrecognized can be damaging; It can become a factor of oppression by imprisoning people in a false, distorted, and reduced way of existence.

Every individual deserves equality as a requirement of democracy. For this reason, it is incompatible with the situation that a structure that claims to have a democratic structure tries to compare a segment to any other segment of society by applying pressure to differences. It is important for a healthy national integration that liberal democracies grant differentiated citizenship rights to groups without harming individual autonomy.

Coercive policies implemented by states incite violence, racism, and separatism in society. In addition, the silence of governments towards the increasingly racist discourses and actions on the social base that disrupts the harmony between immigrants and local people. In order to ensure social peace, pluralistic policies that care about the diversity of cultures and consider diversity as wealth should be started to be implemented.

The number of immigrants/refugees that has increased significantly around the world in the last decade causes the pluralist policies implemented to be interrupted. Especially in periods when economic problems come to the fore, the perception of immigrants and refugees as the source of these problems causes societies to approach multiculturalism policies distantly.

Pluralistic policies have slowly begun to be shelved due to both the concern for votes and the personal anti-immigrant/refugee attitudes of politicians. However, when it is taken into consideration that the phenomenon of migration will always exist on the agenda of humanity, it will be seen that the implementation of multiculturalism policies is a necessity. In particular, it is necessary to implement new policies that will ensure education, health, and social security. As a matter of fact, the rise in discontent towards immigrants opens the door to social violence. First of all, correcting the negative perception towards immigrants will be a factor that will facilitate social acceptance. Then, putting pluralist policies on the agenda will be for the benefit of states, peoples, and immigrants.

SOURCE

Oruç, Dilara, “Çokkültürlülük ve Çokkültürcülük Nedir?, Erişim Tarihi: 01 Eylül 2023. https://www.academia.edu/13003072/%C3%87okk%C3%BClt%C3%BCrl%C3%BCl%C3%BCk_ve_%C3%87okk%C3%BClt%C3%BCrc%C3%BCl%C3%BCk_Nedir

Cemal ÖZER, “Çokkültürlülük”, İslam Araştırmaları Dergisi, sayı: 26, 2011, s.101.

GUTMANN, Amy, Giriş, A. Gutmann (Haz.) Çokkültürcülük s. 26, Yapı Kredi Yayınları, İstanbul 2018.

TAYLOR Charles, “Tanınma Politikası”, Amy Gutmann (Haz.), Çokkültürcülük, s.46, Yapı Kredi Yayınları, İstanbul 2018