What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Living in a Multicultural Society?

Life in a multicultural society

Photo by Dyana Wing So on Unsplash

Here is just my personal list. For me, the pros far outweigh the cons. I grew up partly in “England’s whitest city” literally very little immigration at the time and relatively few people with even ancestors from other cultures and have lived in abroad since.

England’s whitest city was no paradise, that’s for sure. To me, she was positively oppressive and extremely boring. Perhaps that says as much about me and this city in particular as it does about the nature of human monocultures.

Advantages

• A more diverse culture means that individual differences are better tolerated. Everyone is not expected to love the same things, believe in the same things, or even celebrate the same things.
• The flow of ideas and the different ways of doing things are just interesting and stimulating. People are less likely to see everything from the same handful of points of view.
• Other cultures bring their food with them, which tends to give us more variety. This is not to be underestimated!

Disadvantages

• Some of the things other cultures bring with them will inevitably be unsavory. Every culture has its…