Advantages and disadvantages of a diverse society?

What is a diverse society? A diverse society is where people of different races and cultural backgrounds come together to form a community. In most thriving societies, the community members are diverse such as Australia, Singapore and Canada. In this essay, I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of diversity that will affect the society in terms of cultural, economical and social development. A diverse society can contribute to the progress of the economic development of a country by creating an open mindset due to exposure to foreign ideas and people with different backgrounds and experiences, enabling the community to develop a broad-minded approach to life and business. The downside to this is people of different backgrounds may encounter friction during interaction, which may give rise to problems such as religious conflicts. Furthermore, there might also be communication issues between the people in the society, especially when they have language barriers

A diverse society affects the culture of a community. Diversity includes people of different mindsets and views on different things, which lead to exposure to new practices or traditions. Having diversity in a society would allow people to accept things they are not accustomed to. For example, many societies that are diverse have students whom have personal experiences from their various cultures. Each student would then grow up being exposed to various cultures and views. Students who are educated in a diverse environment benefit more because, firstly, he is able to learn from others past experiences and be able to view things in others perspectives. Secondly, diversity encourages critical thinking by helping students communicate effectively to people of varied backgrounds. Lastly, it strengthens teamwork for the future because it fosters mutual respect whereby decisions are not influenced by diversity.

Although a diverse society can be beneficial, whereby, it is a situation where everyone is sharing their own knowledge with each other, however, there could be an alternative situation whereby perspectives collide and conflicts arise. For example, in a diverse society, there would be people of different religions, and different religions have their own perspectives of creation, life and the afterlife. Many religious conflicts arise everyday in the world, but why religion? It is a form of identification and plays a fundamental role in world politics as the faith, family, blood and beliefs are things people identify themselves as and their purpose of life and death. A society can prosper or fail due to political decisions, and religion does matter as different groups have different preferences, generating tension among them. For example, the religion of Islam has their own set of rules that is called the Sharia Law, derived from the Quran, this law is the example of life of Prophet Muhammad.

The Sharia Law is adopted partially in Muslim countries while few adopt it fully. However, recently, the UK government has been requested to practice Sharia law to cater to the Muslims in the country. Other citizens whom are not Muslim do not agree to this as it is “unfair” towards them as they do not practice Islam, thus, need not be following it, creating conflict between muslims and other citizens. This is evidence that religion does affect political decisions in societies.

Another distinct disadvantage to a diverse society is communication. One communication issue raised in a diverse society is language barrier. The English language, considered to be a universal language, is the official language in 70 countries and compulsory in many. In a thriving society, it is encouraged to share a singular language, however, in order to do so, all members of society would then have to have a similar education and cultural background which would then lead to a non-diverse society. Therefore, when having a diverse society, having language barriers is inevitable as society members do need to communicate and their languages would be in the way. For example, the government of Canada claims to be a bilingual country, however, there is only one bilingual province that and the rest is monolingual. Either French-speaking or English-speaking.

This tends to raise language barriers in Canada, making it harder for citizens to communicate, leading to miscommunications and efficiency. The language barrier in Canada limits the countries chances of prospering, unless the barriers are being broken down to increase productivity in the country. However, speaking verbally is not the only way of communicating but relaying your ideas in a manner the other understands is. During the learning process, different groups of people learn things differently, which would then cause us to organize our worlds distinctively. Culture and communication are inseparable and since a diverse society includes people of different cultures, intercultural communication is an issue a diverse society faces.

For instance, Australians use first names with students they just meet, and in a school setting, it is common for students to address their teachers on first-name basis. This is confusing to Japanese and Korean students as they grew up in a more formal culture, whom are only in first-name basis with close friends who are usually with the same social status and ages. This proves that there is a degree of difficulty when communicating with people of different cultures, as there would be disagreements.

Living in a diverse society can be beneficial or it can be difficult, you are able to study others and learn from them or vice-versa, as each of you would have a unique life. However, diversity can also have a contradicting disadvantage whereby conflicts arise due to different perspectives. Disadvantages in a diverse society are inevitable and is almost impossible to be eradicated.

Bibiliography:

http://www.econ.upf.edu/~montalvo/wp/rel_ethn.pdf
http://www.cfr.org/religion/islam-governing-under-sharia/p8034