Melting pot or mosaic?

Yesterday's local news included the observation that Oklahoma's march toward an "English-only" law for state government had taken another step forward. One of the bill's proponents used the "melting pot" analogy to support the need to prohibit state employees, including state legislators, from communicating with anyone in any language other than English. Growing up in the U.S., I heard the melting pot analogy spoken of with pride so many times that I did not question that it was the best way to look at integrating immigrants into a society. That is, I didn't question it until I moved to Canada.

A Canadian friend introduced me to the "mosaic" analogy of immigrant integration. His explanation was that in a melting pot, individual elements lose their distinctiveness. The elements contribute to the overall composition, but become just like every other element in the process. In a mosaic, on the other hand, the individual elements maintain their distinctiveness while making their own unique contribution to the total composition. Up close, you can see each element clearly and may even have trouble making out what the overall composition is. However, if you step back you can see how all the elements together make something that is obviously different and better than the mere sum of its parts.

My friend's idea was that Canada's approach was to encourage immigrants to maintain their distinctiveness even as they contributed to Canadian society. Of course, you can only push the analogy so far before it breaks down. No government of a country that experiences significant immigration has the resources to publish all its materials in every possible language or provide multilingual agency employees to speak to its citizens in every language represented in the country. Also, as Canada among others has experienced, conflicts among different ethnic, linguistic and immigrant groups is inevitable. People are not perfect. Neither are governments. Conflicts arise due to real or perceived injustices and must be dealt with.

Nevertheless, I like the mosaic concept. For one thing, it makes life more interesting. My wife and I live on the edge of Oklahoma City's Asian district. A great Asian supermarket is just a few blocks from our house. Also, within a few minutes drive we can choose from a nice variety of Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai restaurants. (The nearest Korean restaurant is not very close to our house. Sometimes we have to sacrifice and drive just a little bit farther.) On the other hand, if we're in the mood for Guatemalan food, we can go to the Guatemalan restaurant two blocks away, or drive a few more blocks to the Brazilian restaurant if one of us is in the mood for feijoada. If we want to buy a few Guatemalan products to fix our Guatemalan meal at home, there is a Guatemalan store less than a mile from our house, and for a Mexican meal, there is a large Hispanic supermarket going in within a couple of miles.

One of the tensions with both melting pot and mosaic changes is that as elements are added, the whole composition changes, and change makes many people uneasy. The difference between the two approaches is that melting pot changes are more gradual than mosaic changes and so less noticeable. On the other hand, mosaic changes can sometimes be jarring because they immediately stand out. So the choice between the melting pot and mosaic approaches is not one of change versus no change. Rather, it is a choice of how we deal with the change that immigration inevitably brings. Realistically we cannot, nor do we want to, halt immigration. Immigration is good. Immigration is what built our society. Except for a few of us, our heritage is an immigrant heritage.

Despite its inevitable conflicts and jolting moments, I prefer the mosaic approach. I like hearing a variety of languages spoken when I'm standing in line to check out at Walmart. I like the fact that when my wife and I go out to eat, we seldom go to an "American" restaurant because we have such good choices in "ethnic" food close to our house. I like the fact that I can learn about and from people of other cultures just by gettng acquainted with people who are around me every day. I don't mind having to select "1" for English and "2" for Spanish. If they throw in a "3" for Vietnamese, I might select that sometime just to hear what it sounds like. So my request to my Oklahoma legislators is please don't mess up this great experience we have in Oklahoma.