Repeating yourself again, Foxy?

If you tell a lie enough times it becomes the truth?
Separate means "together".
Incongruity is harmony.

"the ideal immigrant was the one who assimilated easily"

Yes, because every culture is a self-defined entity.
(And we're Australian, not Anglo-Saxon/Celtic, whatever that is.)

Japan is Japan because it's Japanese, it's not everything.

Mexico is Mexico because it's Mexican, not anything at all.

If you move to Japan or Mexico, adapting to *its* nature would be "ideal".
Expecting Japan or Mexico to adapt to *you*, the alien outsider, is ridiculous!

"who became more similar to the host population as a result of social interaction and through the shedding of attributes of their culture."

No, under White Australia policy, we chose people who were *already* similar to us, making the adjustment for both sides easier and quicker.

Societies need commonalities, traditions, norms or people cannot "live together".
People cannot function in an anarchic, meaningless void.

You can question and criticise norms, but that just results in *new* norms, not no norms.

We already shared much with other Europeans, but little with non-Europeans. (There are logical, historical reasons for this).

There may not be anything technically "wrong" with the commonalities, traditions, norms of unrelated cultures.
They make perfect sense and are appropriate for *those* contexts.

But they're not living in that context anymore.

We can *choose* to incorporate alien cultural forms (we happily adopted surfing) but that is up to "us" not "them".

Analogy time (all Progressives, turn brain on and try hard).

Multiculturalism is like Ultimate Sports Team Theory.

Take the world's best swimmer, best tennis player, best cricketer, best soccer player, best runner, best skier, best performer in every sport.

You must therefore have the World's Best Sports Team and will win everything and never lose!

Dear Shockadelic,

All I can do is politely suggest you go back and
re-read my posts on this issue.
You seem to have a problem understanding what I
wrote. However, that unfortunately is not something
I can do anything about except to suggest that you
take a deep breath, chill out, and quietly read what
has been stated- and try not to put your own assumptions
onto what you think - but what I actually did write.

Whoops! Mansion should read Manson--Charlie will not be happy.
http://tinyurl.com/lukjeaz

If religion is banned, it will go underground. Look at Russia.

Further, if Islam is banned, not only will it go underground, but some who were moderate, may engage with fundamentalism. This would be the possible outcome for many religions, not just Islam.

People who were just "so, so" about their faith, could well feel (with any opposition to its practice), the need to make a stand. I think this psychology would occur with many issues, not just religion, in society.

Cheerful,

Your point is taken about Muslim or black fathers not permitting their daughters to marry "out".

But this attitude is not particular to Muslims or blacks. Indeed, marrying another is often fraught by many parental caveats ... not only racial or religious, but class, political beliefs, nationality and income ... The list goes on ... interminably so, it would seem by complaints by some of marriageable age.

Certainly we Aussies have our fair share of prejudices re marriage between different races, colours, even nationalities.

Happily, many people do not subscribe to parental "orders" ... And we see increasingly inter-racial marriages, and other "inters" between couples.