1. The other face of Multiculturalism
Teacher: Iris Roa.
Name: Francisco Oñate, Daniel Pinto.
Subject: Communicative competences.
Date: September 5th, 2014

2. Nowadays it is quite common to find people from all over the world in the
major cities of our countries. This situation can even be seen in Chile, where
according to United Nations statistics, people born overseas have tripled since
1990, reaching almost 400 thousands immigrants last year. Commonly this is seen
as a positive development for the modern society that aims for an integrative role
to the world. However, due to many differences that may exist between ethnic
groups or even between natives from the host country, conflicts become inevitable;
either by strong incompatibilities between religions, by appropriation of certain
branches of employment or just by their behaviour as a social group.
Although the low media coverage has shown the wrong idea, segregation respect
to religion has been maintained through the time. The main contributor to this
consequence is the official religion of a certain country, which is in charge of
shaping the calendar and festivities around it. Just as a proof of this fact we can
find that just the Protestant Churches Day is recognized as celebration apart from
Catholic ones. It is undeniable that a Government which affirm that is a secular
one, as the Chilean Republic, should be impartial protecting rights of the variety of
churches settled in this country.
Another point of discussion that should be touched is the conflict produced by
stereotypes as a determinant aspect to choose an employee. A clarifier example of
this current situation is a study shown by Huffington Post, claiming that many
people in USA prefer to hire Afro-American people for aggressive and more
competitive roles in an enterprise, while Asians are preferred to take more calmed
and passive charges. Even if it has been as a positive discrimination, there are
worse scenarios, such as Peruvians and Bolivians in Chile who are chosen to work
as underpaid labourers, because they have been stereotyped as ignorant people.
The strong hierarchical structure that exists in Middle Eastern countries' families,
who move to western countries, is one of the clearest examples of how everyday
behaviour can cause conflict in a multicultural social community. Some of these,
which are almost unconceivable in the occidental mind, works in order to widen the
gap between neighbours. It is true that a foreign person should know some tips
from the host country; nevertheless, where is the limit between custom out of
context and intolerance? In addition, misconceptions and stereotypes influence
people to make the decision of being rude and impolite, which are in many cases
hasty ones.
To sum up, discrimination has been the hidden face of multiculturalism and a
contemporary discussion in the context of a multicultural society. There are several
aspects to consider, such as religious options, which are always dependent of the
official creed and tolerated to be practiced inside the house and not openly to the
rest of the population. Also, the stereotyped selection of workers that many

3. enterprises are allowed to do, prevents the free economic development of
minorities, giving immigrants only a handful of jobs to choose. Finally, there is still a
personal struggle that exists in the mind of some people, even when people of all
over the world become every day more and more tolerant to different cultures, for
some people it is difficult to accept the behaviour of others, which creates problems
on a smaller scale but no less important, and the only way to improve this is to
open our minds and adapt ourselves to the way that the world is evolving.