The Benefits Of Cultural Diversity In America

2164 Words9 Pages
Immigration has been an important social issue throughout history and still remains so today (Stephan, Renfro, Esses, Stephan and Martin, 2005). People move in search of a peaceful place to settle due to various conflicts in different parts of the world and in search of a better life for themselves and their families (Stephan et al., 2005). Cultural diversity has therefore become a byproduct of Immigration. Cultural diversity in contemporary culture is a central notion though, almost universally regarded as an ideal and socially desirable, it is an unclear text with highly disputed meanings (Russell, Schau and Crockett, 2013). According to Ottaviano and Peri it is a broad concept that has captivated the interest of both economists and social scientist (2006). In order to understand cultural diversity one has to first understand culture and diversity. Culture is described by Lequerica and Krch as a learned system, of attitudes, values and beliefs shared by a group of people which can include race, religion, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, disability status and age (2014). Whereas Ely and Thomas describes diversity as a trait of groups of two or more people and normally refers to demographic differences of one sort or the other among group members (2001). The focus of this paper will be the social and economic benefits of cultural diversity in the society today as a result of immigration.
Immigration in the USA
An earlier quota system based on