Diversity Vs. Unity: In a nation of immigrants, what makes us ‘one people’?

Diversity and immigration have always shaped the American story. From the nation’s beginnings, the United States has wrestled with a core question: What holds us together as one people when we come from so many different places? And as a corollary: Can a shared national culture coexist in a multicultural society with large-scale immigration?

This conversation invites participants to consider a central American tension: Are diversity and unity in conflict—or can they strengthen each other in the United States?

Multiculturalism is generally understood as a social and political framework in which multiple cultural, ethnic, religious, or linguistic traditions are recognized, protected, and allowed to flourish within a single society, rather than being absorbed into a single dominant culture.

Some argue that when multiculturalism emphasizes group identity over shared civic norms, it can weaken social trust, shared values, and national cohesion. In this view, a strong common culture rooted in shared civic expectations, language, and norms is necessary for democratic solidarity and social stability, particularly amid high levels of immigration.

Others contend that multiculturalism is compatible with, and even supportive of, a shared national culture. Immigrants may change the fabric of a society’s culture but so does the passage of time, new technology, social media, a native-born population, and much more. Immigrants change culture for the better by introducing new ideas, expertise, customs, cuisines, and art. Far from erasing the existing national culture, they expand it in a way that is essential in an interconnected world.

Here are a few questions we might explore:

1. When you think about being ‘American,’ what does that mean to you personally? And where did your sense of belonging in this country come from - family, school, religion, community, or something else?
2. What values or habits do you think Americans need to share in order for our democracy to work?
3. What does multiculturalism mean to you?
4. Can a country be both strongly multicultural and strongly united—or do those pull in opposite directions?
5. What role do things like language, religion, education, and economic opportunity play in how easily newcomers integrate into American life?
6. What do you think newcomers should learn or adopt in order to fully belong in American civic life?
7. What do you think a community needs to offer to immigrants to help them assimilate?
8. If you could design one policy or civic practice to strengthen American unity, what would it be?

Some useful links:

• Putting Clan Over Country Will Ruin America by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
• The Impact of Immigration on American Society by Charles Hirschman
• Melting Pots and Salad Bowls by Hoover Institution
• Immigrants to the United States still assimilate by the National Academy of Sciences

Join the Crossing Party Lines discussion and have a voice in our nation’s conversation! People of all views are welcomed, appreciated, and heard.