National Identity In a Globalized World: Language, Culture, Customs, Citizenship - Essay Example

NATIONAL IDENTITY IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD: LANGUAGE, CULTURE, CUSTOMS, CITIZENSHIP, ETC Number November 13, Introduction This paper discusses national identity through culture, customs and beliefs. Cultures in different countries have been positively and negatively affected by globalization. It also discusses whether culture, customs and values can be maintained without affecting the national identity of a nation. Political education is important to improve and strengthen national and ethnic identity. The identity is based on people’s loyalty to their country and nationalism. Globalization has challenged the use of traditional identification, hence the importance of education and having a national identity. What is a nation? A nation can be described as a number of people who share a common identity and tribe to a great proportion.1 A nation composes of many different people, who share common values, history, culture, environment and customs. What is national identity? A national identity can be defined as “a collective sentiment based upon the belief of belonging to the same nation and of sharing most of the attributes that make it distinct from other nations”.2 Identity is formed on the values and customs that people share. It also states an individual’s position and shows the social relation of people. Identity provides a sense of belonging and recognition. Citizens of a particular nation share a set of characteristics, which are what constitutes a national identity. In regard to different dimensions, national identity has cultural, historical, territorial, political and psychological dimensions.3 A national identity shows and explains people’s history, language, culture, custom and beliefs. It has established lands, countries, environments and continued over generations. National identity has had an impact on people’s willingness to fight conflict. National identity has had its challenges; this concerns the relation between the majority and minority, dominant and minority and natives and immigrants. People get affected by ethnic identity and assume that the nation should be dominated by their ethnicity. Apart from boundary, name of a country, flag, president and currency, a national language marks a national identity. Gat supports this by asserting that “language is widely considered as the main cultural feature of a typical modern national identity”.4 Language is therefore very important in forming the national identity of a country. How important is having a national identity? Having a national identity is like having an insurance policy. Having a national identity is very important because of the following: For national security: having a national identity prevents illegal movement of people from one place to another. It also helps identify an individual who has been a suspect in a crime. Different people exist and enter a country or state. These people have different reasons for exiting their countries and going to other countries. If a majority group of people express their group identity as being more important than that of the national, this causes social unrest and political instability. Identity theft: National identity has been a major way of preventing identity theft. A country should have a common identity that should prevent forgery. This is because it makes it difficult to acquire someone’s identity. Businesses should require an identity, especially in the use of debit or credit cards. National identity therefore helps prevent the theft or acquisition of another country’s culture, customs and beliefs. Illegal employment: This form of identity is used to prevent and stop illegal employment in a nation. The immigrants that do not have proper documentation shouldn’t be allowed to work in any country. Most employers use national identity to employ people and for those who do not they place themselves at risk of a lot of things. With the different cultures of a nation, it’s hard to give employment to people from a different country, since national identity ensures employment for the people of that particular nation.5 Voting: During an election period, it’s very important to ensure that everyone voting should have identification. This is done through national identity and it prevents people who do not identify with a nation from voting. What is the relationship between globalization and identity? Identity is a social system which comprises of common traits like language, religion, culture and values. To find the identity of someone, several factors such as his name, age, place of birth, language and residence are incorporated. Cultural identity and globalization are connected; in this case globalization brings about new and modern ways of doing things and ideas.6 Identity identifies someone’s origin and what makes the person different from everyone else. People’s lives, culture, economy and the world have been formed by the issues of globalization and identity. Globalization is seen as an emerging national and cultural identity. Globalization has become a blend of different societies. It has however had a negative effect on culture as it causes its loss with time. This is especially true given the fact that many nations have openly accepted different cultures, thus ensuring globalization occurs. Globalization can be viewed as an empowering idea. It connects the world, encourages economic development, ensures people’s access to information and ensures the development of the world. Globalization has had the ability to connect and empower people by providing a way of self-representation, ensuring a collective identity through socialization, and providing adequate employment opportunities. Although globalization emerged in the 20th century, it has greatly enhanced many nations, especially in economic terms. Culture has been changing over the generations. People make culture and the culture makes people, which form cultural identity. The influence of globalization on cultural identity has been a concern because globalization has brought about an origin of identity. Globalization establishes a global culture, where in this kind of identity, there are new beliefs and cultural values. In the modern world, globalization controls the society of an individual. This is because it has introduced change of a place, culture and identity. Globalization has destroyed cultural identity, which has encroached on homogenized, westernized and culture. Globalization aims at eradicating the differences in society and establishing a common pattern across the world. An example is the franchising businesses across the globe, such as Nike, Toyota among others. They give people around the world a common item to use. Globalization shouldn’t be a factor to change one’s identity and culture. It can however be considered a problem if people lose their different cultures, beliefs and histories. For example, if the Spaniards start speaking English instead of the language Spanish, they will have lost part of their culture. Eventually, Spanish will be a lost culture and history and the generations to come will have difficulty reading or writing Spanish. For this reason, globalization should be used to display culture and history. Everyone can be identified with a particular group, ethnicity, race and religion. People often have many identities such as mother, nurse and immigrant. Ethnicity identity can be conserved to an original identity of a different country. This will ensure that there is an open culture of people in a new country, the new culture is embraced and new immigrants are respected. With the arrival of immigrants, there is bound to be social change. An example of a region that shows the relationship between globalization and culture is the Middle East. Does globalization breed cultural diversity or homogeneity? As globalization speeds up overall growth, people are becoming more aware of it and this increases their knowledge of the past hence influencing the world. Globalization aims to bring a common culture across the world. It tries to introduce an American culture. This can be observed in today’s workforce where there is respect for national and ethnic identity. However, there are nations that have failed to appreciate the value of diverse cultures. On the same note, some cultures have been forgotten in the move towards globalization. An example is the rich culture and ethnicity in the African countries, which has been ignored and pushed aside. Cultural diversity has been viewed as a global village and people have received the positive and negative effects of globalization. Culture can be a common form of life of a nation, which has a common national identity and identity values. Globalization controls culture and tends to be homogenizing. Fukuyama rejected the assumption that globalization brings about cultural homogeneity. Homogenization can be seen in different aspects of a society, but accepts a distinct cultural identity. Cultural diversity has been affected by cultural standardization and global uniformity. The loss of an identity happens when globalization encourages a western culture. This has greatly enhanced homogenous values and beliefs. Cultural homogeneity has been seen to favor modern consumerism over the traditional.7 It uses modern consumerism that reduces global cultural diversity, while establishing a world of homogenous cultural clones. The encouragement of using western culture and ideas as computer technology is developed, processed and established through the western market.8 This population and culture has established a mark in the next great technology, which many people have copied and emulated. Globalization has had an impact on intellectual property and cultural identity. Using technological machines to access information has been a gateway to getting cultural information. Many people use this cultural information from other countries to develop themselves like songs, dances, arts and clothing. Despite the negative effects globalization has on cultural diversity and homogeneity, it has helped and improved culture, as it allows cultural sharing. Media has greatly promoted cultural awareness and provided public knowledge about culture and history. Globalization allows important preservation of cultural diversity. Instead of technology destroying and limiting cultures, it has instead restored and preserved the cultural diversity of different countries. Technology has been used as a medium of language, customs and cultural preservation. It also leads to a deep rooted culture and a global importance of local knowledge. Globalization has continued to dominantly resist challenges that have occurred mainly on national identities, rather than the growth of ethnic identities against national identity. Globalization has caused cultural conflicts; this is expressed when the Spaniards rejected fast-foods from exported cultures like the United States and the Great Britain.9 The Spaniards consider fast-food to be culturally biased. Nevertheless, these fast foods have spread across the world. Globalization has misrepresented stereotyping and the loss of cultural and intellectual property. On the positive side, globalization has had an impact on education to remote cultures that don’t have access to it by making it accessible. Can people maintain their culture, customs, religious traditions, and citizenship (in terms of rights and freedoms) in without jeopardizing national identity? Cultural diversity should be protected. In order to keep memories, innovation should be enriched by diversity more than homogeneity. Human diversity should be used for common good and should be protected against globalization. Culture should be respected as it is part of the rights of generations and that history should continue. Ethnicity has become an important part of the world. During the 20th century, it had become difficult to find a homogeneous country when it came to culture, religion, ethnicity and race. 10 In the western countries, multiculturalism has become a way to express nationhood. Immigrants going to a new country carry their ethnic and national identities from their mother countries and they often face different cultural and national identities. In any particular country, there is a majority cultural identity, and the minorities also have their own different identity. Immigrants often adapt to a new cultural identity depending on the background of their home country. An example is that if a Turkish immigrant leaves for Germany or Great Britain, he or she will have challenges depending on where he comes from, that is, Anatolia or Istanbul and on how different the identity culture is in the new country. Immigrants often face a combination of cultures that strengthen national identity, which has an original ethnic identity. Different countries often retain their customs, culture and beliefs. For example, the United States of America has a number of different cultures, while Great Britain and Germany have lost or weakened their national identities. Germany was a nation established on a natural society, homogeneous language and culture. It was formed on the origins and bloodlines of the people. People are not familiar with the German culture, language and customs, which could explain the country’s ancestry.11 Germany as a nation has had one culture, but this culture has suffered since the time of the Nazi. Conclusion A nation is a number of people who share a common identity and tribe to a great proportion. National identity provides a sense of belonging and recognition for people. Globalization is connected to identity. This has especially been the case in recent years, where it has become an emerging national and cultural identity. People’s lives, culture, economy and the world have been formed by the issues of globalization and identity. Globalization has nurtured cultural diversity through the means of technology that has spread across the world. This and much more have been discussed in this paper. Bibliography Constant, Amelie F. and Zimmermann, Klaus F. “Immigrants, Ethnic Identities and the Nation-State.” iza.org. Published November 2012. http://www.iza.org/MigrationHandbook/14_Constant_Zimmermann_Immigrants,%20Ethnic%20Identities%20and%20the%20Nation%20State.pdf. Ervin, Justin and ‎ Smith, Zachary Alden. Globalization: A reference Handbook. California: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2008. Gat, Azar. Nations: The Long History and Deep Roots of Political Ethnicity and Nationalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Gil, Ana Cristina. “Cultural Identity and Globalization.” inter-disciplinary.net. Accessed November 13, 2014. http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/ana-gil_paper.pdf. Global Policy Forum. “What is a “Nation”?.” globalpolicy.org. Accessed November 12, 2014. https://www.globalpolicy.org/nations-a-states/what-is-a-nation.html. Guibernau, Montserrat. The Identity of Nations. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007. Read More