Immigrants and Loyalty

A lot of discussion is going currently in the developed countries on the loyalty of immigrants. Whenever an immigrant becomes the citizen of a country, the country deserves loyalty from him. In the changing political world after 9/11, the countries which are frequent targets of immigrants are trying to reshape their policies. Several of them introduced special integration programs for the immigrants to accept and exercise host country culture.

Freedom vs. Loyalty:

Freedom means the liberty of one to express his own view on a particular matter as long as it is not against the law of the country. Each democratic country must exercise freedom for its people, media, and newspaper. It doesn’t mean only to enforce some law in the society, but also that the society members must accept different views of the same matter and respect the views of others. Developed countries are in general pioneers in integrating freedom in every aspect of the social culture.

Loyalty, on the other hand, refers to individual’s emotional bindings to some matter of state. Loyalty is a very complex stuff with deep inherent meanings. It is always explicitly visible and must automatically come out of heart similar to the feeling of love. Each country deserves from its citizens obedience to laws as well as to its feelings. When a country is in crisis, loyalty can be visible. It can also be noticed during some course of sports or joyful events. A society expects that its members support the team naturally and spontaneously during a game. It’s my loyalty to Bangladesh when it plays a cricket match against India or Pakistan, I will be emotionally bound to Bangladesh team and will wish its success. Countries’ original citizens are frequently seen as disloyal. What about the corrupt citizens who are bringing down the progress and pride of the nation? Some disloyalty is also done by framing new legislature which benefits corrupted politicians and harm the progress of the country. There are many people in a country with high social support who register themselves as unemployed and draw social and/or unemployment benefits even they can find suitable jobs for themselves.

Freedom sometimes collides with Loyalty when someone supports the opponent during a crisis of the state. I have freedom to express whole-hearted support for Pakistan in a Bangladesh vs. Pakistan cricket match. But it would contradict my loyalty to Bangladesh. There could be conflict with the political agenda of a country and citizens in democratic country have the freedom to criticize country’s policy. But the reason must be that they believe their stand would be beneficial for the country in the long run. Hundreds of thousands protesters on the New York street condemning the war against Iraq before and after US invasion into Iraq are good such example. It does not collide with loyalty to the homeland. Certain balance must be made between Freedom and loyalty. The free voice or act that goes against the emotional, traditional, cultural aspects of the country is considered disloyal.

Loyalty of immigrants:

A country accepts immigrants on the basis of humanitarian reasons or if it thinks that the immigrants would contribute to the benefits of the country. People migrate to other country to pursue a better future. Loyalty is the most important things that the countries deserve from its new citizens.

But experience shows that loyalty is a very hard thing to achieve. It takes years if not decades to create some form of loyalty in human beings. In some cases, it is not achieved in one generation.

Loyalty and Integration

Some countries introduced special integration programs for the immigrants to promote them to accept and adapt themselves to the culture of the host country. Some extra lessons have been added to the traditional language courses; special courses are offered and enforced for the immigrants who intend to become the future citizen of the countries. Parallel to encouraging the adaptation of immigrants to the culture and making them acquainted with the history and law of the country, integration also helps them to respect freedom of others.

Many countries also encourage simultaneous existence and exercise of multiple cultures, most of the time with some minor restrictions. Adapting to the host country culture can be much simpler to achieve than loyalty. Turkish community arrived in Germany in 1950s. They have been contributing to the economy of the country since then. Many Germans questioned the loyalty of some members of the community during World Cup Football 2006 when German team was playing against Turkey. It is frequently observed when Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi team plays in England, the supporters of opponent teams are large present in the stadium.

How to win loyalty for the host country

I have asked myself in several occasions what could be the best way to achieve loyalty of the new citizens for a country. First of all, the immigrants must be given enough time. It will not happen overnight. It might be always a good idea to let them exercise their own culture unless it hurts someone or contrary to some state laws. Enforcing the host culture, especially, on the new generation of immigrants might accelerate integration but might not succeed gaining loyalty from them.

It is natural to think that the Indians who migrated to various countries of Africa a century ago are loyal to the respective country. The reasons might be twofold:

1. While they were leaving, they were sure about not come back to home anymore. They accepted the country where they settled down as their own.
2. It might also take several generations to be natural loyal to the host country.

The immigrants must learn the official language of the host country as natively as possible. It might help them to avoid many misunderstandings. Their children must learn from their parents to love the country and be emotionally engaged for the good of it

Many immigrants complain about the unfriendly and harsh behavior of employees in the Government offices. These people believe that the reason for that is because they are foreign origins. A newly converted citizen should be treated as good as with original citizens of the country.

During a crisis, people from some origin should not be blamed in general. Misdeeds are done by some individuals or groups motivated by his/their own beliefs apart from the ideology of common citizens.