Doors and borders cannot stop multiculturalism from making the world as blended as possible. Where you used to only know the culture of your people, now, it is easy to know the basics of other cultures because of the settlers who live in your locale. It is also easy to make friends on the Internet and through this, you get first-hand information about their culture. You yourself may also be multicultural, with your parents coming from different nations.
Instead of multiculturalism being special, it is now the norm.
Specialised Restaurants
An Italian restaurant in the middle of New York. Korean fast food in Singapore. Fish and chips in Los Angeles. Indian snacks in London — take your pick. Foreign delicacies are much more accessible to anyone around the globe thanks to migration. When people migrate, they bring a piece of them into their new location and even turn it into a business, however small or obscure at first. It used to require some effort to find authentic dishes, but no more. With chefs travelling to taste the dishes they prepare from the source, you get the taste of home from street stalls to five-star restaurants.
Towns Within Towns
In places like Singapore, where multiculturalism is much more pronounced, there are whispers of different cultures wherever you turn. In bigger countries, if one foreign culture is represented big enough in a community, they might have an honorary town of their own. Think Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Tokyo, or Little Manila. These can be present in any place where there are plenty of Asians and they decide to congregate their businesses together to form a community within a community. It is in no way divisive — rather, it is informative and invites everyone to partake in the dishes they have exported from home. It is through these towns within towns that the best relationships blossom and the most authentic knowledge of one place is learned. You will come in for the food, perhaps, but you will leave knowing a bit more of the culture.
Multiculturalism Within the Family
Some of the celebrities you know today are multicultural, which makes it interesting to see them grow up in a combination of beliefs, sayings and even food preferences. You yourself may be from a family with mixed heritage even if your family have settled in the same country for years. You can have the tiniest bit of foreign blood in you, but as long as your parents never let you forget about your roots, you will grow up embracing different cultures and being equally fond of them. Sometimes, it is not even about the blood that runs through your veins. You can be Canadian by blood, but if you were born and have lived in Singapore all your life, you will inherit some of the characteristics unique to Singaporeans.
We live in a more open world where you can be acquainted with multiple cultures at an early age. The beauty of this is that you will be able to identify with people from different backgrounds. You develop a deeper understanding of what makes each culture unique but also know the values different cultures share.
