Anglo conformity

Anglo Conformity is a theory related to assimilation on immigrants in Anglo societies, where immigrants in an Anglo society have to abandon their original cultural beliefs and values but adapting themselves to the Anglo-Saxon social norms, institutions as well as cultural values, learning English in order to be socially included in the Anglo-Saxon societies. Anglo Conformity promotes a system composed of Anglo-Saxon philosophy, political system, education system, economic system and military system, and religious practices with a sense of Anglo superiority. As a concept related to cultural assimilation, it is explicitly distinguished from other circumstances where one culture meets another one, including acculturation, cultural pluralism and the melting pot.

Anglo means "of English origin", and conformity means that the act of a person who tries to be included in a particular social group would align with the expectation of the group which he tries to become a member of.

In the field of social science and politics, Anglo conformity, as an assimilation theory, has important implications for the formations of social solidarity and cohesion within Anglo societies. Since some Anglo dominant countries have to absorb immigrants for promoting economic growth due to their aging problem, the decisions on their immigration policy should be made seriously and are critical for a country's unity along with its national identity formation. Meanwhile, Anglo Conformity has been an important concept in the study of different identity-related issues within a society. On the one hand, Anglo conformity could be interpreted as aiming to protect the uniqueness of Anglo social and cultural system within the Anglo societies, as the formation of a country's national identity usually should be based on shared cultural norms, values and a unifying system. On the other hand, Anglo Conformity may also be thought to contain a sense of cultural superiority of the Anglo culture over other non-Anglo cultures, where some immigrants who are not willing to abandon their cultural origins may be socially discriminated and marginalized, thus this may causing resentments and conflicts within a society, not only affecting a country's domestic economic development and social harmony negatively, even could doing harm to a country's international reputation on human rights and bringing related image problems.

In general, Anglo Conformity today is still a relevant social, cultural and political topic in the international communities, often being discussed within the western societies especially the United States, since it has been said to be a representative Anglo society, having an Anglo dominant ethnicity over other cultural groups. In other non-Anglo countries, the Anglo Conformity ideology that may be more subjectively interpreted as that the Anglo-Saxon ethnicity has a sense of cultural superiority over other ethnicity.

Anglo Conformity and its political indications in Anglo societies

Anglo Conformity in America

In the United States, there are four major interactions between different cultures, including cultural assimilation, acculturation, cultural pluralism and the melting pot. Theoretically, to achieve democracy to a larger extent, the melting pot may be encouraged and expected the most. Yet, based on research,the cultural reality in the United States is still assessed as favoring Anglo Conformity now.

Immigration history and Anglo Conformity in the United States

Historically, immigrants have been significant sources for America to grow and develop over historical times and those who adapt to the Anglo-Saxon culture better and faster are said usually to be more easily accepted by the Anglo-Saxon society.

During the colonial time, the settlers of English, Dutch, Spanish, and French backgrounds were struggling to gain the cultural dominance over the others in the American society. In the end, Anglo culture, namely those of English culture became the dominant group, and consequently, Anglo conformity was first forged in American society. As the English language along with its customs, laws and institutions became the core of the society, for new immigrants, to be more socially included, it seems very necessary to conform and absorb the norms and values of Anglo culture. Since then, Anglo culture is believed to become the strongest cultural basis of the American society, dominating and unifying all other ethnic groups within the United States.

Anglo Conformity in the United States today

Based on some academic research, linguistically, there are strong appeals in the country to abandon other local or immigrant languages but to use English as the only official language. In terms of the public roles, Anglo Conformity generally requires the Anglo-Saxons to be those in the main positions, so the role of non-Anglo others such as the Spanish is always discussed controversially even today. Meanwhile, there is also a white-dominated culture in the United States. Referring to religious practices allowed and encouraged within the United States, as Protestant Christianity is the dominant religion in society, the freedom of other religious practices is very difficult to ensure. One example would be the suppression on Sun Dance in the 1880s, another one would be those campaigns against the peyote religion and the religion of the Pueblos of which American Indians are the main believers. By using the name of the national public policy to protect the secular interests "(1) control a dangerous drug, peyote (2) prevent vicious sexual practice", these campaigns were said to essentially interfere these non-Anglo religious practices.

Anglo Conformity in Canada

The history of Anglo-Conformity in Canada

From 1890s to 1950s, " Whiteness" and "Britishness" are the two crucial characteristics of the Canadian society. In the late nineteenth century and for most of the time in the twentieth century, English-Canadians, as the dominant ethnic group in Canada, viewed their nation as an integral part of the "British World". In Canada's school textbooks, cultural traditions and especially the celebration of Empire Day, there are many evidences on "Britishness" as a part of Canada's national identity. Also, "Whiteness" is obvious in Canada during the time period, for instance, the Canadian Federation was convinced by the British Colombian government to legislate for immigration restrictions in which Asian immigration was excluded. According to The Saturday Night publication of Toronto, "British labor is wanted because it is highly skilled, politically acceptable, and easily assimilated", where its "Britishness" preference at the time was apparent. At the same time, in also saying that "western European farm and factory hands are also in demand", Canadian main stream media openly highlighted "Whiteness" as a significant standard .

The history on Canada's gradual transformation from Anglo-conformity to Multiculturalism

From 1919 to 1947, according to surveys, Canadian mainstream society was gradually transferred from the unofficial Anglo Conformity to the official multiculturalism. However, the change took a very long time with complexities. First, though being independent of Britain, Canada was still an Anglo-Saxon society where the British-Canadian ethnicity was superior than any other groups in Canadian society. Only after 1919, as great efforts have been made by other ethnic groups including the Ukrainians, the Japanese and the Scottish, three important ethnic groups apart from the English-Canadians in society, the government finally recognized the identity of Canadians as multicultural and characterized its immigration policy with Canadian multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is now encouraged by the government through policies and laws such as Canadian Multiculturalism Act, also, it is said to be relatively effective compared with other Anglo societies, though today some scholars are skeptical about whether multiculturalism works well in Canada and keep making criticisms.

Anglo Conformity in Australia

The history of Anglo Conformity in Australia

As Australia at the very beginning was a colony of Britain, the Anglo Conformity was established as the British settled down. At the time, the Aboriginal Australians were treated unfairly by the new British settlers, one of the significant reasons would be that those colonizers believe that their white-dominated Anglo culture was more superior than those Aboriginal people who are neither white or English-speaking, at the same time, the British colonizers even intended to exterminate the Aboriginal people.

For immigrants, though after the colonial time, Australia still defined itself as "New Britannia", where the Australian type was viewed as "98 percent British", between the First World War and the Second World War, Anglo Conformity was a key feature in Australia's immigrant policy, under which Non-British immigrants were not welcomed in general whilst those Non-European immigrants were rejected. After the Second World War, as there were a large number of Non-British immigrants emerging into the country who came from European countries like Germany, Italy and Greece, the great desire for British immigration in Australia was gradually diminished. However, according to the Australian official policy, those Non-British immigrants were still preferably required to adapt themselves to the Anglo-Australian mainstream culture.

From Anglo Conformity to Multiculturalism in Australia

From mid 1960s to 1970s, there was a transition period for changes in Australia's official policy, noticeably, there was a element-ethnic integration in it, as the government realized the fact that some immigrants had trouble in being assimilated in the Anglo dominant Australian society. Finally, in 1973, the Australian government confirmed itself being a multicultural nation. Since then, the rights of Non-Anglo immigrants in Australia to speak their own language and to keep their own cultural and religious origins were officially ensured through the policy. Multiculturalism is now believed as an increasingly significant part in Australia's national identity, nevertheless, though there has been progress made towards Australian multicultural society, some immigrants are reported to be encountering low levels of trust, high level of discrimination, limited opportunities in sociopolitical participation and a lack of the sense of safety within the society. Moreover, the topic on reconciliation with its relevant political policies on socially including aboriginal Australians remains a relatively contested topic within the Australian society, partly due to the contradiction contained in debates between Anglo Conformity assimilation and Multiculturalism.

Anglo Conformity in New Zealand

The history of Anglo Conformity in New Zealand

Based on recent studies, as a migrant country, unlike Australia, New Zealand was originally built upon the indigenous ethnic group Maori. In the late nineteenth century, owing to its labor shortages, British immigration and other European immigration were permitted by The 1840 Treaty of Waitangi to settle down in the country. Though few Asian immigrants like the Chinese and the Indian were allowed into the country, they were racially and culturally discriminated under its Anglo-oriented social and political practices. For most of the time in the twentieth century, New Zealand's immigration policy unofficially preferred the European immigrants especially those who were of Britain origin, or of Protestant Anglo-Celtic origins. Until the end of the Second World War, New Zealand was identified to have "one of the most ethnically homogeneous societies of European settle". During the postwar period, there was a time when there were enough labor in the domestic market, the government expelled those who overstayed, which resulting in the situation that the European immigration was kept as its mainstream population.

Multiculturalism in New Zealand

Only since 1980s, the European immigration dominance was gradually challenged and shifted. As in 1986, the official policy began to open the door for those Non-Anglo immigrants, followed by which there were a dramatically increasing number of Asian-Pacific immigrants especially those from China and India in its population. Accompanied with a sharply rising Non-Anglo population, according to the survey conducted, people in New Zealand represented a more positive attitude than other countries like Australia on favoring multiculturalism, as 80% of the respondents believed that it would be important for New Zealand to welcome immigrants of different cultural origins, insisting cultural integration other than solely assimilation or separation.

The influences that Anglo Conformity may have

The creation of Hyphenated identity "American-Italian" in the United States

In the United States, according to research conducted, though those Americans who were of Italian background have almost no authentic Italian experiences and do barely no Italian daily practices, they are labelled as a symbolic ethnicity- "American-Italian" that is differentiated from the mainstream Anglo-Saxon ethnicity, and which consequently connect them in their real life with “Italianness”. According to the survey, although these American Italian descendants do not go to any Italian clubs or participate in any Italian activities in their daily life, they live in a neighborhood where their neighbors were mostly of the Italian background and interacted with them as an entity of "American Italians".

Possible evaluations on Anglo Conformity

Anti-democratic effects

It is said that Anglo-Conformity may actually be the ground for some anti-democratic movements in a society, since some extreme Anglo-oriented policies and actions including setting English as the official language, restricting the legal citizenship and immigrants, banning bi-lingual or multi-lingual educations and restraining the political rights such as voting or electing rights for those who are not Anglo-Saxons may violate the democratic codes of conduct within the society.

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