Cause and Effect Essay

The Negative Impacts of Cultural Integration

     Cultural integration is a process of adjusting elements of one culture to another. It is generally looked upon as a positive thing because it intends to bring social compatibility in people’s lives. However, not all good intentions lead to positive results. While cultural integration might bring benefits for people, it can also cause several bad effects.

     First, cultural integration can endanger cultural diversity. When different cultures live together, maintaining the characteristics of each culture might be a challenge. For example, when Javanese, Madurese, and Sundanese people live in the same place, each of their cultural identity will slowly dissolve as they are constantly adapting to one another.

   Second, cultural integration can cause discrimination and conflicts. Discrimination usually happens to marginalized cultures, such as people of Papuan tribes who are sometimes discriminated because of their skin colour. Also, when various cultures collide and integrate, a conflict might burst out because different cultures usually hold on to different principles.

    Third, cultural integration can decrease the values of local culture. When people get used to seeing various local cultures in their daily lives, they might not be impressed anymore. In some cases, they may even seem ignorant of their own cultures and feel prouder when taking part in promoting foreign cultures.

     In conclusion, even though cultural integration means good intention, it can also result in several negative impacts. It may endanger cultural diversity, cause discrimination and conflicts, and decrease the values of local culture. Therefore, cultural integration must be applied carefully in order to minimize the disadvantages.

By: Muzlia Pertiwi