Katherine Pratt Ewing discusses the effects of discourse surrounding the integration of ethnic and religious minorities. She mainly focuses on Turkish Muslims in Germany who are caught between two cultures. Immigrants all over the world have hyphenated identities and negotiate between them. Ewing identifies two polarized problems of integration multiculturalism and individualism. Discourse that polarizes these ideas define multiculturalism as accommodating the cultural difference of minority groups and individualism as universal rights and free choice. Policies that utilize these ideas marginalize ethnic and religious others. Multiculturalism enables a cultural category that generates stereotypes, Turkish women viewed as victims. Individualism justifies the dominant culture as the basis for universal human rights and justifies forced assimilation, liberating the Turkish women in scarves.
In the United States, can this conflict of culture and policy be applied to polygamy sects? These are a large group of people in Utah who practice polygyny. One of which is featured on TLC’s Sister Wives. The family belongs to the culture of their Latter Day Saints religion where their relationship is accepted, as well as American society which punishes polygamous marriage. Do the discourse and policies surrounding this illegal practice prevent people in this family from social acceptance? Turkish Muslim women who have degrees are unable to teach in Germany because the choose to wear a headscarf. The headscarf allows them to operate in the social, public sphere within their culture. Are polygamists marked by their religious practices?
