Relationships are an influential part of who we are. They can assist in making us feel like we fit in and we have something to offer to this society. They can reinforce us. They give us the motive to be a change and, more significantly, to be changed. But it is frequently hard to connect with individuals when we do not know their background. How do we realize how to connect with them respectfully and proficiently with all the people in our society who live outside our inner circle; people whose culture and thoughts are so far detached from our own? How do we utilize our differences to toughen our bond as human beings? To love nevertheless, we must convert to culturally competent. Scroll down to read why is cultural competence important in one’s life.
1. Demographic shifts and an increasingly diverse population:
India has always had a culturally diverse population, including people from different religions, castes, and various languages they speak to name a few. In recent decades, our country has experienced dramatic changes in its population, mainly as rapid migration has changed its scene. For example, the recent population of India is 1,416,088,802 as of Friday, March 3, 2023, established by the Worldometer elaboration of the recent United Nations data. This means that although the population will still be growing rapidly, a single group will no longer be the majority in this country. Greater than 50 percent of the population will be recognized as belonging to an ethnic minority group or any other group.
In other meaning, even though we have always co-existed in an ethnically diverse society, we are all working in a progressively culturally diverse environment where we are required to be able to interact, connect, build relationships, and work effectually with a person from diverse cultures and ethnic upbringings. Furthermore, those of us working with the young generation need to make them ready to work in a society that will be even more diverse according to religion, ethnic background, and sexual adjustment.
2. Societies are increasingly becoming globalized:
These days, our world is diverse and universal. Technology has made communication through cultures around the globe a very general experience. Social networking pages, blogs, and chat rooms are allowing people to constantly interact around national and international borders. Many companies presently have a considerable number of international partnerships, and careers in numerous areas increasingly involve working with people from other different countries, together directly and indirectly. Personality development classes teach our children and the young generation today need to pull up their socks to get into a workforce and adult society that extends across borders and includes interacting with people from diverse backgrounds in innumerable settings.
Identifying our increasingly globalized population, many companies and professional organizations, for example, National Education Association, and RAND Corporation are highlighting the importance of cultural competence and related qualities such as global awareness as critical in today’s workplace. Many universities are also combining cultural awareness and development as a unit of their higher education experience and career training by generating opportunities for students to take part in international experiences. Effectively passing through our globalized society demands being able to recognize and appreciate diversity in its various forms, and to successfully engage and connect with people from distinct cultures.
3. Continuance of problems around cross-cultural contact, discrimination, and related challenges:
Despite the truth, the population is becoming more culturally diverse and globalized, and issues adjacent to inequality, bias, and collapses in intercultural communications continue. Many discrimination cases and religion-related cases have come to light in recent years in our country. There are also countless bias incidents, constant inequalities around racial and ethnic lines, and institutional guidelines that continue inequalities at both the individual and institutional levels. One need not look further at the latest news reports to search that ethnic tensions keep on.
4. Treat everyone equally:
Negative effects are not just for the sufferers of biases. A recent study proposes that stereotyping, bias, and incidences of microaggressions not only disturb the victim but also add to an unfriendly environment for everybody so that person in the broader setting, for example, the workplace might feel overthrown or even frightened and ill-treated.
Additionally, keeping biases and prejudice also negatively impacts the very persons keeping those stereotyped opinions. The best personality development mentor reveals that people with racial biases who network with people of color show high levels of cortisol and additional stress hormones. Therefore, biases and stereotypes have bad effects everywhere, for a person and institutions, along with for the targets of partiality and those keeping such a mentality.
5. Discrimination and bias in various forms are hurtful all around:
Discrimination and bias have dangerous outcomes. For instance, let’s take the latest case that occurred in the U.S. regarding the “blacks”, where stereotypes and bias have been asked for as the basis for the rush in reported incidences of police cruelty and the deaths of African Americans. A significant body of work has also revealed that victims of bias suffer in many ways that may be not visible much, like, in their schools and colleges, work functioning, and other areas of life, even though those biases are delicate. A study on “microaggressions” i.e., recurring or daily subtle and negligible actions of bias that may be knowingly or unintentionally expressed demonstrate this statement and depict that even delicate incidences can have collective and serious after-effects on socio-emotional welfare.
Life is wealthier when we connect with the people surrounding us, asking them into our world and absorbing all we can about theirs. And listening to each other, in search of truly hearing them and being considerate about their perspectives, is a decisive step toward peace. We hope by the end of this article, you would have understood why cultural competence is important in one’s life, and by achieving that we can do wonders for ourselves and our upcoming generation.