Multiculturalism and Just Health Care: Taking Pluralism Seriously

Abstract Ours is a culturally diverse society. A major source of this diversity is the influx of foreign-born populations fleeing economic hardship and social deprivation and hoping for a better life and greater opportunities in the United States. Immigration to the United States is not a recent phenomenon, of course. The arrival of ethnic and minority populations from various Asian and Hispanic countries is only the latest in a long history of immigration to America. In past years mainstream American society expected the new arrivals to quickly dis-card their distinctive beliefs, customs, and traditions and join the great “melting pot”; today this assimilationist expectation is increasingly being branded as “culturally in-sensitive.” Not only do we now understand that, as a matter of sociological fact, ethnic and minority groups retain parts of their cultural belief systems while incorporating elements of the broader society, but there is also a growing appreciation of the moral claims of cultural pluralism. The call for assimilation has been replaced or supplemented by a new emphasis on respect for cultural diversity,grounded in the recognition that it is insulting to the members of these cultural groups to neglect or belittle the importance of their cultural identities.