Letters: Immigrants must take us as we are

A reader says immigrants should respect NZ's culture and way of life. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The reason that immigrants leave their own countries and move to another are many and varied; two of them might be that they are seeking a better life, or that life for them has become dangerous in their country of birth.

When they are choosing which country to move to, their considerations are also varied, but you have to assume that they believe the country they have moved to is one which can provide them with a better future.

Surely they realise that this new country has its own history and culture, that has evolved over centuries to what it is today. Some elements of that history are good, some are shameful, and some are today evident in that culture only in a name. That name might be imbued with the best character associated with that name, and any not-so-comfortable connotations may have faded over time.

A name like, say, Crusaders.

The Crusaders are a Canterbury rugby team, a very successful one with a proud history. The word 'crusade' refers to the religious wars carried out by Christians again Muslims.

In the culture that a lot of New Zealanders identify with, it has evolved to also mean a long and determined attempt to achieve something that you believe in strongly, a positive meaning.

But now lots of people have decided that because someone committed a heinous crime against a certain section of the immigrant community, anything that could potentially offend that community must be banished. Why is that? Do we all have to subvert our own culture to make them feel more comfortable?

Did these people not realise that their new country does not have the same view of their history as they might? Are they purporting to say that all that one side did was wrong and everything the other side did was right, and what's more you (we) have to change any references in our history and culture that don't align with their world view? Really?

Are the Turks in New Zealand going to lobby to have the name or the commemoration of Anzac banished because it offends them?

I accept that in many nations, names and any form of commemoration of explorers and pioneers, colonists, anyone who is deemed to be on the wrong side of history is slowly being wiped from the face of the land. But those movements are taking place in the home land of people leading them. Not by people who have moved from one part of the world to another.

One can only imagine how such a demand would be received if the roles were reversed.