Parallel societies refer to societies in which a nation has admitted an enormous immigrant number, with most of these migrants wishing to jump from the status of being a guest worker to permanent resident status. This comes with no explicit strategy toward the management of their role, which is sometimes speaking in the language of multiculturalism or integration. The countries commit to none of these (Hill, 2013). Instead, regimes in these nations prefer to mostly tangle through. Such instances include the United States, which has substantial devolution and is significant to cater territorial sub-nationalities, a system that superimposes multiculturalism. Coincidentally, the United States has gradually pursued national foreign policies that are very assertive after a long period of historical restraint.
Within the United States, parallel societies has been getting into the vocabulary of opinion-makers and politicians in their conversations regarding worsening multiculturalism and immigrant’ social isolation in the country. The term has been associated with the segregation of immigrant communities, believed to voluntarily desist from political and social involvement within the mainstream society (Gorchakova, 2011). In the United States, social networks established by ethnic factions do not, as a regulation, intersect with Native Americans’ social networks. Moreover, claims reveal that the simultaneous segregation in the educational institutions along with the workforce and spatial segregation aimed at migrants ultimately grow institutions that reproduce a social and economic separation of immigrant communities.
Ultimately, the parallel social philosophy of numerous migrant groups migrating to the United States during the turn of the century may be characterized as the American Dream and assimilation. Several migrant who came to the United States viewed the opportunities the country presents, with determination and hard work culminating to social mobility and economic success, a notion coined in the American Dream concept (Gorchakova, 2011). Their aspiration for better lives prepared them to get used to novel traditions and cultures, with the idea of merging with the ordinary society, an idea of assimilation.
Organized crime may emerge due to adhesion to some norm or code within a specific community. As a result of the United States forming part of parallel societies, organized crime groups within the country can be assumed as parallel societies. The emergence of the organized crime groups within the United States came in response to economic and social changes, namely globalization and modernization, forcing them to function outside of typical society, establishing their different activities and cultures. Within the digital society, the evolution of organized crime has been large including hybrid and conventional criminal organizations utilizing online and technological platforms (Cressey, 2017). The parallel society concept, perfectly describes the United States and has been utilized primarily to pronounce the presence of distinct communities within an extensive society, frequently featuring inadequate integration along with the existence of criminal groups and activities.
In addition, as a result of the parallel societies, organized criminal groups organized along ethnic and racial lines, mostly seen within migrant communities, mirroring the pluralism within conventional society. Researching overlapping associations between legitimate, criminal, and personal networks can offer insight into organized crime’s nature and its incorporation into legitimate society (Cressey, 2017). Therefore, organized crime can be perfectly described as parallel society and similar to its emergence since it involves ethnic minorities, such as migrant communities establishing their infrastructures and separating themselves from the ordinary society which is seen as homogenous. Moreover, it supports the arguments backing the disaster of a diverse society.
In conclusion, irrespective of immigrants having diverse cultures and wanting to come to the United States, they had the philosophy to seek economic prowess and social cohesion. This would have been accomplished through the adoption of novel culture, whereas contributing to the cultural diversity of the United States, only to be met by a failing multiculturalism. The parallel society in the United States explains the emergence of organized crime due to the social isolation and social along with political changes.
References
Cressey, D. (2017). Theft of the nation: The structure and operations of organized crime in America. Routledge.
Gorchakova, N. (2011). The concept of parallel societies and its use in the immigration and multiculturalism discourse. MA. University of Helsinki.
Hill, C. (2013). The national interest in question: Foreign policy in multicultural societies. OUP Oxford.
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