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This kind of forced assimilation can’t be sustainable.

cryoz 5y ago
Sounds like the tragic Residential School System in Canada [1]. Records of the extent of abuse at these places are still surfacing. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Indian_residential_school_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Indian_residential_sc...
PeterisP 5y ago
Why not? I mean, it's immoral, but looking at history, forced assimilation has succeeded many times - it's just that it takes a lot of time (century+, certainly more than any individual's lifetime) and when it does, we now think of the assimilated people as an inherent part of the assimilating nation. The currently visible examples are just exceptions, either the ones where it has failed as the "assimilating empire" became weak and assimilation stopped/reversed, or the cases where it's recent and ongoing and won't succeed until after I'm dead (but that doesn't mean it won't succeed).
- endisneigh 5y ago
  China at some point or another will need immigrants. Assimilation might be effective, but it also might deter immigration. That being said it’s a very productive and lucrative country for poor people in the region so maybe it’s not that big of a deal.
  - kristofferR 5y ago
    China's demographic problems are still decades away though from being so problematic that they'll consider immigration, there probably won't be Uyghurs left by then.
- throwaway75 5y ago
  A good example of this success, is the muslims of India today. A successive train of islamic invaders have forced multiple generations to take up the religion. Invaders raised towers of skulls of the "kafirs" they killed, and imposed "jizya" (a kafir-only tax) on generations of them. The result today is a large population of their descendants that is completely assimilated in islamic culture.
sofixa 5y ago
France managed to assimilate most of the different cultural groups that existed in its now borders ( Bretons, Occitans, Picards, etc. etc.). Some remnants of those languages kind of exists, and there are growing movements to preserve them ( e.g. public signs in Toulouse are in Occitan and French), but for all intents and purposes the people were successfully assimilated and have been so for a century or two.

Sounds like the tragic Residential School System in Canada [1]. Records of the extent of abuse at these places are still surfacing. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Indian_residential_school_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Indian_residential_sc...

PeterisP 5y ago

Why not? I mean, it's immoral, but looking at history, forced assimilation has succeeded many times - it's just that it takes a lot of time (century+, certainly more than any individual's lifetime) and when it does, we now think of the assimilated people as an inherent part of the assimilating nation. The currently visible examples are just exceptions, either the ones where it has failed as the "assimilating empire" became weak and assimilation stopped/reversed, or the cases where it's recent and ongoing and won't succeed until after I'm dead (but that doesn't mean it won't succeed).

endisneigh 5y ago
China at some point or another will need immigrants. Assimilation might be effective, but it also might deter immigration. That being said it’s a very productive and lucrative country for poor people in the region so maybe it’s not that big of a deal.
- kristofferR 5y ago
  China's demographic problems are still decades away though from being so problematic that they'll consider immigration, there probably won't be Uyghurs left by then.
throwaway75 5y ago
A good example of this success, is the muslims of India today. A successive train of islamic invaders have forced multiple generations to take up the religion. Invaders raised towers of skulls of the "kafirs" they killed, and imposed "jizya" (a kafir-only tax) on generations of them. The result today is a large population of their descendants that is completely assimilated in islamic culture.

sofixa 5y ago

France managed to assimilate most of the different cultural groups that existed in its now borders ( Bretons, Occitans, Picards, etc. etc.). Some remnants of those languages kind of exists, and there are growing movements to preserve them ( e.g. public signs in Toulouse are in Occitan and French), but for all intents and purposes the people were successfully assimilated and have been so for a century or two.