Kosovo as a Case Study for Culture Shock Conflict

One sort of conflict which can occur is conflict which results from culture shock. Society develops entrenched institutions over time, but when culture rapidly shifts then the social institutions may become undesirable by the new culture.

When the new culture rejects society's current institutions, this is a kind of conflict. There are two responses to this weak kind of conflict. The first is institutional adaption. Unfortunately, traditional institutions are notably difficult to adapt, although it can be done. The other solution is to demolish the old structure and replace it with a new structure. This form of creative destruction is costly in some ways, but it can also provide a quicker solution and sometimes also a better tailored, more appropriate solution.

I wouldn't say that either approach is always preferable. It's a social choice made by the collective society in question. The point of this article is simply to note that societies do sometimes choose creative destruction.

A case study of such an event would be Kosovo. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_War#Eruption_of_War">The Kosovo war is thought to have begun as a result of the Arabian diaspora. Basically, Kosovo used to be part of Serbia. Kosovo received massive rapid migration of Arab immigrants, and the Arab immigrants proceeded to demand radical political change which the government was not willing or able to provide. The Arab immigrants then formed a military collective and succeeded in separating Kosovo as its own country.

Given this information, it becomes more plausible that rapid immigration to the U.S. might cause some of the conflict which seems to worry some social conservatives.

Interestingly, the Kosovo economy <a href="http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_kd_zg&idim=country:KSV:ALB:MKD&hl=en&dl=en">neither grew more or less rapidly in the long run. In the short run during the war years there was large economic loss, but the argument that the mass immigration benefited the economy doesn't seem to be reflected in this case even after the war losses subsided.