The Effect of the Presence of Foreigners on Cultural Changes in Border Towns (Case Study: Marivan City in Kurdistan Province)

Border towns have long been the resort of the neighboring countries and in proportion of the amount of communication it affects the economic, social and cultural conditions in the country. Activities such as trade, smuggling, relationships, etc. lead to the presence of these people in the border town, each of which in turn reduces or increases the security of these cities. Cultural changes are measured with features like pale cultures of national origin, forgetting the homeland cultural traditions, disregarding the negative effects of cultural change and replacing them with imported foreign culture. The presence of foreigners who arrive in the border towns leads to some changes in the instruments, cultural values and beliefs of people in these cities. City of Marivan in Kurdistan province, located in the West and shares a border with Iraq is introduced as one of the busy border towns that due to its frontier markets have been directly affected by foreign nationals and experience significant cultural change. This article aims to address the cultural changes in the commercial areas of the city of Marivan as a result of dealing with a foreign culture and find the answer to following question: What changes are created in selected cultural elements in this area? This study is of a descriptive-analytic research type. The library and survey studies were done using interview and questionnaire instruments. The obtained results indicate that in line with the arrival of traders and smugglers and foreign products and instruments some subcultures have been totally changed and others have been replaced with the alternative foreign culture.