3.8: Ethnicities and Nationalities

Ethnicities and Nationalities

Some countries have only one ethnicity and are called nation-states (remember that an ethnicity can also be called a nation) Most places are not like this and contain many ethnicities. Some ethnicities are minorities solely by a political boundary. Many groups have found themselves on the wrong side of an imaginary line. Sometimes this is due to outside forces imposing a boundary, for example the Hausa in Nigeria and Niger, but sometimes it is a product of state creation itself. When the state of Germany was created, there were pockets of ethnic Germans scattered all over Europe. It would have been impossible to incorporate them all, since they were spatially discontiguous.

In the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), attempts were made to make political boundaries match ethnic boundaries. Kazakh people had the Kazakh SSR, Uzbek people had the Uzbek SSR, and so forth. It was an idea based on ease of administration, but it wasn’t based on the actual distribution of the ethnic groups. The distributions were far too messy to draw clear, neat lines between them. This didn’t matter as long as the USSR was still functioning, but when it collapsed, it created another landscape of minorities on the wrong side of a boundary. Irredentism is when your ethnic group has people on the wrong side of a boundary, and it’s necessarily destabilizing. The following chapter on political geography will go into greater detail regarding this, but suffice it to say that split nations do not like being split.

Some ethnicities are numerous, but find themselves minorities in several countries. Kurds, Balochs (Figure 7.8), and Sami are all nations who are distributed across several countries. Such groups often harbor strong desires to create their own independent political entities to the detriment of currently existing states.

Figure | Pakistan Major Ethnic Groups, 1980 This map details the politically fragmented spatiality of the Baloch people, separated into Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Author | U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Source | Wikimedia Commons License | Public Domain

As places unify politically and develop industrially, ethnicity often declines. Moving populations into cities and stirring them around in schools, militaries, and jobs fosters intermarriage and acculturation to the larger, national norms. Rural places tend to be more diverse, and somewhere like Papua New Guinea is probably the most diverse, due to the fact that smaller villages still predominate. Somewhere like South Korea, which was already relatively ethnically homogenous, has become almost fully so due to economic development.

National Heritage

Ethnic identity can also be tied to an association with an ancestral homeland or an ancestral group. Often, we call this type of ethnic identity nationality. Many Americans use nationality as their preferred marker of ethnicity. Many other Americans cannot even identify their national ancestry. Most of the time in the US, nationality-based ethnicities are expressed by the use of a hyphenated term, such as Chinese-American, Mexican-American, Persian-American, etc.

It is rare for Americans of European descent to self-identify as “English-American” or “German-American”, even though England and Germany have each been a significant source of migrants. One reason for the erosion of these identities as distinct is the long history of intermarriage between persons of European descent. This process is captured by the partially true myth of the American Melting Pot which suggests that over many generations European national identity has been overwhelmed by a generic American identity. Because Anglo and German migrants were so numerous, many of their cultural norms have become so thoroughly woven into the fabric of American life that together American culture is largely Anglo-German.

Figure : Huntington Park, CA - Fans of Mexico's men’s national soccer team celebrate in a Los Angeles neighborhood in a display of pride for a nationality-based ethnicity. Source: Daily Mail, UK

Is Diversity Good?

Diversity in developed countries is often promoted as a self-evident benefit, but there are some downsides to increasing diversity. Studies have shown that ethnic diversity decreases political participation. This is likely due not only to factors such as difficulties in communication, but also simple mistrust of other groups of people, known as xenophobia. This mistrust can apply to all parties in the relationship. There are places in the world with very low levels of diversity. South Korea, Japan and Finland are all highly productive economies with very little cultural or ethnic variability and high levels of social cohesion.

There are benefits to diversity. Aside from the benefits to genetic diversity (a reduction in recessive-gene disorders) ethnic diversity opens citizens to a wider range of experiences. Without pizza, sushi, tacos, stir-fry, or hamburgers, the United States would be a cultural wasteland forced to subsist on our British inheritance of boiled lunch and steak and kidney pie. Diversity has made our lives more pleasant, and it has made our ability to relate to others broader.

Immigration and Ethnicity

The United States is not the only place to receive immigrants or to have ethnic diversity. In fact, many places have far more ethnic diversity, even places that have little history of immigration. India, China, and Russia are all countries that have had diverse populations speaking different languages and living different lifestyles for a very long time.

In many ways, the impact of immigration on the ethnic fabric in Europe is the same as it has been in the United States. Due to the relative strength of their economies, European countries have been receiving large numbers of immigrants for some time. These immigrants are usually culturally distinct from the host population. In many instances, the immigrants come from places that had previously been colonies of European powers. The increase in immigrants with backgrounds dissimilar to the host country has triggered a rise in nationalistic or xenophobic activities, and in some places, a rise in political parties dedicated to reducing immigration or even repatriating current immigrants. The separate category of guest worker has created an even more complicated ethnic relationship. Guest workers are temporary workers who are contracted for a set period of time with the understanding that they will leave when the period of work has ended. By and large, that is not what happens due to the economic realities of short-term employment. People are reluctant to return to poverty.

Acculturation and Assimilation

When ethnic minorities live among a larger “host” population, they tend to begin to adapt to the beliefs and practices of the larger group. This process is called acculturation. Intermarriage is the most effective means by which ethnic groups become members of the host culture, or assimilate into the dominant or host culture. Barriers to intermarriage among peoples of different European ethnicities have been generally lower than for those seeking a union between a European-American and a person whose ancestors were from elsewhere. For many years, in the US, anti-miscegenation laws against interracial marriages made it more difficult for minority groups to assimilate.

Figure : Location unknown - This soccer jersey features the colors and symbols of both the US and Mexico, in recognition of the transnational identities held closely by many Mexican-Americans living in both the US and Mexico. Source: MLS. (dead link)

In the absence of legal or cultural barriers to intermarriage, time, and distance factor into how quickly and completely migrant families assimilate. After a few generations, most immigrant groups fully integrate into American culture, especially if the distance between the ancestral country of origin is great, making it difficult for migrants to remain connected to ancestral ways.

Cheap international travel and even cheaper digital connections (TV, internet) have made it possible for migrants to retain connections to distant places, creating in some persons transnational identities. Transnationalism may arise when an immigrant either chooses not to assimilate; and/or is discouraged from assimilating by the host group. It is interesting to observe the rooting interests of recent immigrant groups during the Olympics and/or the World Cup soccer tournament. These events provide a window into the processes affecting identity construction and maintenance. Though not always a reliable measure of national identity, most fully assimilated Americans who identify simply as “American” would have trouble cheering for any country other than the United States in a contest involving Americans.

Racism in the United States

Although racism and ethnic discrimination are similar, they are not the same thing. Although ethnic markers (generally) diminish over time, physical differences do not.

Exclusionary racial policies existed in the United States from the very beginning and have continued beyond the Jim Crow era of the twentieth century. From the US Constitution that counted slaves as 3/5 of a person to restrictive housing covenants in the 1960s, the country has had a history of racism that did not end in the Civil Rights era. This exclusion has not solely been limited to African Americans. Many groups have been subject to racist laws and acts. The indigenous people of the United States were not fully considered citizens until 1924. In the past, voting rights, access to housing and even union membership had racialized politics directed at many marginalized groups.

This is not to say that ethnically-based discrimination does not exist. Such discrimination has been prevalent in United States history, but it tends to subside as the host population absorbs the immigrant population.

Although racism and ethnic discrimination are similar, they are not the same thing. Although ethnic markers (generally) diminish over time, physical differences do not.

Exclusionary racial policies existed in the United States from the very beginning and have continued beyond the Jim Crow era of the twentieth century. From the US Constitution that counted slaves as 3/5 of a person to restrictive housing covenants in the 1960s, the country has had a history of racism that did not end in the Civil Rights era. This exclusion has not solely been limited to African Americans. Many groups have been subject to racist laws and acts. The indigenous people of the United States were not fully considered citizens until 1924. In the past, voting rights, access to housing and even union membership had racialized politics directed at many marginalized groups.

This is not to say that ethnically-based discrimination does not exist. Such discrimination has been prevalent in United States history, but it tends to subside as the host population absorbs the immigrant population.