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Multiethnic society

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Multi-ethnic societies, in contrast to single ethnic societies, integrate different ethnic groups irrespective of differences in culture, race, and history under a common social identity larger than one "nation" in the conventional sense. All cities and most towns can be regarded as multi-ethnic societies, even ones where race hatred and ethnic intolerance is common.

Also, many nations that today are considered ethnically homogeneous, such as Japan between a society, a nation, a people, and a state. See multi-national state for the specific political and military issues arising from such a state. There is much overlap however between the concerns of running a state, and finding a common identity as a nation.

History

Multi-ethnic societies have existed in various historical contexts such as ancient China, ancient India, Majapahit, the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, or the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In recent times, the United States of America has been a more or less successful multi-ethnic society; despite past and current racial and ethnic tensions, the various ethnic groups that make up the United States still manage to live and work together mostly peacefully.

The ultimate step in multiethnic integration is the U.N., whose goal is to ensure the peaceful coexistence of as many different countries or ethnic groups as possible.

Multi-ethnic societies do occasionally fail, however, as in the recent example of Czechoslovakia, which has broken up into two smaller nations divided along ethnic lines. In some cases, this disintegration is much more violent, as in Yugoslavia. Others fall into violent and long drawn-out civil war, like Rwanda.

Current multi-ethnic societies

Historic multi-ethnic societies

Current multi-ethnic societies

Preconditions for success

An apparent precondition for the success of a multi-ethnic society is the availability of a common language, as was the case in the Roman Empire, and still is the case in the U.S. Alternatively, several "overlapping" languages, as found in India, the European Union or Canada, can serve the same function. However, even in the European Union, English is the lingua franca for business and scientific exchange.

Possible causes of breakdowns

Due to their ethnic or cultural heterogeneity, multi-ethnic societies in general are more fragile and have a higher risk of conflicts. In the worst case such conflicts can cause the breakdown of these societies. Recent examples of this were the violent breakdown of Yugoslavia and the peaceful separation of Czechoslovakia. Forced mixture or coexistence of ethnically different populations might be the reason for the outbreak of nationalistic and racistic tendencies which over the years can become so strong that they are able to destruct a multi-ethnic society.

See also



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