Foreword

Summary

Over the years, ethnic minority groups have often been viewed by both the media and the general population as “problems.” For some this has been because they have been viewed as representing social disadvantage, and for others because they have been seen as genetically inferior. Currently, many countries are in the midst of intense political debate about the supposed way in which immigrant groups are undermining the host culture and asylum seekers are constituting a burden on the state. The Jacobs Foundation has been concerned with the reality that some ethnic minority groups do indeed experience difficulties and, equally, with the fact that the prevailing stereotypes are usually misleading in several rather different ways. Accordingly, we were very pleased to initiate and sponsor the international, interdisciplinary conference that provided the basis for this edited volume.

The Foundation was keen that both the conference and the book would provide an incisive, insightful new look at ethnicity, and the contributors to this book have done this in admirable fashion. Three main themes constitute the basis for this truly fresh approach to ethnicity. First, there is discussion of the many facets of ethnicity. It is not an objective “thing.” Rather it is a complex amalgam of cultural traditions, religion, geography, skin color, facial appearance, self-identification, host labeling, political decisions and genetic background. Each of these facets may be crucially important in different circumstances, but often they pull in different directions. Moreover, some of the facets are dimensional and some are categorical.