Ethnicities recent issues

'Because tumi Bangali': Inventing and disinventing the national in multilingual communities in the UK

Blackledge, A., Creese, A. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:55:28 PST

In this article, we present an analysis of some of the voices we heard as we conducted linguistic ethnographic research in eight complementary (also known as ‘community language’, ‘supplementary’, ‘heritage language’) schools in four British cities. These were the voices of people engaged in teaching and learning languages, including Bengali, Cantonese, Gujarati, Mandarin and Turkish. The content of the language classes frequently reflected the schools’ rationale of teaching students the ‘nationalism of the homeland’ as well as teaching the heritage language. They did this through rehearsing historical events in the collective memory of the country of origin, retelling myths and folk stories associated with the homeland, discussing national symbols, and making explicit links between learning the standard language of the home country and national identity. The students, almost all of whom were born and raised in the UK, at times accepted their teachers’ positioning of them as (e.g.) ‘Chinese’ or ‘Turkish’, but at other times contested the notion of national belonging and affiliation to the country of origin.

Equal recognition, consolidation or familiarization?: The language rights debate in the context of the minority of Western Thrace in Greece

Mantouvalou, K. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:55:28 PST

A number of theorists have tried to determine how liberal states should respond to the language recognition claims made by minority groups. Liberal multiculturalists defend the ‘equal recognition’ of minority and majority languages, liberal neutralists advance the ‘consolidation’ of a single unified language, and democratic liberals argue for ‘familiarization’ of the majority and the minority population as the fairest response to the groups’ claim. In this article, I illustrate and test these responses with the case of the Muslim minority of Western Thrace, a group that has resided in Greece since Ottoman times and has been the subject of competitive Greek and Turkish relations. Contextual analysis in this article will show that when minority groups are part of antagonistic interstate relations, a priori individual and collective rights approaches cannot ensure that their members are treated fairly. I argue that familiarization of linguistically diverse group members provides the fairest response to the claims of linguistic minorities. This is grounded on the democratic ideal of participation in common institutions under conditions of non-domination.

Contexts of exit in the migration of Russian speakers from the Baltic countries to Ireland

Aptekar, S. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:55:28 PST

Recently, Ireland has become a major destination for migrants from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Many of these migrants are members of Russian-speaking minorities leaving a context of restrictive citizenship and language laws and varying degrees of ethnic tension. This article draws on interviews collected in Ireland to examine the role played by the contexts of exit in decisions to migrate among Russian-speaking minorities from the Baltics. The results suggest that Russian speakers from Estonia migrate because of their experiences as minorities, while those from Latvia and Lithuania migrate to escape low wages and irregular employment. This is so despite equally restrictive language and citizenship laws in Estonia and Latvia. I argue that the effect of state policy as a push factor for minority emigration is mediated by other contextual aspects, such as levels of contact, timbre of ethnic relations, and the degree of intersection between economic stratification and ethnicity.

Contested spaces: Globalization, the arts and the state in Malaysia

Hoffstaedter, G. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:55:28 PST

The arts community in Malaysia has been affected in many ways by the state’s desire to homogenize and essentialize ethnicity internally, whilst displaying pluralist ideals externally. There are two levels to the debate, one which is orientated towards the global, where the state employs a multicultural tourism imagery, whilst the other is a localized debate mainly informed by reactionary conservatism and state institutions. Concurrently, the arts community employs, uses and deploys global institutions and regional activism to counteract, validate or co-opt state mechanisms of control. Art forms such as mak yong have been pulled into a political tussle over ownership and power to demarcate what is or should be Islamic, Malay or Malaysian. As a result, practitioners and activists collide with the state’s apparatus and its agents.

Review Symposium: Historic settlements and new challenges: Veit Bader, Secularism or Democracy? Associational Governance of Religious Diversity. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2008. 386 pp. ISBN 978--90--5356--999--3

Kymlicka, W. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:55:28 PST

Review Symposium: Why not secular democracy?

Bhargava, R. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:55:28 PST

Review Symposium: Is religion the problem?

Joppke, C. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:55:28 PST

Review Symposium: Reply

Bader, V. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:55:28 PST

Books Received

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:55:28 PST

Retraction

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:55:28 PST

The Muhammad cartoons controversy in comparative perspective

Lindekilde, L., Mouritsen, P., Zapata-Barrero, R. — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:39:04 PDT

Normative interpretations of diversity: The Muhammad cartoons controversy and the importance of context

Laegaard, S. — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:39:04 PDT

Normative interpretations of particular cases consist of normative principles or values coupled with social theoretical accounts of the empirical facts of the case. The article reviews the most prominent normative interpretations of the Muhammad cartoons controversy over the publication of drawings of the Prophet Muhammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. The controversy was seen as a case of freedom of expression, toleration, racism, (in)civility and (dis)respect, and the article notes different understandings of these principles and how the application of them to the controversy implied different social theoretical accounts of the case. In disagreements between different normative interpretations, appeals are often made to the ‘context’, so it is also considered what roles ‘context’ might play in debates over normative interpretations.

Political cultures compared: The Muhammad cartoons in the Danish and British Press

Meer, N., Mouritsen, P. — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:39:04 PDT

One outcome of the Muhammad cartoons controversy has been an opportunity for comparative critical examination of public discourse on conceptions of citizenship and belonging vis-à-vis Muslim minorities in different national contexts. In this article, we focus upon the press reaction in two north-western European countries that on first appearance offer radically different cases. While Britain is a formerly imperial power where ‘legitimate’ public articulations of the collective ‘we’ must take stock of the sensibilities in this diverse inheritance, Denmark’s emergence as a modern constitutional state is premised on a cultural, linguistic and ethnic homogeneity. It would only be fair to anticipate, therefore, that any comparison of press discourse on matters of religious minority toleration and respect for difference would herald very different outcomes to these traditions.

Yet this article shows that, on closer inspection, Jyllands-Posten’s more ‘radical’ approach marked a departure from other Danish newspapers in a manner that left it relatively isolated, and that the self-restraint shown by the British press in not reprinting the cartoons was far from universally supported, and subject to significant internal criticism. Indeed, the press discourse in both countries cast the reaction to the cartoons controversy by Muslims themselves as a sign of failed integration, and each moreover stressed a need for civility and respect — even where there was disagreement over the kinds of ‘dialogue’ that should take place. Nevertheless, significant divergences and cleavages remained, and the explanation for these differences rests not only on Britain’s more ‘multicultural’ traditions, but also the experiences of the Rushdie affair and the subsequent debate that had already taken place in Britain. What is striking is the ways in which the Danish discourse appears to be plotting a course that is not that radically different from one taken in the British case, specifically the extent to which a recognition of religious minority sensibilities needs to be offset with a civic incorporation that is cast in interdependent terms in a way that is inclusive of — and not alienating to — Muslims.

Muslim claims-making in context: Comparing the Danish and the Swedish Muhammad cartoons controversies

Larsson, G., Lindekilde, L. — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:39:04 PDT

The aim of this article is to investigate through a comparison of the Danish and the Swedish Muhammad cartoons controversies (1) why only the Danish controversy escalated into a conflict of global dimensions; and (2) what accounts for the differences in level and form of local Muslim claims-making in the two cases. The article takes advantage of the initial similarities of the two controversies in making a paired comparison, which provides an opportunity to evaluate the importance of context-specific particularities and of specific events/actions taken in the two cases. Despite several initial similarities, why did the two controversies produce such different outcomes? The article argues that the answer should be found in the interplay between distant contextual characteristics such as dominant elite discourses about Islam/Muslims, different styles of institutionalization of Islam in the two countries, and more situational circumstances of how the publications were initially framed by the relevant newspapers, the contingent choices of action by the political elites and cross-context lesson drawing.

The construction of Islam as a public issue in western European countries through the prism of the Muhammad cartoons controversy: A comparison between France and Germany

Miera, F., Sala Pala, V. — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:39:04 PDT

This article aims to analyse the way in which the so-called Muhammad cartoons controversy was constructed as a public issue in France and in Germany. We study the reactions of different main actors participating in the definition of this event as a social problem, in particular the media, politicians and intellectuals, as well as Muslim organizations. We ask to what extent national contexts impact on the construction of the debates around religious pluralism and more widely around multiculturalism. The case of the cartoons controversy seems to illustrate a shift towards (re-)codifying migrants and minorities on the lines of culture and religion as the ‘Muslim other’, which coincides with the international debate on the antagonism between Islam and the western world. This may be interpreted as a sign of convergence. Still, national legacies shape these overlapping discourses on national identity, belonging, and valid norms and values.

The Muhammad cartoons conflict and transnational activism

Olesen, T. — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:39:04 PDT

There are many ways to approach the case of the Muhammad cartoons conflict. This article proposes looking at the conflict as an instance of transnational activism. The conflict started out as a Danish issue — prompted by a Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, and its publication in September 2005 of a series of satirical cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad — but in a matter of months the controversy escalated into a full-blown transnational phenomenon. The aim of the article is not to develop new theory or provide detailed empirical support for the arguments, but rather to indicate a new research agenda on transnational activism. The author hopes that scholars of religion, culture and politics, that is, the core readership of Ethnicities , might find inspiration in such an exercise. The article identifies and addresses four challenges posed by the conflict to the study of transnational activism.

The Muhammad cartoons and multicultural democracies

Levey, G. B., Modood, T. — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:39:04 PDT

The Danish cartoon affair presents a vehicle for rethinking some of our longstanding assumptions about liberal democracy and its capacity to accommodate cultural difference. The public and academic debates have tended to frame the affair as either a clash between liberal-democratic and illiberal religious values or as a question of whose position is most consistent with liberal-democratic values. We begin, instead, from the assumption that liberal-democratic values conflict, not only between liberalism and democracy, but also within liberalism and democracy. We argue that cases such as the Muhammad cartoons controversy present liberal democracies with choices about which liberal-democratic principles and conceptions of these principles they emphasize and when. Guiding these choices should also be the pragmatic question of how best to make multicultural democracies work. We suggest that the Muhammad cartoons encompass not one, but three distinct problem areas: the violation of a religious norm in the representation of Muhammad, attacks on Islam as a religion, and attacks on Muslims as a group. We examine how liberal democratic values and multicultural citizenship relate to each of these cases, and argue that attacks on Muslims as a group are a form of racism.

Ethnic return migration and hierarchical nationhood: Korean Chinese foreign workers in South Korea

Seol, D.-H., Skrentny, J. D. — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:01:39 PDT

Though nationhood is typically understood to be an equalizing or horizontal concept, the phenomenon of ethnic return migration has shown that states as well as societies can draw hierarchical distinctions between persons of the same ancestry. We demonstrate two dimensions — legal and social — of this `hierarchical nationhood' by analysing the South Korean policy and citizen attitudes regarding Joseonjok, or ethnic Korean Chinese citizens moving to South Korea. On the legal dimension, the Korean state defines Joseonjok as foreigners, allowing them entry mainly for low-wage jobs and excluding them from social benefits, while preferring them over other foreigners. The legal dimension of hierarchy is also institutionalized in a more favourable visa for Korean Americans that excludes Joseonjok. The social dimension of hierarchical nationhood is shown by public opinion data of Korean citizens towards Joseonjok foreign workers and data on reported experiences of discrimination. Finally, the authors show how Korea's hierarchical nationhood is shaped by economic and geopolitical goals, and describe analogous cases in Asia and Europe.

Visibility, settlement success and life satisfaction in three refugee communities in Australia

Colic-Peisker, V. — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:01:39 PDT

This article explores settlement experiences of three refugee populations — ex-Yugoslavs, black Africans and people from the Middle East — who recently (1990s—2000s) arrived in Western Australia. Settlement success and life satisfaction are investigated in connection with the three groups' racial and cultural visibility in the host milieu and an endemic loss of occupational and social status. Data were collected through a survey of 150 refugees and the interpretation of statistical outputs was aided by follow-up in-depth interviews. The strongest predictors of life satisfaction were job satisfaction, financial satisfaction and social support, but their power varied between groups. Ex-Yugoslavs were more satisfied with their life in Australia than the other two groups, which is at least partly attributable to their whiteness and therefore reduced visibility in the general population. It is remarkable that `street discrimination' did not impact on the overall life satisfaction of refugees, while discrimination in the job market did. Refugee life satisfaction is compared to that of the general Australian population.

Immigrants' emotional identification with the host society: The example of Turkish parents' naming practices in Germany

Becker, B. — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:01:39 PDT

The naming practices of immigrants are studied as an example of their emotional identification with the host society and with the society of origin. Using data from the project `Preschool Education and Educational Careers among Migrant Children', the article analyses if the first name chosen for their child by Turkish parents in Germany is a name that is common only in Turkey (emotional separation), only in Germany (emotional assimilation) or in both countries (emotional integration). Most of the parents choose a Turkish name for their child, but girls are more frequently given names that are common in both cultures than are boys, while German names are only rarely chosen. Intermarriage strongly decreases the probability for separation in naming and especially increases the probability for the integration option, while the presence of a parent with German citizenship enhances assimilation more strongly than it does integration. Families who are more traditional and religious tend to choose a Turkish name. The results of the choice of first name are compared to those of analogous analyses of the respondents' identity.

Migrants and ethnic minorities in post-Communist Europe: Negotiating diasporic identity

Triandafyllidou, A. — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:01:39 PDT

Migration movements within Central and Eastern Europe and the development of related migrant diasporas are to date relatively underresearched topics. Also, little attention has been paid to the process of identity negotiation that takes place between post-1989 migrants, their co-ethnic minorities native to the host state and the host state national majority. This article looks into the development of diasporic identities among Ukrainian and Romanian migrants in Poland and Hungary, focusing particularly on members of the political elite of these recent migrations. The informants included in this study form part of a civically and politically active small elite among the recent migrants. They have a double importance for their diaspora group: they play a constitutive part in the making of the diaspora, as they are the ones to set up the diaspora institutions, and they are also the ones who bear the brunt for carving an identity space in the country of settlement: between the native majority and their co-ethnic native minority. Of particular interest is how these first-generation elite immigrants negotiate their national identity within the triangle of country of origin, country of settlement and co-ethnic national minority (native in the host country). The methodology of critical discourse analysis is used to analyse in-depth interviews with 10 first-generation immigrants in the two countries.

Critical Race Theory comes to the UK: A Marxist response

Cole, M. — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:01:39 PDT

Critical Race Theory: A reply to Mike Cole

Mills, C. W. — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:01:39 PDT

A Response to Charles Mills

Cole, M. — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:01:39 PDT

Books received

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:01:39 PDT

Brown picket fences: The immigrant narrative and `giving back' among the Mexican-origin middle class

Agius Vallejo, J., Lee, J. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:45:14 PST

In 2000, Latinos superseded blacks as the largest racial/ethnic minority group in the US, comprising nearly 13 percent of the US population, and by 2050, demographers estimate that their population will have reached 25 percent. Given the size and growth of the Latino population, an important sociological concern is the extent to which the adult children of Latino immigrants incorporate into the US social structure. Focusing on the largest ethnic Latino group, Mexicans (and specifically, the Mexican middle class), this article studies one aspect of the incorporation process — the extent to which they `give back' to co-ethnics. Based on 40 face-to-face, in-depth interviews with 1.5- and second-generation middle-class Mexicans, the study finds that those who grew up poor and achieved middle-class status within one generation exhibit a collectivist orientation, and `give back' to poorer kin, co-ethnics and the larger ethnic community. By contrast, those who grew up in middle-class households adopt an individualistic orientation, and display patterns of giving back that closely resemble those of white, middle-class nuclear families.

Privileging the near and dear?: Evaluating special ties considerations in EU migration policy

Tholen, B. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:45:14 PST

Many studies have analysed the relation between the self understandings of citizenship or identity of western states on the one hand and national integration and immigration policies on the other. As migration regulation in recent years has shifted to a considerable extent to the European level, it seems appropriate to address issues of migration and identity also in that context. The central question of this article is whether European Union (EU) immigration policies that privilege people from some countries over others — because of special cultural, ethnic or historical ties — can be justified. Criteria for evaluation are developed and the EU visa regulations are put to the test.

Liberal multiculturalism group membership and distribution of cultural policies

Vitikainen, A. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:45:14 PST

A B S T RA C T Among liberal multiculturalists, there is a relative consensus about cultural membership as the relevant criterion for distributing cultural policies. This article argues that membership in a cultural group cannot be defined in terms of the sharing of cultural content, but that politically relevant membership is better understood by the recognition of the larger political community. Due to the discrepancies in recognition, as well as reasons for recognition, cultural policies should not be distributed along the lines of membership in a cultural group. This has to do with the discrepancy between cultural policies as advancing certain conceptions of cultural content, and the aim of these policies as accommodating people's cultural differences.

Review Article: What is living and what is dead in multiculturalism: John R. Bowen, Why the French Don't Like Headscarves: Islam, the State, and Public Space. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. x + 290 pp. ISBN 0-691-12506-6. Tariq Modood, Multiculturalism: A Civic Idea. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007. viii + 193 pp. ISBN 978-0-7456-3289-6. Anne Phillips, Multiculturalism Without Culture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. 202 pp. ISBN 978-0-691-12944-0. Joan Wallach Scott, The Politics of the Veil. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. x + 290pp. ISBN 978-0-691-12543-5

Levey, G. B. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:45:14 PST

A critique of symbolic ethnicity: The ideology of choice?

Anagnostou, Y. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:45:14 PST

This article undertakes a critical analysis of symbolic ethnicity, an influential sociological paradigm of white ethnicity in the US. It highlights a fundamental contradiction that is present in the work of one of its most influential proponents, sociologist Mary Waters: the simultaneous affirmation and negation of the operation of choice in the making of ethnic identities, followed by the methodological neglect of the cultural production of identity. The article argues that this methodological oversight embeds symbolic ethnicity in a wider discourse on choice as a constitutive element of American identity. Also, it shows how the privileging of choice makes it possible to achieve a vision of American multiculturalism based on the dialectical synthesis of two historically competing ideologies: the concept of America as a melting pot and a cultural mosaic. Showing that symbolic ethnicity conflates culture, identity and ancestry, and noting that it undervalues the social valence of white ethnicity, the article concludes with a discussion of how to recover ethnic identity analytically as an enduring, politically significant disposition and practice.

Reflections on symbolic ethnicity: A response to Y. Anagnostou

Gans, H. J. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:45:14 PST

Social science and ethnic options

Waters, M. C. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:45:14 PST

About facts and fictions: Reply to Herbert Gans and Mary Waters

Anagnostou, Y. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:45:14 PST

Books received

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:45:14 PST