Multiethnic societies, in contrast to ethnically homogenous 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 multiethnic societies, even ones where race hatred and ethnic intolerance is common.
The few nations that today are considered ethnically homogeneous (eg Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and Poland) blend the meaning of a society, a nation, a people, and a state.[citation needed] See multinational 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. Every country even the homogenous ones are home to people from other countries.
[edit] History
Multiethnic societies have existed in various historical contexts, such as the Persian Empire, ancient India and China, the Roman and Byzantine empires, the Islamic Caliphate, the Majapahit kingdom, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In recent times, the United States of America has been a more or less successful multiethnic 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. Multiculturalism in the United States is more respected than before, and racial and ethnic problems are being settled today.
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.[neutrality disputed]
Multiethnic 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.
A good example of peaceful and integrated multi-ethnic society is Brazil, almost with few overt racial and ethnic tensions.
[edit] Historic multiethnic societies
[edit] Current multiethnic societies
[edit] See also
