Minority group
The term "minority group" has different usages, depending on the context. According to its common usage, the term minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half, is a "minority". Usually a minority group is disempowered relative to the majority, and that characteristic lends itself to different applications of the term minority.
"Minorities" redirects here. For the term used in Lebanese politics, see Minorities (Lebanon). For other uses, see Minority (disambiguation).
In terms of sociology, economics, and politics, a demographic that takes up the smallest fraction of the population is not necessarily labelled the "minority" if it wields dominant power. In the academic context, the terms "minority" and "majority" are used in terms of hierarchical power structures. For example, in South Africa, during Apartheid, white Europeans held virtually all social, economic, and political power over black Africans. For this reason, black Africans are the "minority group", despite the fact that they outnumber white Europeans in South Africa. This is why academics more frequently use the term "minority group" to refer to a category of people that experience relative disadvantage, as compared to members of a dominant social group.[1] To address this ambiguity, Harris Mylonas has proposed the term "non-core group", instead of "minority group", to refer to any aggregation of individuals that is perceived as an unassimilated ethnic group (on a linguistic, religious, physical, or ideological basis) by the ruling political elite of a country"[2] and reserves the term 'minority' only for groups that have been granted minority rights by their state of residence.
Minority group membership is typically based on differences in observable characteristics or practices, such as: ethnicity (ethnic minority), race (racial minority), religion (religious minority), sexual orientation (sexual minority), or disability.[3] The framework of intersectionality can be used to recognize that an individual may simultaneously hold membership in multiple minority groups (e.g. both a racial and religious minority).[4] Likewise, individuals may also be part of a minority group in regard to some characteristics, but part of a dominant group in regard to others.[5]
The term "minority group" often occurs within the discourse of civil rights and collective rights, as members of minority groups are prone to differential treatment in the countries and societies in which they live.[6] Minority group members often face discrimination in multiple areas of social life, including housing, employment, healthcare, and education, among others.[7][8] While discrimination may be committed by individuals, it may also occur through structural inequalities, in which rights and opportunities are not equally accessible to all.[9] Those in favour of minority rights often pursue laws designed to protect minority groups from discrimination and afford members of the minority group equal social status and legal protections as held by members of the dominant group.[10]
Examples[edit]
Racial and ethnic minorities[edit]
Racial minorities, sometimes referred to synonymously as people of color or non-white people, are minority groups that are discriminated against on the basis of race. Though definitions vary cross-culturally, modern racism is primarily based on the European and American classifications of race that developed during the Age of Exploration, as European countries sought to categorize the nations they colonized into pseudo-scientific phenotypical groups.[26] In the United States's system, whiteness is at the top of a hierarchy that automatically classifies mixed-race individuals as their subordinate race.[27]
Sometimes, racist policies explicitly codified pseudo-scientific definitions of race: such as the United States' one-drop rule and blood quantum laws, South Africa's apartheid, and Nazi Germany Nuremberg race laws. Other times, race has been a matter of self-identification, with de facto racist policies implemented.[28] In addition to governmental policy, racism may persist as social prejudice and discrimination.
There are also social groups that are usually identified through ethnicity.[26] Like race, ethnicity is largely determined hereditarily. However, it can also be influenced by factors such as adoption, cultural assimilation, religious conversion, and language shift. As race and ethnicity often overlap,[29] many ethnic minorities are also racial minorities. However, this is not always the case, and some people are ethnic minorities while also being classified as white, such as some Jews, Roma, and Sámi. In some cases, their ethnic identities have been seen as negating their whiteness, in both inter- and intra-group identification.[30][31]
In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, there is a preference to categorise people by ethnicity instead of race.[32] Ethnicity encompasses a mix of "long shared cultural experiences, religious practices, traditions, ancestry, language, dialect or national origins".[33] The United Kingdom considers everyone but white British people to be an ethnic minority, including other white Europeans such as White Irish people (excluding in Northern Ireland).[32]
National minorities[edit]
A national minority is a social group within a state that differs from the majority and/or dominant population in terms of ethnicity, language, culture, or religion, but also it also tends to have a close link with a specific territory from which the minority social group originates.[34]
Involuntary minorities[edit]
Also known as "castelike minorities", involuntary minorities are a term for people who were originally brought into any society against their will. In the United States, for instance, it includes but is not limited to Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Puerto Ricans, African Americans,[35] and in the 1800s, native-born Hispanics.[36]
Voluntary minorities[edit]
Immigrants take on minority status in their new country, usually in hopes of a better future economically, educationally, and politically than in their homeland. Because of their focus on success, voluntary minorities are more likely to do better in school than other migrating minorities.[35] Adapting to a very different culture and language makes difficulties in the early stages of life in the new country. Voluntary immigrants do not experience a sense of divided identity as much as involuntary minorities and are often rich in social capital because of their educational ambitions.[37] Major immigrant groups in the United States include Mexicans, Central and South Americans, Cubans, Africans, East Asians, and South Asians.[36]
Law and government[edit]
In the politics of some countries, a "minority" is an ethnic group recognized by law, and having specified rights. Speakers of a legally recognized minority language, for instance, might have the right to education or communication with the government in their mother tongue. Countries with special provisions for minorities include Canada, China, Ethiopia, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Croatia, and the United Kingdom.
The various minority groups in a country are often not given equal treatment. Some groups are too small or indistinct to obtain minority protections. For example, a member of a particularly small ethnic group might be forced to check "Other" on a checklist of different backgrounds and so might receive fewer privileges than a member of a more defined group.
Many contemporary governments prefer to assume the people they rule all belong to the same nationality rather than separate ones based on ethnicity. The United States asks for race and ethnicity on its official census forms, which thus breaks up and organizes its population into sub-groups, primarily racial rather than national. Spain does not divide its nationals by ethnic group or national minorities, although it does maintain an official notion of minority languages, that is one of the criteria for to determine a national minority, upon the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.
Some especially significant or powerful minorities receive comprehensive protection and political representation. For example, the former Yugoslav Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina recognizes the three constitutive nations, none of which constitutes a numerical majority (see nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina). However, other minorities such as Roma[45] and Jews, are officially labelled "foreign" and are excluded from many of these protections. For example, they may be excluded from political positions, including the presidency.[46]
There is debate over recognizing minority groups and their privileges. One view[47] is that the application of special rights to minority groups may harm some countries, such as new states in Africa or Latin America not founded on the European nation-state model, since minority recognition may interfere with establishing a national identity. It may hamper the integration of the minority into mainstream society, perhaps leading to separatism or supremacism. In Canada, some feel that the failure of the dominant English-speaking majority to integrate French Canadians has provoked Quebec separatism.
Others assert that minorities require specific protections to ensure that they are not marginalized: for example, bilingual education may be needed to allow linguistic minorities to fully integrate into the school system and compete equally in society. In this view, rights for minorities strengthen the nation-building project, as members of minorities see their interests well served, and willingly accept the legitimacy of the nation and their integration (not assimilation) within it.[48]