Multicultural Dilemma : Migration, Ethnic Politics, and State Intermediation

This work seeks to explore the contemporary challenge of government in multicultural societies, drawing together a wide range of contributors to examine how ethnic difference could better understood and mediated by modern nation states.

Divided into three sections, the book centres round the notion that changing patterns of migration bring escalating obstacles to integration or assimilation. In the first section, contributors focus on the theory that immigrants are the actors that catalyze contemporary multicultural dilemmas within states, with a particular focus on diaspora and how a diaspora community may differ in some ways from other kinds of immigrant community. Section two identifies key factors in shaping ethnic identity before moving on to examine the state of the debate over whether identity can be changed or manipulated. The contributors to this section provide valuable insights into the catalysts and causes of ethnic division and tension, by showing factors in the development of ethnic identity. In the third section, the focus turns to strategies for mediating multicultural challenges and managing internal diversity in multicultural society, offering structural and institutional solutions with evidence of application in specific cases and country contexts.

Offering a comprehensive overview of this pressing issue and drawing on a wide range of case studies, this work will be of interest to students and scholars of migration, political sociology & race and ethnic studies.

Michelle Hale Williams is Associate Professor of Political Science in the Department of Government, University of West Florida, USA.