The Integration of Formerly Dominant Ethnic Minorities in a Democratic Multicultural Society

Abstract

If nation states are to be established on some basis other than ethnic cleansing or the domination of one ethnic group over others, the question of the principles of a democratic multicultural society becomes one of the major questions of political theory. It may present itself as the problem of integrating immigrant ethnic minority communities whose members are committed to living in the country of their settlement; it may take the form of dealing with ethnic national minorities who seek varying degrees of regional autonomy, or, at the extreme, even political secession; or it may involve defining the position of those who were privileged immigrants during a period of external imperial rule, towards whom newly independent national governments must develop a policy. The first sort of situation is that which is to be found in the countries of the European Community; the second is that which is presented to the government of Serbia by Kossovo, to the Spanish government by the Basque question or to the British government by Irish nationalism in Northern Ireland; the third is that which faces the Baltic Republics in dealing with its Russian settlers or, less obviously and severely, the government of Slovakia in dealing with its Hungarian minority.

A lecture delivered to a conference sponsored by the Soros Foundation in the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Riga, Latvia, 1994.