A New Perspective in Guiding Ethnic Relations in the 21st Century

Most of the world’s countries today are multi-ethnic, due to thousands of years of migration. Some countries have been political entities with many ethnic groups for very long periods of time. Some countries have accepted ‘new citizens or permanent residents’ from other nations, with various backgrounds in race, national origin, language, and religion. In some countries (such as today’s western European countries), the immigrants who have settled down for decades or even generations have become a more or less indispensable part of the local community, even though the receiving country may not have granted them citizenship or ‘permanent residency’. From a sociological point of view, all those societies with the aforementioned features are deemed multi-ethnic societies. In any political entity with a multi-racial or multi-ethnic composition, the political leaders and elites are confronted with such questions as how to cope with the legal status and basic rights of distinct ethnic groups within its political entity (federation or state); how to regard their socio-economic structural differences (e.g. in education, industry, occupation, and income) and cultural differences (e.g. in language, religion, and customs); how to understand their existence and evolution (ideology and social norms) and the trends of ethnic-based movement in the future; and the strategies and measures the governments should adopt to guide the trends of inter-ethnic relations for group equality, social justice, ethnic harmony, social stability, and political unity. A nation with good ethnic relations will be able to strengthen the cohesiveness of its citizens continually through positive internal integration, so as to reduce administrative and operational costs, enhance the efficiency of social and economic organizations, and to strengthen its economic power. In a country where politics, economy and culture are undergoing positive developments, all ethnic groups will enjoy the benefits brought about by a prosperous economy and by a harmonious society. Although a totally egalitarian distribution of benefits among all members is almost impossible, to a great extent, all ethnic groups are ‘winners’ in the process. On the other hand, a nation with poor ethnic relations will suffer growing social disunity and disintegration caused by internal contradictions, followed by an evident increase in social costs in the forms of money, manpower and material goods for maintaining social order, which in turn will aggregate the government’s expenditures and citizens’ tax burdens. In the event that ethnic controversies turn into open political confrontations or separatist movements, the entire society will be turned upside down,