Ethnic mobilization in a multicultural society

The aim of the present paper is to demystify those anxieties that emerge out of the presence of ethnic minorities in developed capitalist societies in showing that these relate as much, if not more, to misconceptions about the issue of identity proper, that of national identity, as well as that of ethnic mobilization. It is argued that the relationship of immigrant minority cultures and identities to national culture and national identity can be thought of as paralleling that between class structures and identities. Ethnic mobilisation and ethnic movements can be thought of in terms of something like the class‐in‐itself problematic Ethnic groups can be seen as having a particular and distinct position in relation to economic and political resources, but whereas classes in the Marxian sense must develop their sense of identity, their forms of organisation and their culture ab initio, ethnic groups can call upon their sense of ethnicity and their forms of ethnic bonding as a resource and this may well make them more effective political actors than classes. However, whereas it is tempting, within this framework to think that out of a process of negotiation, there will emerge a multicultural society in which there is on the one hand a shared political culture of the public domain and on the other a world of private communal cultures, the actual situation is much more complex. What ethnic minorities in actuality confront is a hierarchy of cultures which have already been involved in a political struggle for the definition of a disputed shared political culture. This is bound to influence the process and character of ethnic mobilization as well as its likely outcomes.