Nearly all nation-states formed by absorbing culturally diverse peoples, not by ethnic homogeneity

Evidence

In the context of this volume, the main importance of migration lies in the way that it helps increase cultural diversity in many societies, creating the conditions for new forms of ethnic relations. Historically, nation-states have been based on the idea that a people with a common culture should form a political community within fixed geographical boundaries. In reality, nearly all nation-states have incorporated groups with diverse cultures through expansion, conquest, or migration. Creating a common culture has therefore involved lengthy (and often oppressive) processes of integration or assimilation. Globalization doubly undermines the conditions for consolidation of nation-states. First, national boundaries are becoming increasingly porous, so that the national society ceases to be the exclusive (or even the principal) focus for economic, social, and political life. Secondly, the growth of migration and the increasing diversity of migrants in terms of origins, culture, and economic and social characteristics lead to ever more rapid formation of new minorities. Thus virtually all countries of immigration are becoming multicultural societies, in which a range of ethnic groups tend to cluster together and maintain their own languages, cultures, and religions over generations. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3883

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The underlying claim that national homogeneity is a fiction achieved through oppressive assimilation, and that globalization now structurally undermines the nation-state’s consolidation, is a genuinely foundational reorientation.
• SHARE: Good fit for someone interested in nationalism — the point that virtually every nation-state was heterogeneous from origin, not a pure nation later diluted.