Empirical Analysis
Discuss about the Ethnic and racial conflict has been a significant impediment to development in poor countries.
The essay aims at presenting an intensive analysis of ethnic and racial clash in the nations. It is certain that cultural and racial conflict always remain as an ongoing issue and the remedies are yet to be modified. Politicised ethnicity remains unfavourable to national unity and socio-economic development. Colonialism is the is significant factor that creates these ethnic conflicts which could further compound to inter-ethnic conflict by capitalising on the isolation of the groups (Mosco2014)
Some fundamental conflict patterns might include the differences in the demand for cultural autonomy, differences in the financial conditions and authority and conflicts between rival ethnic groups. The purpose of this discussion is to investigate and analyse the ethnic conflict, which remains as the barrier to the development of the nations.
Healey,Stepnick and O’Brien (2018) performed a study and mentioned that the dependence of the diverse people on one another have resulted to a breakdown of many social barriers, which allows for more wide economic integration. In the developing nations social barriers affects the lifestyle of the people in the form of race or ethnicity and negatively influencing the standard of living. On the other side, Taras and Ganguly (2015) commented that ethnic identity and discord remain on the rise with several ethnic groups, which places an increasing demand on the states for a more appropriate and fair share of resources as well as political power. A study conducted by Freeman (2015), reveal the fact that people have been considering issues through ethnic lens as well as advocating policies that are placed towards serving the interest of people of their own ethnic groups instead of the entire nations of multi-ethnic groups. In addition to this, the members of ethnic group have been asserting their ethnic identity in some matters that pertain to the state and the economy; this could often make unreasonable political and economic demands for such group. Such demands made primarily out of ethnic consideration and for whatever reasons, rapidly becoming a relevant focus for people’s socio-economic and politico attitude. Gerstle (2017) mentioned that such demands and scenario could lead to violent ethnic conflict in most of the developing nations and particularly this has an adverse impact on the investment as well as productivity affecting overall national financial economic growth. On the contrary, Kritz (2015) mentioned that ethnic division in developing states tend to become more evident and pronounced than the developed nations.
Factors Contributing to Ethnic and Racial Conflict
A study conducted by Sinatti and Horst (2015) stated that ethnicity is not restricted to underdeveloped or developing nations but it may be found in the developed nations. Denny and Walter (2014) mentioned that the activities that are planned by the communities have helped in the development of the ethnic and cultural aspects of the nation. So, it is worth mentioning that the notion of ethnicity has been defined with multiple piece of ideas, which is probably a reason for cultural clashes in the nations. Downman (2017) mentioned the fact that the incident of ethnic and racial clash usually occur in African nations. Alesina, Michalopoulos and Papaioannou (2016) stated that the modern or urban African state now have become a product of Europe. Therefore, the clash occur between the existing state of Africa and the state of European culture of Africa. Tahir (2017) argued that ethnicity could go beyond the skin colour or physical characteristics, language, dance and other practices.
According to Carter (2017), the future political development of any nation depends on the trust of population in an honest as well as efficient government and in the economic success of their state. So, it can be mentioned that lack of transparency in the government structure and biased political grounds adds a bit of oxygen to fire of racial clash. As put forward by Goldstone (2018), ethnic inequality remains widespread and drag and significant drag on the international economy. In addition, Koubiet al. (2014) also mentioned that ethnic inequality such as the political as well as economic disadvantage observed by racial minority groups- it stays across the world. Carter (2017) stated that discrimination is not only unfair, it is rather an obstacle in the world economic development and it will go by itself. Leff (2014) mentioned that inequality could affect two major groups of ethnic minority population.
As put forward by Mac Ginty and Williams (2016), ethnic identities manipulation has now become a barrier which tears Kenya apart and inability of Kenyan people to mix up ethnic identities into nation’s structure, which deteriorate the situation. It is comprehensible that Kenya like many other nations in Africa is a multi-ethnic society living peacefully for many years but the recent scenario in Kenya shows that the dominant ethnic groups form a significant political issue within the nation. For example, the recent dominant ethnic remain on the forefront in dealing with the political power. Such situation leads into fighting to control the state or the community. Carr and Haynes (2015) raised this issue and mentioned that the situation sourced the anger, resentment and the aggressive competitiveness that overlooked the general good of the whole nation.
Impact of Ethnic and Racial Conflict on Development
According to Mensah and Williams (2015), racial discrimination plays a big role in fuelling the clash among the communities. The economic and political issues caused by cultural discrimination are not restricted to conflict in Africa. It is particularly identified that most of the European nations, new migrants tend to work in insecure or in a more exploitative conditions. Oliveira and Murphy (2015) mentioned that in UK there is a 12% gap of employment between white British and ethnic minority people. Similarly, Koubiet al. (2014) mentioned that work and pension demonstrate a jobless of rate of 45% in 2013 particularly for the young black Pakistani and Bangladeshi labours, with the percentage around 19% for white people.
Alternatively, it is also identified that Europe has a regional human rights framework, which is unparalleled in the world. Notwithstanding, the debate over the origin of racism tend to suffer from a lack of clarity over the term. People tend to conflate recent forms of racism with earlier sort of ethnic as well as national conflict. It is identified that there are several debates over the origins of racism often suffer from a lack of clarity over the terms associated with the concepts. In most of the cases, ethno-national conflict owe to the conflict over the land as well as the strategic resources. In this context, Sinatti and Horst (2015) commented that there are some scenarios where ethnicity and nationalism were harnessed to wars between the religious empires; for instance Muslim Turks, Catholic Austro-Hungarians. Mosco (2014) particularly highlighted the fact that “imagined communities”, “ethnic identity”as well as “ethno-nationalism” remains as the major source of conflict within such empires with the increase of “print capitalism”.
On the other side, Lopreato and Crippen (2018) mentioned about another probable source of racism, which is the misunderstanding of Charles Darwin’s theories of evolution. Hence, some individuals took Darwin’s theories in a particular manner to indicate that some “races” are more civilized and there must be some biological framework for the differences. Simultaneously, they appeal to biological theories of moral as well as intellectual traits to justify racial oppression. In this context, Morning(2014) commented that ethnic minorities and different culture in one nation may often be used as a “scapegoat” for the majority at the time of financial crisis. The author of this article has provided an example that in 1997, “Human Rights Watch” revealed that United Kingdom has the broadest level of racially-motivated violence as well as harassment in Western Europe and this issue is becoming worse.
Conclusion
For over a decade, the issue of immigration have been the headlines in United Kingdom and the nature of such discussion hold clear racial dimension and hostility to Eastern Europeans. Conversely, Mosco (2014) mentioned that ethnic conflict can also be taken as the conflict that take place between ethnic minorities and majorities. Hence, Healey, Stepnick and O’Brien (2018) mentioned that such conflicts tend to become flexible and they can be arranged for particular time period but it often relapse after few moments. This particularly take place because the parties involved in such conflicts prevents the satisfaction of each other’s basic needs. On the other side, the minorities could believe that their identity is not properly recognized that they are given fewer opportunities for the growth and development and sometimes their existence are challenged.
A large percentage of people on the other hand could perceive the minorities as the barrier to the security. A study conducted by Sinatti and Horst (2015), the term ethnic conflict itself remains as the contradiction –not the conflict is ethnic but the ethnic conflict involves at least one conflict which is organized around the ethnic identity of its members. It can also be considered as the form of civic clash within the state boundaries at the time when one of the warning parties is engaged and organized along ethnic lines. For instance, the conflict in Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Cyprus, Kashmir and Republic of Congo and the violence in the Sudan are all, in one way or another ethnic conflicts.
Nonetheless, Sachariew (2016) commend that conflicts are nether relevant or nor it is harmful by themselves; so the outcome of such conflict is usually measured upon the opinions of conflicts, the way people deal with conflict and the attitudes towards the conflicting parties. Thus, if people are able to deal with the conflicts, they can gain advantages from their own potential for a change; it might bring back a positive change or development in the lives of the community. On the context of racial clash, Coakley (2018) also mentioned that Race in America is not actually about the fight between the opposing side but long as well as drawn out work by which the black people and other minorities were used for the value. According to the principles of primordialist account ethnic group and nationalities exist because there are different tradition of belief and action towards primordial objects such as biological features and particularly the territorial location. It is further identified that primordialsst accounts depend on the strong ties among the members of ethnic group. Hence, Mohammadzadeh (2016) raised the fact that such bonding could make it possible for the ethnic group to consider with respect to the family resemblance. On the other side, Omi and Winant (2014) mentioned that instrumentalists account gained the prominence in 1960 in the developed nation like United State, ethnic persistence in what was supposed to have been an effective melting pot and this emerging theory tends to demand for an explained persistence as the outcome of the community leaders who embrace their cultural groups as the site of mass mobilization in their competition for power and resources. This happens because they found them more effective than the social classes. So, in such ethnic identification, ethnicity and race are considered as the instrumental means to accomplish particular ends.
Furthermore, Denny and Walter (2014) mentioned about the constructive accounts which means a set of accounts tend to emphasize on the importance of society constructed nature of ethnic group. The major proponents of this account indicate Rwanda as an example sine the Tuts/Hutu distinction was codified by Belgian colonial power in the 1930s based on the cattle ownership, physical measurement and church records (Van Den Brandt and Longman 2017). Her, the identity card were issued and the documents played the role in the Genocide of 1994. It is further identified that the scholars of ethnic conflict as well as the civil wars have provided the theories that draw insight from all traditional schools of thought. In the Geography of Ethnic violence, for example, Ayot (2018) demonstrated how ethnic group settlement patterns issue indivisibility as well as show concern with precedent setting could lead rational actors to escalate a violence. Roshwald (2016) used a synthetically model developed on Relative deprivation that attention to discrimination ideas, they categorized to political, cultural and economic discrimination. Here, this relative deprivation remains as the lack of resources to sustain the diet, activities and amenities that an individual or group are accustomed to or it is approved in the society to which they belong. It is further identified that measuring relative deprivation could allow an objective comparison between the situation of individuals and the group compare to the rest of the society. Koubiet al. (2014) also raised the fact that relative deprivation could also insist on the individual experience of discontent when being deprived of something to which one believes oneself to be entitled but insisting on the perspectives of individuals make objectives measurement more challenging.
Figure 1: Framework of socio-cultural and ethnic differences
(Source: Koubiet al. 2014)
Nonetheless, some theorists raise the fact that this does not provide an increase in the incidence of ethnic conflict, observing many of the proxy wars dealt during the Cold War as ethnic conflict which masked as the hotspot of Cold War. A study conducted by Betts (2017) the fall of communism and the rise in the number of capitalist state were accompanies by a state of decrease in the total warfare. Sinatti and Horst (2015) mentioned that to place ethnic disagreement into proper perspectives; thereby it is necessary to refer to varied sort of situations in which racial groups communicate within a broader framework. However, before this, it could be necessary to deliver suitable definition of cultural groups as the term is particularly utilized instead of loosely in the existing studies. Bormann, Cederman and Vogt (2017) mentioned that the term “ethic clash” particularly covers a large range of situations. In addition, it could be argued that the ethnic conflict in the groups of people for identifying each other may include colour, race, religion, national origin and language. It is also found in the study that colour, race, religion, national origin and language are the variables in identifying each individuals in the group in ethnic pattern. In addition to this, the scholars usually make the differentiation between inter-ethnic relationships, even though there are several borderline cases. The following are some of the cases involving the ethnic conflicts:
The conflict in the Northern Ireland indicates long historical roots of conflicts between the majority of Protestants who would like to stay linked to Britain as well as the minority of Catholics, who wish to join the republic of Ireland and they go back to the sixteenth century (Viggiani 2014). Hence, Wolff (2017) mentioned that Irish nationalist Catholic observed that they have been conventionally separated from the dominant group of Protestants. Hence, this partition of Ireland have been decided upon by British in 1920 were failed to resolve this protracted clash (De Fazio 2016). On the other side, the conflict of Sri Lanka has gone through many phases and here the minority Tamils were differentiated by religion and language from a large percentage of “Buddhist Sinhalese” are widely concentrated in the northeast of island, where this community settled over two thousand years back (Imtiyaz and Mohamed-Saleem 2015). At the time of the independence, the Sinhalese community observed that Tamils observe disproportionate political and economic privilege from British and create influence to change the situation (Biziouras 2014). Firstly, they did not accept the citizenship to most of the Indian Tamil labourers and then developed a Sinhala-only language policy and recognized University entrance requirement (Lee and Reade 2015).
Another significant case is that Sandinsta revolution of 1997 in Nicaragua, after a long years of guerrilla warfare, gained success in taking over a bloody thirty-year dictatorship and the development of a famous revolutionary government (Fraser, Fisher and Arce 2014). This issue brought them into direct conflict with Miskito and other indigenous people of Atlantic Coast- region which has never been integrated into centralized political structure of Nicaragua. As put forward by Faber (2017), the flagship publication of the World Bank indicate that there is a lot to say about the violence. Hence, Fraser, Fisher and Arce (2014) argued that the clash is not just about the reason for poverty among; it may remain as the primary cause. This means that the nations are prey to violence are often trapped in it. Another significant case is that in Spain’s Basque region, the nation of Euzkadi, the regional nationalism come out as the political force in the ninetieth century, after the central Spanish government destroyed the long-standing legal institutions. This phase of time also talk about the incipient industrialization bough about the migration as well as increasing class conflict. During this Franco Dictorship, the Basque language as well as other ethnic expression were overwhelmed. Sullivan (2015) particularly mentioned that this Basque nationalism increased and by 1970’s a military separatist firm using terrorist tactics, which is known as ETA ruled the field for years. Basque not only adhere to its conventional institutions but also to their language as well as consider themselves to remain racially distinct from other Spaniards. It is further observed that in spite of the guarantee of the regional autonomy provided for new Spanish constitutions as well as regional autonomy, the regional effects of the economic deficiency have increased the sympathy among the population for the nationalist movement and it gains supports from the nationalistmovement.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned discussion helps to understand the fact that racial and ethnic clash is not a contemporary issue, the nations both developed and developing nations have faced the challenge of maintaining peace, as the ethnic and racial clash had a strong impact on the society and people. The scholars have particularly talked about the fact that due to increasing number of ethnic and communal group, differences among people with respect to ethnicity, race and the perspective of both of this variables. The authors have also mentioned that it is now increasingly identified the discrimination against the black have been slowly but declining over the last century in some of the nations. Furthermore, the religion is often referred as a “conflict- inducting cleavage” and there seem to be some fairly-cut historical cases where religion have played a great role.
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