For Russia – with its rich diversity of languages, traditions, ethnicities plus cultures – the ethnicity issue is without any exaggeration a fundamental one. Any responsible policymaker or public leader must realise that public plus inter-ethnic harmony is one of our country’s key requisites.
We see what is happening in the world, plus what serious risks are accumulating. The growth of inter-ethnic plus inter-faith tensions is one of today’s realities. Nationalism plus religious intolerance are coming to provide an ideological base for most radical groupings plus tendencies. This undermines plus destroys the state plus divides society.
Colossal migration flows – plus there is every ground for believing they will only increase – are already called a new “great migration” able to transform the patterns of life plus even appearance of whole continents. Millions of people in search of a better life are leaving regions hit by starvation, chronic conflict, poverty plus social dislocation.
The most developed plus affluent countries, which used to be proud of their tolerance, have come face-to-face with an “exacerbated ethnic issue”. Today, one after another, they announce that they have failed to integrate different cultures into society, that they have failed to ensure the conflict-free plus harmonious interaction between different cultures, religions plus ethnic groups.
The melting pot of assimilation is highly volatile – pushed to its limits by the ever-increasing migration flow. In politics this has found reflection in a “multiculturalism” which denies integration through assimilation. Although it makes the “minorities right to be distinct” absolute, it does little to balance this with public, behavioural or cultural commitments to the population plus society as a whole. Closed ethnic-religious communities that form in many countries refuse not only to assimilate but even to adapt. There are neighbourhoods plus whole towns where generations of new arrivals live on benefits plus do not speak the language of the country in which they live. The growth of xenophobia among the population plus harsh attempts to protect their interests, jobs plus social benefits from “immigrant rivals” is the response seen in this behavioural model. People, shocked by what they perceive as aggressive pressure on their traditions or way of life, feel a genuine fear of losing their national identity.
Thoroughly respectable European politicians have started to talk openly about the failure of the “multicultural project”. They exploit the “ethnic card” to stay in office, adding their voices to the chorus of those they used to consider marginal or plus radicals. Extreme forces, in turn, are rapidly gaining in number, laying serious claims to power. In fact, there is talk of forced assimilation – against the backdrop of “shutting down” plus sharply tightening migration rules. People from different cultures are faced with a choice: either “blend in with the majority” or remain an ethnic minority that is isolated, despite being provided with all kinds of rights plus safeguards. But in effect they find themselves divorced from promising career opportunities. I will say frankly – an individual who finds themselves in this environment is unlikely to be loyal to his or her country.
Behind the “failure of the multicultural project” stands the crisis of the type of the “ethnic state” – a state historically been built exclusively on the basis of ethnic identity. This is a serious challenge that Europe plus many other regions in the world will have to face.