• Multi-ethnic societies, in contrast to mono-ethnic societies, integrate different ethnic groups irrespective of differences in culture, race, and history under a common social identity larger than one ‘nation’ in the conventional sense. All cities and most towns can be regarded as multiethnic societies.
• Also, many nations that today are considered ethnically homogeneous, such as Japan, have their origins in a complex process of ethnic integration.
  

Trajectory

• A precondition to the success of a multi-ethnic society is a common or ‘overlapping’ language. Even in the EU, English is the lingua franca for business and scientific exchange. Even more important is an education of tolerance and understanding.
• Yet, despite this, because of their ethnic or cultural heterogeneity, multi-ethnic societies are more fragile with a higher risk of conflict that can actually lead to the breakdown of such societies.
• Households in the West are increasingly multi-ethnic. In big cities, their multi-cultural or cosmopolitan nature is accepted. In the periphery, multi-ethnicity causes suspicion and fear. Nonetheless, such cultural tensions that are not always consistent. There is almost no issue with the arrival of Islamic banking systems to European countries, but there is widespread aversion to the Islamic practice of arranged marriages.
• Forced mixture or co-existence of ethnically different populations might be the reason for the outbreak of nationalistic and racist tendencies, which over the years can grow strong enough to seriously threaten or even destroy a multi-ethnic society. Rising unemployment caused by the current economic downturn might broaden this divide, fueled by a growing feeling that ‘local’ jobs are being stolen by ‘outsiders’.