Glossary

Assimilation - the acceptance of a minority group by a majority population, in which the group takes on the values and norms of the dominant culture.

Asylum-seeker - a person who has applied for refuge in a foreign country due to a fear of religious or political prosecution in his or her country of origin.

Bias - an inclination of temperament or outlook to present or hold a partial perspective and a refusal to even consider the possible merits of alternative points of view. People may be biased toward or against an individual, a race, a religion, a social class, or a political party. Biased means one-sided, lacking a neutral viewpoint, not having an open mind. Bias can come in many forms and is often considered to be synonymous with prejudice and bigotry.

Bigotry  - the state of mind of a bigot: someone who, as a result of their prejudices, treats or views other people with fear, distrust, hatred, contempt, or intolerance on the basis of a person's opinion, ethnicity, race, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics.

Cultural pluralism - the coexistence of several subcultures within a given society on equal terms.

Discrimination - activities that deny to the members of a particular group resources or rewards which can be obtained by others.

Emigration - the movement of people out of one country in order to settle in another.

Ethnic cleansing - the creation of ethnically homogeneous territories through the mass expulsion of other ethnic populations.

Ethnicity - cultural values and norms which distinguish the members of a given group from others. An ethnic group is one whose members share a distinct awareness of a common cultural identity, separating them from other groups around them.

Ethnic - a term used by Anthony Smith to describe a group that shares ideas of common ancestry, a common cultural identity and a link with a specific homeland.

Ethnocentrism - understanding the ideas or practices of another culture in terms of those of one’s own culture. Ethnocentric judgments fail to recognize the true qualities of other cultures. An ethnocentric individual is someone who is unable, or unwilling, to look at other cultures in their own terms.

Fortress Europe - the idea that European states are acting collectively to tighten their borders and defend their high standards of living against a tide of migrants from other parts of the world who seek to share in European prosperity.

Genocide - the systematic, planned destruction of a racial, political or cultural group.

Globalization - growing interdependence between different peoples, regions and countries in the world as social and economic relationships come to stretch worldwide.

Identity - the distinctive characteristics of a person’s character or the character of a group which relate to who they are and what is meaningful to them. Some of the main sources of identity include gender, sexual orientation, nationality or ethnicity, and social class.

Immigration - the movement of people into one country from another for the purpose of settlement.

Institutional racism - patterns of discrimination based on ethnicity that have become structured into existing social institutions.

Melting pot - the idea that ethnic differences can be combined to create new patterns of behavior drawing on diverse cultural sources.

Multiculturalism - the phenomenon of multiple groups of cultures existing within one society, largely due to the arrival of immigrant communities. Multiculturalism occurs naturally when a society is willing to accept the culture of immigrants (with, ideally, immigrants also willing to accept the culture of the land to which they have come).

Nationalism – a set of beliefs and symbols expressing identification with a given national community.

New migration – a term referring to changes in patterns of migration in Europe in the years following 1989. The ‘new migration’ has been influenced by the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the prolonged ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia, and the process of European integration, altering the dynamics between traditional ‘countries of origin’ and ‘countries of destination’.

Prejudice – the holding of preconceived ideas about an individual or group, ideas that are resistant to change even in the face of new information.

Racialization – the process by which understandings of race are used to classify individuals or groups of people.

Scapegoating – blaming an individual or group for wrongs that were not of their doing.

Stereotype – a fixed and inflexible characterization of a group of people.

Tolerance - a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry.

Xenophobia - deep-rooted, irrational hatred towards foreigners.