Nevskaya Elizaveta; 23 April 2014
Ethnic Minorities' problems in the USA and Russia
Nowadays almost every country has its own groups of ethnic minorities, and in each country. It is commonly known that these groups of people face a vast amount of problems. In this work I would like to describe and compare what difficulties they have to live with in the USA and in Russia.
What are ethnic minorities in Russia and the usa?
According to the general census of population held in 2010, there are approximately 193 ethnic groups living in Russia. The most numerous group are Tatars, who form 3,72% of the whole population; other numerous minorities are Ukrainian (1,35 %), Bashkirs (1,11%), Chuvashs (1,01%), Chechens (1%) and Armenians (0,83%). The less numerous are Yugh people (1 person), Urums (1 person), Mennonites (4 people), Kereks (4 people) and Bagvalal people (5 people). It should be noticed that from 2002 to 2010 many groups lessened in their number: Astrakhan Tatars (-1996 people, - 99.65%), Lugovo-Eastern Mari people (-55901 people, -99.61%), Urums (-53 people, - 98.15%), Yugh people (-18 people, -94.74%), etc., but many ethnic groups multiplied: Botlikh people (+3492 people, +21825%), Kurmanji people (+41 people, + 4100%), Tindi people (+591 people, +1343.18%), Godoberi people (+388 people, +994.87%), etc. However, the precise number of ethnic groups is unknown due to the fact that there are people who do not state their nationality. Because of the great amount of the groups it is difficult to name the regions where they tend to live.
While in Russia ethnic minority is considered the same as national minority and consists of a great number of small groups, the USA has much less recognized ethnic minority categories: Hispanics (15%) , Black Americans (40.7 mln., 14%), Asians (5%) and Native Americans (1.6%). Hispanics and Asians are likely to live in the West, Blacks tend to live in the South, Midwest and Mountain states, and Native Americans are likely to be found in California, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Alaska.
Official documents
There is no definition of ethnic minority in international documents and laws in Russia, although it is mentioned in the Constitution of Russia (1993): ‘The jurisdiction of the Russian Federation includes: <…> regulation and protection of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen; citizenship in the Russian Federation, regulation and protection of the rights of national minorities;’ & ‘The joint jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and the subjects of the Russian Federation includes: <…> protection of traditional living habitat and of traditional way of life of small ethnic communities;’
In the United States of America all ethnic minorities are provided with the same rights as all US citizens which are written in the Constitution of the USA and Civil Rights Act, although one of the minorities has a unique status. In 1975 the Congress passed Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act which actually recognize them as independent political units. Nowadays the American government and Indians interact on intergovernmental level through two federal agencies: the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE).
Discrimination
Article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965) defines "racial discrimination" as
‘...any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.’
In Russia inadmissibility of discrimination is prescribed in Article 19: ‘<…> The state shall guarantee the equality of rights and liberties regardless of sex, race, nationality, language, origin, property or employment status, residence, attitude to religion, convictions, membership of public associations or any other circumstance. Any restrictions of the rights of citizens on social, racial, national, linguistic or religious grounds shall be forbidden.’ However, there are ethnic groups who become victims of constant and regular discrimination conducted or provoked by bodies of power. The most known problem is racism which occurs in work of law-enforcement agencies, i.e. frequent checks, arrest of people who differ from Russians in their appearance and rude and degrading treatment of them.
In the USA discrimination is also prohibited by law; 15th amendment to the Constitution prohibits the denial of the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude: ‘Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.’ In spite of this, most hate crimes (48.5%) target victims on the basis of ethnicity or race. 66.2% of victims were Black, 4.4% were in a group of individuals in which more than one race was represented, 4.1% were Asian/Pacific Islanders and 33.% were American Indian/Alaskan Natives.