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Ethnicity

  1. definition
  2. examples and/or illustrations
  3. other useful sources
  4. bibliography


Definition

Rootword is ethnic:

  • Having a common national or cultural tradition.
  • Denoted origin by birth or descent rather than nationality.
  • Related to race or culture

Abete,F.(1998)Ethnic. In The Oxford American Desk Dictionary (pp.195). New York, USA:Oxford University press

  • Pertaining to or characteristic of a people, especially a group (ethnic group) sharing a common and distinctive culture, religion, language, or the like.
  • Referring to the origin, classification, characteristics.
  • Being a member of an ethnic group, especially of a group that is a minority within a larger society: ethnic Chinese in San Francisco. .
  • Belonging to or deriving from the cultural, racial, religious, or linguistic traditions of a people or country

Ethnic. (n.d.). Dictionary.com. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ethnic

  •  ethnic quality or affiliation
  • a particular ethnic affiliation or group 

Ethnicity. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethnicity

 

Examples and/or Illustrations

A person’s ethnicity is their ethnic traits, classification, or association. If your ethnicity is Italian, you might speak Italian in the home and eat Italian food. Or you might simply refer to yourself as Italian and identify with your ethnicity in no other way.

Usually, ethnicity is a collective noun, but in the singular, an ethnicity is a particular ethnic group. The adjective ethnic relates to large groups of people who have certain racial, cultural, religious, or other traits in common. In Middle English, ethnic meant heathen or pagan. The word is from Late Latin ethnicus, from Greek ethnikos “foreign,” from ethnos “nation.”

Ethnicity. (N.D).  Vocabulary.com .Retrieved February 25, 2014, from             http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/ethnicity

About two thirds of Ukraine’s citizens are ethnic Ukrainians whose first language is Ukrainian.

Bremmer,I. (2014, February 19). What you should know about Ukraine.Time Inc. Retrieved on April 6, 2014 from http://ideas.time.com/2014/02/19/what-you-should-know-about-      ukraine/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time      %2Fideas+%28TIME+Ideas%29

The people of Canada have a long tradition of identifying themselves according to the land or nation of their sometimes remote ancestors. Over the past few decades, however, a rapidly growing number have begun describing themselves in the census as Canadians. The proportion of the population claiming some element of Canadian ethno-cultural ancestry climbed from fewer than 1% in 1986 to nearly 40% in 2001, making it by far the most common ethno-cultural ancestry reported on the census

Thomas, D. (2005). I am Canadian. Statistics Canada: Canadian social Trends: 11(8) Retrieved   February 25, 2014, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2004004/article/7774-eng.pdf

More than 200 different ethnic origins were reported in the 2001 Census. Ethnic origin refers to the ethnic or cultural group to which an individual’s ancestors belonged. The changing sources of immigrants to Canada and the increasing intermarriage among ethnic groups have resulted in a broader range of ethnic origins and a growing number of people reporting multiple ethnic ancestries.

In 2001, the most frequently reported ethnic origin was Canadian, either alone or in combination with other origins. It was reported by11.7 million people, or 39% of the population.2 English (6.0 million),French (4.7 million), Scottish (4.2 million),Irish (3.8 million), German(2.7 million), Italian (1.3 million),Chinese (1.1 million), Ukrainian (1.1million) and North American Indian(1.0 million) rounded  out the top 10 ethnic origins in Canada.

Badets, J.(2003). Update on Cultural Diversity. Statistics Canada:  Canadian social trends. Retrieved February 25,2014  http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2003002/article/6623-eng.pdf

 

Other Useful Sources

Lennard,N. (2014,February 21).Discrimination made legal: Judge rules on NYPD Muslim

Spying. Salon. Retrieved on April 6, 2014  from http://www.salon.com/2014/02/21/discrimination_made_legal_judge_rules_on_nypd_muslim_spying/

This news paper article looks at how ordinary Muslims are surveilled and discriminated due to the affiliation

Lyman, S. M., & Douglass, W. A. (1973). Ethnicity: Strategies of collective and individual impression management. Social Research, 40(2), 344. Retrieved on April 6, 2014 from http://ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1297281782?accountid=13631

This article looks into the how ethnicity works in binding people together and what common factors cause the ethnic group to become a collective entity.

Ethnicity vs Race. (n.d.). Retrieved from Diffen: http://www.diffen.com/difference/Ethnicity_vs_Race , on February 24, 2014

This webpage helps show the general differences between ethnicity and race

Ried, R.(2014,February 20).Ethnicity or Birth Right: rules of citizenship vary.The Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.macon.com/2014/02/20/2949388/ethnicity-or-birthplace-rules.html

It looks at the problems that birthright or ethnicity does not guarantee citizenship in various countries.

Case Law

Multiculturalism Act: The following are the purposes of this Act:

  1. to recognize that the diversity of British Columbians as regards race, cultural heritage, religion, ethnicity, ancestry and place of origin is a fundamental characteristic of the society of British Columbia that enriches the lives of all British Columbians;
  2. to encourage respect for the multicultural heritage of British Columbia;
  3. to promote racial harmony, cross cultural understanding and respect and the development of a community that is united and at peace with itself;
  4. to foster the creation of a society in British Columbia in which there are no impediments to the full and free participation of all British Columbians in the economic, social, cultural and political life of British Columbia.

Multiculturalism Act, RSBC 1996, c 321, <http://canlii.ca/t/jj5d> retrieved on 2014-04-06

The clamant XX is a 44-year old citizen of Bulgaria born in XXXXX into a family of Macedonian ethnicity.  He claims a well-founded fear of persecution from government authorities due to his political opinion, ethnicity, and membership in a particular social group

The government finds that the Bulgarian government does not recognize Macedonian ethnicity as a minority.  Discrimination by the state of those who self-identify as ethnic Macedonians is well documented.  The security and police forces consider Bulgarian citizens who assert their Macedonian ethnicity to be in violation of state policy which does not recognize such identity.  Amnesty International (AI) authored a series of reports in 1996 and 1997 on incidents of persecution, torture, and violent acts by police authorities.  AI also instituted actions on behalf of ethnic Macedonian citizens who were subjected to torture and violence.

X. v. Canada (Immigration and Refugee Board), 2001 CanLII 26969 (CA IRB), <http://canlii.ca/t/1t63f> retrieved on 2014-04-06

Similar Terms

  • Ethnic
  • Ethnicity
  • Race
  • Citizenship

 

Bibliography

Abete,F.(1998)Ethnic. In The Oxford American Desk Dictionary .New York, USA:Oxford University press

Badets, J.(2003). Update on Cultural Diversity. Statistics Canada:  Canadian social trends. Retrieved February 25,2014  http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2003002/article/6623-eng.pdf

Bremmer,I. (2014, February 19). What you should know about Ukraine.Time Inc. Retrieved on April 6, 2014 from             http://ideas.time.com/2014/02/19/what-you-should-know-about-      ukraine/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time      %2Fideas+%28TIME+Ideas%29

Ethnic. (n.d.). Dictionary.com. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from Dictionary.com website:             http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ethnic

Ethnicity. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethnicity (accessed February 25, 2014, from)

Ethnicity. (N.D).  Vocabulary.com .Retrieved, from http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/ethnicity (accessed February 25, 2014)

Thomas, D. (2005). I am Canadian. Statistics Canada: Canadian social Trends: 11(8) Retrieved   , from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2004004/article/7774-eng.pdf (accessed February 25, 2014)

Yinger, J, M. (1985). Ethnicity. Annual Review of Sociology, 11, 151-180.Retrieved from             http://www.jstor.org/stable/2083290(accessed February 25, 2014)

X. v. Canada (Immigration and Refugee Board), 2001 CanLII 26969 (CA IRB), <http://canlii.ca/t/1t63f> retrieved on 2014-04-06