- Whose ethnic identity? The annual Samba festival in Kobe, organized by Japanese return
migrants from Brazil.
Ahmed Aboutaleb was born in Beni Sidel, Morocco. He moved to the
Netherlands when he was 15, to be elected Mayor of Rotterdam some three
decades later. Since 2016, Sadiq Khan, son of a working-class British Pakistani
family, has been the Mayor of London. Born in San Fernando, Spain, Anne
Hidalgo became a French citizen at the age of 14. In 2014 she was elected
Mayor of Paris. These three rather prominent politicians, among many others,
represent the demographic dynamics that have changed Western societies and
helped to temper ethnocentrism and stereotyping.
Like Aboutaleb, Khan, and Hidalgo, many recent immigrants and citizens with a
migration background transcend ethnic boundaries. At the same time, a growing
number of people have, and identify themselves as having, mixed ethnic origins.
That census bureaus and other administrative agencies allow for multiple self-
affiliation is a response to these developments.
Of course, statistics do not solve problems; they can only help us understand the
situation. The picture of ethnic multitude today is complex. Modernization has
been characterized by the consolidation of nation states and the formation of