Minority groups

In the socio-economic field, the concept of a minority usually refers to a socially subordinate ethnic group (by language , nationality, religion and / or culture). Other minority groups include people with physical disabilities, “economic minorities” (partially or completely disabled), age minorities (younger or older than considered normal working age) and sexual minorities (whose sexual orientation does not coincide with the normative sexual orientation).

The term minority group often appears in discussions of civil and collective rights. This topic has become extremely popular in the XX century . Representatives of social minorities are encouraged to pay particular attention to the society in which they live. Discrimination may be a direct reason for the specified individual to belong to a minority group, without any connection with his personal abilities. This can also occur indirectly, due to the social structure of society , which does not provide everyone with equal rights . Minority rights campaigners can extend the term to such concepts they have put forward as student rights and animal rights . Recently, some representatives of groups habitually perceived as dominant are trying to imagine themselves as an oppressed minority, like white middle-class men with a heterosexual orientation ^[2] .

The study of the problem demonstrates a direct link between negative attitudes or prejudices against minorities and social conservatism (and, accordingly, vice versa: positive attitudes with social progress). ^[3] Historical examples of minority groups are more modern Russians in the Baltic states and Central Asia, migrants from Central Asia in large Russian cities, more distant Jews in Nazi Germany and Eastern Europe (see also: Nazism ), black and Latin American US population, Catholics in the USA (today having a better position than 50 years ago), Franco-Canadians in Canada 18-20 centuries. (see also: Racism ), Catholics in modern Northern Ireland and Great Britain , formerly also Protestants in Spain .

The American sociologist Louis Wirth defined the group minority: “a group of people who are distinguished in society by their physical or cultural properties, because of which they experience infringement and inequality, and who thus define themselves as subject to collective discrimination.” ^[4] This the definition takes into account both objective and subjective criteria.

Objectively: belonging to minority groups is qualified by society in accordance with physical characteristics or behavior.

Subjective: representatives of minorities classify themselves as such groups with the possible use of the appropriate status for self-identification and solidarity. In any case, the status of a minority is essentially a category: with an individual who exhibits physical properties and character traits corresponding to a given group, there should be a circumvention, as with other representatives of the group.

Racial and Ethnic Minorities

In any large society, ethnic minorities exist. These may be immigrants , indigenous peoples or nomads . In some places, such minor ethnic groups can make up a quantitative majority, such as blacks in Africa under apartheid conditions. International law in some cases may protect the rights of racial and ethnic minorities. ^[5] . The key issue is the right to self-determination .

Religious minorities

Persons belonging to religious minorities have a faith different from that supported by the majority. Religious minorities exist in most countries of the world. In the modern world, freedom of religion choice is the norm, this also includes the right to refuse any religion ( atheism , agnosticism ) and the right to transfer from one religion to another. However, in some countries this freedom is limited. For example, in Egypt, the new system of identification cards ^[6] requires that all citizens clearly define their religion, and they are only given the choice of Islam , Christianity or Judaism (see Egyptian identity card ).

Public polls conducted in 2006 showed that atheists in the US are a religious minority. In conclusion, it said: “The rating of atheists in America is lower than Muslims, recent immigrants, homosexuals, lesbians, and other group minorities. Atheists also belong to the least desirable category from which Americans would like to choose spouses for their children. ” ^[7]

Sexual and gender minorities

While in most cases, the ratio between men and women is approximately the same, the depressed position of women as a social group in some countries (manifested, for example, in their rights to participate in the political process, to own property, and to have less control behind their own bodies, less actual participation in government and business management, less access to education and high positions, giving prestige in society) allows them to be attributed to minorities ^[8] .

The term “sexual minorities” is often used to refer to people of other sexual orientations other than heterosexuality , and can have a wide variety of interpretations , from narrow enough, including only homosexuals , to wide enough, including all persons whose sexual orientation , sexual preferences or sexual behavior go beyond the usual sex-role models ^[9] . However, more often sexual minorities denote homosexual and bisexual people ^[10] . The inclusion of lesbians , Vitisexuals, bisexuals and transgender people as minorities has arisen in the Western world since the 19th century . The abbreviation LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) is used as a collective term for these subgroups. In English, there is also a general term for all sexual minorities, including not only LGBT people themselves, but also people who do not fit into the traditional normative gender roles - queer .

People with a non- cisgender gender identity also stand out in gender minorities . This also includes groups such as intersex and transgender people .

Sometimes in everyday life, some people attribute different sexual deviations to sexual minorities - especially in those cases when they can be attributed to a certain group. However, this is not generally accepted in science.

Minority groups

Elderly people, although having a traditional influence, and in the past even having the reins of government (see Gerontocracy ), now belong to economically 'inactive' groups . Children can also be classified as minorities in this regard because of discrimination against young people - adultism . Discrimination against the elderly is called ageism .

Many local and international laws have been adopted to combat the exploitation of children, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child , and there are a number of organizations that work out the rights of the child . The Youth Rights Movement is fighting to increase the social role of youth against legal and social restrictions. Famous groups representing the interests of the elderly, from Help the Aged to popular activists Gray Panthers ; often they intersect with fighters for the rights of the disabled.

Minority People with Disabilities

The Disability rights movement consists in understanding people like minorities or coalitions of minorities that are socially disadvantaged. Their position is that the analysis of socially accessible opportunities for people with different physical and mental characteristics shows that the cause of the depressed situation of people with disabilities is not so much their difference from the normative “healthy” ideal, but the exclusion by society of people who differ from this ideal from the normal participation in the public process.

Persons with disabilities emphasize the difference between physical or physiological characteristics on the one hand and working capacity and the ability to lead an emotionally fulfilling human life on the other. For example, some autistic people claim their full recognition along with other citizens (Neurodiversity) , just as opponents of racism challenge the rights of ethnic minorities. The community of the deaf (see. Culture of the deaf ) is often seen as a linguistic or cultural minority , and not at all as a group of physically disadvantaged people. Rather, they are disadvantaged technologically and socially, since everything in society is adapted to serve the dominant groups.

Other minorities

Among other minorities, one can name people with a publicly condemned appearance or simply not conforming to the “standard of beauty” adopted in their society (despite the fact that in other countries or social strata they may well correspond to it), and other similar cases, except as described above. The Size Acceptance movement, in particular, is fighting for the rights of fat people (usually expanding the spectrum of its actions also to combat discrimination of “craving for fullness” ).

In the politics of some states, a minority is an officially approved ethnic group , thus having some rights that other groups are deprived of. Those who speak the language of this minority have, for example, the right to education or to contact government agencies in their mother tongue. Countries with special benefits for minorities include China , Germany , India , Romania , Russia and the United Kingdom (which nonetheless supports the concept of British leadership). In the United States, the concept of a minority is usually referred to different groups of non-white people, especially those that have historically been discriminated against.

Different minority groups often have different benefits. Some groups are so small or so indistinctly distinguished from the majority that they are considered either part of this majority or a separate nation, but without giving them special benefits, due to budgetary problems or for other reasons. For example, representatives of this small ethnic group may be instructed in the questionnaires in the section “Nationality” to mark themselves in the item “Others” and as a result, it may be possible to receive less privileges than some groups that are listed separately.

Many modern governments prefer to consider all citizens as belonging to one nation than to separate them by ethnicity. In the United States , official censuses propose self-identification by race and ethnicity, thus dividing everyone into subgroups, but mainly on a racial basis, and not on a national basis. Spain does not have ethnic divisions, although minority languages ​​are officially supported.

Some minorities are so large in quantitative, historical or other aspects that the system guarantees them multilateral protection and political representation. For example, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina — the former Yugoslavia — includes at the constitutional level three main nations, none of which constitute a quantitative majority, see The National Composition of Bosnia and Herzegovina . However, minorities such as Gypsies and Jews are officially marked as “others” and are thus deprived of certain privileges. For example, they cannot be elected to high government posts, including the presidency. ^[eleven]

The issue of defining minority groups and providing them with special benefits that are generated by their status is controversial. Some argue that minorities deserve special status and concessions in order to compensate for the harm that they have suffered as a result of discrimination or oppression, while others believe that they require unjustified special benefits, which creates a kind of discrimination and may prevent this minority from joining normally. into the main society - perhaps because this ethnic minority chooses the path of separatism . In Canada, it is believed that the rejection of the spread of the dominant English language by French Canadians marked the beginning of the Québec Movement .

One particularly controversial issue is social inclusion . For example, it may be a state program for conducting additional courses of the main state language for immigrants and minorities, so that they become more competitive in their studies and employment. This may be necessary as minority groups have certain difficulties. Another example is the allocation of quotas as a percentage for places at a university or for employment in the service sector. This is not as ideal an approach as it might seem, since minorities receive special privileges over the majority. In the worst case scenario, this can lead to so-called positive discrimination, where someone with a minority status prefers a more qualified specialist without this status.

• Most
• Marginal
• Ethnos
• Positive discrimination

• ECMI - European Center for Minority Issues
• What is a Minority Group? definitions from Dayton Law School.
• From Paris to Cairo: Resistance of the Unacculturated
• When minorities rule over majorities
• Minorities at Risk project at the University of Maryland
• MINELRES - Minority Electronic Resources
• European Academy Bozen / Bolzano (EURAC)
• Weaver v NATFHE In the Weaver v NATFHE race discrimination case, UK, an Employment Tribunal decided that a union's principal obligation in race harassment cases is to protect the tenure of the accused employee. A trade union member from an ethnic minority group making a complaint of workplace harassment against a fellow employee and member of the same union was not entitled to union advice and assistance, irrespective of the merit of the case, because the employee complained against could lose his job. The Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld the decision. Also known as the Bournville College Racial Harassment Issue
• Eurominority - Stateless and national minorities portal
• State of the World's Minorities 2007 , Report by Minority Rights Group International
• The Organization of a Public Campaign to Combat Racism, Xenophobia, Anti-Semitism, and Ethnic Discrimination in the Multinational Russian Federation