2. Processes that lead to ethnic contact Learning outcomes By the end of this section, you should be able to o demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the processes creating ethnic diversity: colonisation, annexation and international migration o know and understand how these process created ethnic diversity in East Timor Key Terms
Less than ten per cent of all states in the United Nations consist mainly of one ethnic group. Most are polyethnic Cameroon, for example, has 124 different languages and dialects, 4 different religions and over 200 separate 'tribal' groupings. Many have several large ethnic groups and some - Malaysia, Nigeria, Belgium and Canada among them - are divided between two main ethnic groups. The processes identified in the specification that have helped create this global condition are:
A. Colonisation This is defined as taking over another country and settling in it as part of empire building, and the process has a long and chequered history. Modern colonisation usually refers to the empire building carried out by the European powers from the 15th Century until the middle of the 20th century, which reached its peak just before World War 1. Sometimes the colonial powers did not settle the lands they ruled, meaning that an ethnic diversity tended not to occur to such a large extent; usually, however, settlers did arrive, creating ethnic diversities that have sometimes led to tensions today.
The difference between colonisation and colonialism Colonialism is defined as the establishment and maintenance of political rule by one country over a different country. It may or may not include widespread colonisation, which involves people from the ruling country settling, on a reasonably large scale, in the colony. Some of the most notable examples of colonisation on a large scale were in South America by the colonial powers of Spain and Portugal.
One example of this in the past few years is Zimbabwe. President Robert Mugabe, supported by the ‘War Veterans’, forced the white farmers to give up land he believed belongs to the black people. The white farmers argued that they have owned the land over generations, and that their commercial farming brings benefits to the weak Zimbabwean economy. South Africa has a diverse ethnic mix, partly from its colonial rulers, the Dutch and British, sending white settlers to farm and trade, in addition to officials. Smaller numbers of settlers went to Kenya and Zimbabwe. The ‘White Highlands’ of southwest Kenya were so called because this cool, upland area became home to white farmers and estate owners, using black labour to produce crops such as coffee. Sometimes colonial powers brought in migrants from third countries as labourers, further adding to the ethnic mix of some places. One of the most obvious examples of this was the British slvae trade of black Africans taken forcibly to the Wet Indies and North America. Another example was in Sri Lanka (one of our later case studies), where the British brought in workers from southern India (see also consolidation task 2 below). A final point that is worth making is the story of border delimitation. Many former colonial LEDCs were artificial constructions, and this has resulted in various ethnic groups being thrown together in one country. The consequence of this has often been ethnic conflict, illustrated most graphically by the genocide in Rwanda in 1993 (see later consolidation task in section 4).
A2 Ethnic Diversity - Lurgan College Geography Department
B. Annexation This describes taking over a neighbouring country/region into the administrative control of another country. If the adjoining areas have different ethnic groups, this process too leads to ethnic contact. We will explore this further in the case study of East Timor.
C. Migration Migration has led to significant ethnic contact globally. Most MEDCs have significant migrant minorities, such as Western European countries such as Britain, France and Germany (see task 1 below); others are made up almost entirely by migrant populations which have all but over-run the indigenous people of the country, such as the USA and Canada. Borders in LEDCs have tended to be very porous as well, with people moving for a variety of social, economic and political reasons (see the Migration section in the Population topic for more detail).
Task: Highlight the moves on the map that are likely to have resulted in ethnic contact.
EU enlargement & ethnic contact The enlargement of the EU in 2004 brought an additional 10 eastern European countries into the EU. As member states, their citizens have the right to free movement within the EU. Prior to the enlargement, many feared that western Europe would be over-run with migrants from the East. One obvious consequence for Northern Ireland has been the noticeable increase in eastern Europeans that are now living and working here. Sometimes, this spills over into ethnic tensions, such as were seen in summer 2009 when some Romanians were attacked in Belfast. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8105926.stm
A2 Ethnic Diversity - Lurgan College Geography Department
This map shows total numbers of Eastern European migrants in each local authority who registered for work between May 2004 and December 2007. It reveals that the migrants, from the "Accession eight" countries (A8), took jobs across the whole of the UK - from fish processing in Scotland to farm work in the East of England.
Whether creating ethnic minorities or becoming a melting pot for people from a variety of countries, international migration almost inevitably has resulted in ethnic contact. Some of this contact has been positive and has allowed for cross cultural exchange; some of it has led to tensions and ethnic conflict (see sections 3 and 5). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7373552.stm inc video of Polish tour guide in Scottish distillery http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7374781.stm report on EU migrants settling widely in UK (inc impacts of Poles leaving)
A2 Ethnic Diversity - Lurgan College Geography Department
Ethnic diversity in East Timor Processes that created increased ethnic diversity in one country
PHILIPPINES
MALAYSIA
I N D O E S I A TIMOR
Spatial background (not to be learnt) East Timor is a small country of 930,000 people, and although as figure 2 shows, around __% of its inhabitants are Catholic, it has a significant Muslim minority. It gained its independence in 1999; prior to that, it had been a Portuguese colony until 1975, when it was annexed by Indonesia. Indonesia is a large country of around 220,000,000 people, spread over a range of Protestant islands, including the western end of the island of Timor. 3% Being such a non-contiguous nation, the government has Muslim introduced strategies to try to unify the country 4% culturally and ethnically. One of the most well known strategies it has used has been the Transmigration Scheme.
Others 3%
Figure __ The religious composition of East Timor, 1992
A. Migration The original indigenous people of the island of Catholic Timor were the Atoni; but there has been ethnic 90% diversity on the island for a long time due to immigration. Initially, this was from neighbouring islands such as the Malay people from ____________, attracted by the natural resources, such as sandalwood, found there; more recently migrants were attracted from other parts of Asia, such as China and India, and some Arabs from the Middle East. This created quite an ethnically diverse background against which European colonisation occurred.
B. Colonisation and colonialism The main colonisers in Timor were the Portuguese and Century. Through centuries of dispute between these two island came under Portuguese influence, while the western islands) was controlled by the Dutch (and known as the
the Dutch, who arrived in the mid 14th European powers, the eastern end of the end (along with the rest of the Indonesian Dutch East Indies). Thus was initiated a
A2 Ethnic Diversity - Lurgan College Geography Department
process that was to lead to the ethnic diversification of the two parts of the island of Timor (add annotation to figure 3 to illustrate). Although there was never widespread colonisation of East Timor by the Portuguese, the small number of officials, traders and missionaries had a huge impact on a variety of primary ethnic identifiers in the island, creating an ethnicity that was very distinct from the west of the island. One of the main primary factors affected was religion; traditionally, the indigenous Timorese had been largely animists, but by 1975 30% of them were Catholic, a figure that had risen to 80% by the end of the 20th century. This made them very distinct from the west of the island and the rest of Indonesia, which was mostly Muslim. A second primary factor affected was language. Portuguese became the official language under the Portuguese colonisers, and the Timorese language of Tetum Figure 3 The division of was also officially recognised and used. However, following the island of Timor its own independence from the Dutch, the Indonesian government pressed successfully for Bahasa Indonesia to become the main language of their linguistically diverse nation, creating further ethnic diversity between East Timor and the rest of the island.
C. Annexation and migration Following the Second World War, the west of the island (along with the rest of Indonesia) was granted independence from Holland, while East Timor remained under Portuguese control until 1975. Within days of East Timor declaring independence from Portugal in November 1975, Indonesian forces invaded and annexed East Timor, unable to tolerate such an ethnically distinct area within the Indonesian archipelago. And so began the attempts of the Indonesian government to impose Indonesian culture on the East Timorese. It did so through a variety of means. One of the most significant of these was the Transmigration Scheme, which was operating throughout the country of Indonesia. The result of this in East Timor was the settlement of some 150,000 Muslims (into a population of around 650,000) from other parts of Indonesia, and the building of mosques for them to worship in (due to the fact that the Muslim population of East Timor had been so small, prior to this there had hardly been any mosques in East Timor). An East Timorese refugee family: Thousands This immigration of Muslims into East Timor should also be seen have fled the violence in the context of the forced emigration of East Timorese refugees in the face of the expanding violence that was gripping the nation (see also inset for further details on this). It is estimated that in 1999 alone, just before East Timor won its independence, that over 200,000 East Timorese were forced out into the west in tents, with no food, water or medicine. The combined effect of this immigration and emigration was to increase the ethnic diversity within East Timor by increasing the proportion of Muslims from Indonesia in the population.
Today, after decades of violent and brutal civil war which have left up to one quarter of the island’s population dead, East Timor is an independent state, and a relatively peaceful place, under the supervision of the UN. According to one UN source, the new government is ‘committed to government…that fosters national unity and tolerates diversity’, a diversity that can be traced to past processes of migration, colonisation and annexation.
A2 Ethnic Diversity - Lurgan College Geography Department