According to official statistics, there are countries that are ranked very high for being ethnically and racially diverse, while others are considered homogeneous, not so diverse. I have never been keen on statistics, they can be adjusted or skewed to suit the needs. That is true of just about any statistics.
When it comes to countries around the world and their make up, sometimes statistics can be very misleading. For example, according to the "official" statistics, the most ethnically diverse countries in the world are located in Africa, but leading theme all is Papua New Guinea located in South Pacific! Now that was quite surprising to me. African countries and Papua New Guinea are diverse in a sense because they are made up of numerous tribes. These tribes may be warring with each other and considered different, but in reality they are ethnically and most certainly racially, the same! So, in my view, that is not a very accurate take on the make up of diverse population! The same holds true of the opposite, the homogeneous countries.
The United States and Canada fall roughly in the middle of the chart for countries that are diverse/homogeneous. Yet, Russia is considered homogeneous! Now that one is hard to swallow when you consider the make up of Russian population. Of course, most see Russians as blonde blue-eyed Slavic types, but there is a very large population of "Russians" that are ethnically Asiatic, Turkic, and in between! China too is considered homogeneous. In case of China, an argument can be made that China is homogeneous in that about 90% of the population is made up of Han Chinese. But there are some 56 different ethnic/racial groups also residing in China speaking 292 different dialects or languages!
Because Han Chinese are the majority and the so-called ruling element, when census takers ask which group you belong to, you can bet that anyone who can lay claim to being Han Chinese will say so, even if they are only part Han! In other cases, someone who is not even of Han Chinese background but has taken a Chinese name and sort of "naturalized" themselves would be considered Han Chinese. Short of a DNA test, it would be hard to tell someone like that apart from a "real" Han Chinese. If a DNA test was made of the Chinese population, I think this whole business of statistics proving Han Chinese majority is going to crumble!
In the same token, Japan and Korea are considered homogeneous. In case of Korea, the North Korea is closer to being homogeneous since it has been closed off to the outside world for 70 years! But South Korea has seen a steady presence of foreigners for the same length of time. Americans are the largest number both in civilian population and the military. Then there are Japanese, Chinese, as well as Russian and European businessmen and scholars who come to Korea. There is bound to be some infusion of new blood! This is especially true today where travel is so easy and quick compared to the past. Homogeneous societies developed largely because of difficulty of reaching that particular country for geographic or political reasons. That is no longer the case in most instances.
South Korea has a national DNA bank that was established to help reunite families that were split up during Korean War. Many South Koreans contribute their DNA samples to the bank to try to reunite with long lost family members. It has been discovered that many of the younger South Koreans today have none Korean DNA in their blood! It is mostly the result of mixing of Koreans with American soldiers who have been present in that country for over 70 years!
On the other side of the world, Greece has always been considered a homogeneous country. To a great extent it is homogeneous. Religion has much to do with this, and Greece is predominantly of Orthodox faith, some 90% of the population. But, who is to say that you can't convert to Greek Orthodox faith and, therefore, shed your previous identity of another culture? When I was in Greece in the early 1980s, I was rather surprised to find people who were of varied ethnic/racial background who became Greek by choice, by conversion to Greek Orthodox faith and accepting Greek nationality. Some retained their old faith, be it Christian (Catholic or Protestant) or Muslim. But they were all Greek nationals and considered Greek.
One example of this ethnic/racial diversity in Greece was demonstrated to me by a small group of hunters that I met while on a hunting trip in central Greece. The group of eight Greek hunters that I hunted with, were made up of basically five different ethnic groups! There were two brothers who were of Italian descent, both born in Italy and came to Greece as small children. One Spaniard who was a baritone in Greek National Opera and became a Greek national. Two (unrelated) men of Turkish descent who originally came from along the border with Turkey. One Albanian who became a Greek national fairly recently, and one man of Yugoslav descent who's family moved to Greece shortly after World War Two. There was only one guy in that bunch who could lay claim to being Greek for several generations!
All of them got along just fine and all considered themselves Greeks. In fact, the Italian brothers, the Rossi brothers, were constantly cracking jokes about Italians, something that Greeks appeared to enjoy doing! The opera singer, who was not a very good shot, would shoot at flushing partridge and miss cleanly. He would salute the departing unscathed bird in Spanish, "Adios, Chiquita!" he would say each time, and everyone would laugh. No one thought of him as being Spanish, he was Greek to everyone like themselves!
So, it is obvious to me that all this talk about homogeneous societies or ethnically diverse societies, doesn't really mean much. I suppose short of conducting extensive DNA tests, it would be really hard to prove which country or society is really diverse or homogeneous.
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