Cultural diversity and social inequalities

Abstract

In recent decades, cultural diversity in West European societies has, in terms of religions, languages, ethnic wegroups, transnational ties, and countries of origin, once more undergone immense growth. The argument advanced here is that while modes of incorporation such as assimilation and multiculturalism emphasize the social integration of migrants in the host societies on a national scale, the vague term diversity harbors innovative measures in two respects. Firstly, diversity not only addresses the incorporation of migrants, but also how the organizations of dominant society deal with cultural pluralism. Secondly, diversity can then be understood both as an individual competence of migrants as members of organizations, and as a set of programs which organizations adopt to address cultural pluralism. Yet if diversity is understood as going beyond a mere management technique, the question arises how social inequality can be dealt with. Existing approaches such as "boundary making" usually conflate characteristics of diversity with social inequality itself. One answer solution to this problem is a social mechanismic approach which traces the production of inequalities out of manifold markers of diversity. As an example, the analysis focuses on the intersection a new form of diversity, namely transnationality as a way of life, with other markers of heterogeneity.