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Inside Out The politics of ethnically
enumerating the nation

• Tahu Kukutai
• Stanford University

Victor Thompson Stanford University

• Conference on Social Statistics Ethnic
  Diversity,
• Montreal, Canada, 6 8 December 2007

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Motivating the problem

• Ubiquity of ethnicity but variation in state
  processes of recognition. WHY?
• Case-studies emphasis on dynamics endogenous to
  states
• Problem 1 Lacks generalizability
• Problem II Ignores global influences

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The Politics of Ethnic Enumeration

• Scientific rationality vs. political negotiation
• Political process top down vs bottom up
• Typology of ethnic classification regimes -
  centered on state motivations (Rallu et al.)
• Search for systematic patterns across states
  (Morning)

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Inside Out An alternative approach
Ethnic Cognizance
Inside -Structure -Groups
State Eumeration Practices
Outside -HR Instruments -INGOs
Identity Legitimization
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Pressures from the inside state-centered

• STRUCTURE
• historical context of state formation
• resources
• GROUPS
• immigrants
• ethnic contenders

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Pressures from the outside world society

• Integration into global civil society and world
  culture
• international organizations (INGOs)
• human rights instruments
• Isomorphism in practices
• Expose states to global monitoring and
  sanctioning
• Opens political opportunities for ethnic activists

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Hypotheses

• INTERNAL Ethnic recognition
• immigrants
• foreign workers -
• ethnic contenders
• resources
• post-1965 sovereignty
• EXTERNAL Ethnic recognition
• ICERD signatory - or
• ICERD commitment
• INGOs membership

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Global Enumeration Database on Ethnic Diversity

• Compiled dataset of ethno-racial and civic
  identity questions asked in the 2000 Census round
  (1995-2004)
• Extended to include countries that have
  population registers
• Coded a wide range of questions

• Nationality
• Citizenship
• Birthplace
• Immigration status

• Race
• Ethnicity Ethnic Origins
• Ancestry, descent
• Indigeneity
• Tribe
• Language, Mother tongue

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Census Coverage

• Total located in 2000 Census Round
• 184 out of 195 states located in the 2000 Census
  Round
• 4 had no census available
• 7 remain missing
• Population registries accounted for 8 (n14) of
  the sample

• complete by region
• Africa 79
• North America 97
• South America 100
• Asia 97
• Europe 96
• Oceania 96

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Modeling Ethnic Enumeration

• Two models
• Ethnic Cognizance
• Race, ethnicity, ancestry, indegeneity/tribe, or
  mother-tongue
• Exclude birthplace, citizenship and religion
• Identity Legitimization
• Formal recognition of specific ethnic groups on
  census

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Commitment to Recognizing Ethnicity Across Regions

• Percentage of States that Recognize at Least One
  Ethnic Recognition
• Africa 50.0
• Europe 48.9
• South America 80.0
• Asia 67.6
• North America 85.7
• Oceania 63.7

• Percentage of states that formally legitimate
  ethnic identities
• Africa 20.0
• Europe 35.6
• South America 60.0
• Asia 37.8
• North America 85.7
• Oceania 57.1

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Summary of Findings

• Internal
• Those emanating from groups
• Those associated with structural conditions
• External
• Commitment
• INGOs

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Conclusions

• Ethnic Enumeration is generalizable
• Global phenomena
• Despite the local nuances of ethnicity we are
  able to extrapolate effects that go beyond ad hoc
  explanations of state enumeration practices
• Exogenous factors matter