Question

What is a minority group? How are minority groups created (expansion / migration)

Answer 1

Minority group is a group of people that because of their physical or cultural characteristics, are singled out from the others in the society in which they live. They become subordinate to a more bigger and dominate group and hence are a minority. They coexist but subordination is what they work under.

A minority group has 5 characteristics that show that the community actaully is considered a minority group. They are:

• the members or people that belong there suffer from discrimination and subordination
• they have physical and/or cultural traits that set them apart, and these which are disapproved by the dominant group
• they have a shared sense of collective identity and common burdens through which they come together.
• they have socially shared rules about who belongs and who does not determine minority status
• they have a tendency to marry within the group.

MInority groups are usually created through the process of migration. This is transfer of population by emigration (leaving a country to settle in another) and Immigration (coming to a country) may be voluntary. This is the main reason as to why people are put in a minority group as they would look and act differently from the people that belong to the land which would make them ecome a more inferior and subordinate group.