Editorial: Special issue on protecting and including ‘new’ and ‘old’ minorities

Abstract

Questions concerning the rights of minorities and the preservation of social cohesion in ethnically diverse societies are among the most salient on the political agenda of many States. The growing diversity of national communities has generated pressures for States to create and adopt new models to accommodate diversity. Migration is becoming an increasingly important reality for many sub-national autonomous territories where traditional-historical groups (the so-called ‘old minorities’) live, such as Catalonia, South Tyrol, Scotland, Flanders, the Basque Country, and Quebec. Some of these territories have attracted migrants for decades, while others have only recently experienced significant migration inflows. The presence of old minorities makes the management of migration issues more complex.