Coping with Diversity in Europe, India and China

Peter van der Veer, Professor, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen

This paper focuses on a challenge that Europe and Asia have in common, namely dealing with growing cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity, especially in urban areas. More and more migrants come to live in cities across the globe. Questions of citizenship, identity and national security are raised in connection to both internal and international migration to the cities of Europe and Asia. New forms of communication make these migrations different from the past. Europe and Asia may learn from each other’s experiences in coping with diversity in a postcolonial world.