Racial Minorities: Europe

There is no consensus on the definitions of race and ethnicity. However, a common definition of race refers to a group of people who shares a common ancestry, and is differentiated from other groups by a set of phenotypes or observable characteristics such as hair and skin color, height, hair texture, facial characteristics, and others. Ethnicity, on the other hand, refers most commonly to a shared combination of social elements such as religion, culture, language, geography, racial characteristics, and nationality. Although there are marked conceptual differences in the definitions of race and ethnicity, both are often grouped together for [Page 1220]the purposes of social analysis. In terms of international law and policy, race is usually used in a more ample sense, encompassing population groups that ...