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Although globalisation has led to greater movement of people around the world, only a small minority of people are first-generation immigrants. For most people, their sense of identity is heavily based on places – on the local, more than the global. This often involves identifying with a nation state or an ethnic group.
Key Point: Partly because of globalisation, nearly all of the world's nation states are to some extent multi-ethnic. Around 40% of states have more than five significant ethnic groups.
Benedict Anderson points out that national and ethnic communities are what he calls 'imagined communities'. This means they involve people believing that they share an identity with many people who they will never meet or know, and with many of whom they have little in common.
Imagined communities: National and ethnic communities where people believe they share an identity with many others they will never meet or know, often based on a shared national narrative.
There is often a shared national narrative, involving stories about the nation's origins and history, with associated imagery and symbols.
Globalisation has led to some groups feeling that their identities and communities are under threat and that aspects of their culture that they value, such as their language, may disappear. This can lead to a strengthening of nationalism.
Examples of nationalist responses:
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