[Music]
hi so 2016 was not a good year for
politics in my family like many
Americans I spent much of the year
obsessively following the u.s.
presidential elections and like many
Brits my husband did the same for brexit
in both cases our side lost so both of
these votes demonstrate among other
things a fierce backlash against
immigration and multiculturalism a
backlash that we can see in a number of
other Western countries and for me as
for many of us this backlash is deeply
disturbing so for me this is not only as
somebody of diverse background I happen
to be of Japanese American and
Scandinavian American descent but it’s
also as a political scientist and I
Fetty issues of ethnic politics and
conflict around the world almost as
disturbing for me is the political
polarization that’s emerged around these
issues so I’ve heard a lot of talk for
example about the extent to which racism
played a role in the recent votes and
I’m not saying that it didn’t and I’m
not saying it’s not something worth
studying and considering and seriously
addressing but at the same time this
sort of labeling and dismissing of all
of those who voted for the other side
that often not always but often goes
along with this discussion I think is
also dangerous and as a result it’s
becoming harder and harder to see a
common ground from which we can all move
forward so as a researcher what insights
can I offer from research into this
polarized debate so I’d like to
highlight three points the first point
is that diversity does have wanted and
unwanted effects and in fact
conventional wisdom among many
economists and political scientists has
been that diversity is linked to
conflict under development and
for governance and in particular a
number of scholars point to sub-saharan
Africa which is the most ethnically
diverse region in the world and they
argue that this has something to do with
the fact that it’s also the poorest so
this relationship the idea that
diversity poses these big challenges has
been called one of the most powerful
hypotheses in political economy and it’s
actually been argued that it is so
well-established empirically that the
evidence is so solid that we should stop
studying whether it exists and we should
instead focus on studying why it exists
however there is also a growing body of
research that challenges this
conventional wisdom so in a recent
article looking at Zambia for example my
colleagues and I show that there’s
actually a positive relationship between
diversity and better health outcomes
evidence of a diversity dividend
what’s more other researchers have shown
that this widely believed negative
relationship doesn’t exist in places
with stronger institutions or with
overarching community identities or
community spirit if you will and still
other research shows that they’re
actually direct benefits to diversity in
terms of innovation so the magic of
Silicon Valley so this story goes owes a
lot to the fact that such a high
percentage of its population was born
outside of the United States what we
should all be focusing on then is how to
create and nurture policies and
institutions that support diversity
benefits and minimize its costs and to
do this we need clear sighted realistic
understandings about what about
diversity precisely makes it sometimes
beneficial and sometimes problematic so
I want to talk about difference and this
is my second point
what about diversity precisely makes it
sometimes problematic why is it a
challenge
well many arguments boil down to just
this
ethnic and religious difference can
imply conflict over cultural norms
beliefs preferences value systems and
this conflict can be destructive and
costly for societies I think a lot of
good examples here relate to language in
schools and in government we might think
of countries as different as Canada and
Cameroon for instance which have both
had major long-running debates over
whether English or French should be
primary such differences create not only
outright conflicts but also
inefficiencies or extra costs so if we
take the language example it probably
does cost a bit more to provide services
in two languages rather than one still
these sorts of inefficiencies can also
often be managed made to work well and
lead to new things and here I can give
you a personal example so when my
husband and I were planning our wedding
a huge sticking point for us was the
service we’re not religious either of us
but we both wanted something that
reflected our cultural backgrounds and
so no one single Church would do and as
a result we had the only Buddhist
Lutheran Muslim wedding ceremony that
I’ve ever attended and it happened to be
officiated by chance by a Jewish
Catholic convert to Buddhism so so it
was long it was a pain to plan it was
probably the most complicated ceremony a
lot of our guests that ever attended but
it was also at least in my opinion
original and beautiful and suggestive of
some of the innovation potential of
diversity of course differences can’t
always be smoothed over right there
aren’t always win-win solutions and when
difference coincides with disadvantage
we have a particularly thorny problem
and this is my third point so when
groups are separated not only by culture
but also by socioeconomic status by how
much money they make by the type of jobs
they have
by their levels of education by their
power and their access to power this
sort of inequality creates additional
barriers to their interaction I think
it’s important to note here that this
inequality affects not only minority
groups in society but also majority
groups so not only african-americans in
the United States for instance but also
Americans of European descent not only
migrants in Europe but also native
European populations but rather than
diversity being the central problem the
central problem is inequality inequality
intersecting with diversity and this is
what we should all be focusing on
addressing so when I say this I imagine
many of you are thinking affirmative
action because this is the policy
response that I think most of us are
most familiar with here and I think this
is one option that should be considered
seriously considered but there are a
number of other policy options and we
might think just to give one example
about promoting equal access to
education starting from early childhood
so all in all individuals on both sides
need to recognize that this debate over
diversity isn’t as simple as saying
diversity is good or diversity is bad it
can have benefits and it can have costs
and for liberal multiculturalists for
people sort of like me it means
recognizing that many of those who voted
for Trump and brexit do have some
concerns over difference and over
disadvantage that are worth considering
and worth speaking to and for Trump and
brexit supporters it can mean
recognizing that diversity isn’t just
something to manage it’s something to
value something that brings value I
think regardless of where you stand then
let’s try to look at the evidence
there’s a lot of research here the talk
just skims the surface
and let’s try to move away from these
politically entrenched positions I think
this can be really hard I know and it
will require tolerance and empathy and
kindness on all sides but I think and I
hope that in this way we can rebuild and
build a common ground a place from which
we can all move forward thank you
hi so 2016 was not a good year for
politics in my family like many
Americans I spent much of the year
obsessively following the u.s.
presidential elections and like many
Brits my husband did the same for brexit
in both cases our side lost so both of
these votes demonstrate among other
things a fierce backlash against
immigration and multiculturalism a
backlash that we can see in a number of
other Western countries and for me as
for many of us this backlash is deeply
disturbing so for me this is not only as
somebody of diverse background I happen
to be of Japanese American and
Scandinavian American descent but it’s
also as a political scientist and I
Fetty issues of ethnic politics and
conflict around the world almost as
disturbing for me is the political
polarization that’s emerged around these
issues so I’ve heard a lot of talk for
example about the extent to which racism
played a role in the recent votes and
I’m not saying that it didn’t and I’m
not saying it’s not something worth
studying and considering and seriously
addressing but at the same time this
sort of labeling and dismissing of all
of those who voted for the other side
that often not always but often goes
along with this discussion I think is
also dangerous and as a result it’s
becoming harder and harder to see a
common ground from which we can all move
forward so as a researcher what insights
can I offer from research into this
polarized debate so I’d like to
highlight three points the first point
is that diversity does have wanted and
unwanted effects and in fact
conventional wisdom among many
economists and political scientists has
been that diversity is linked to
conflict under development and
for governance and in particular a
number of scholars point to sub-saharan
Africa which is the most ethnically
diverse region in the world and they
argue that this has something to do with
the fact that it’s also the poorest so
this relationship the idea that
diversity poses these big challenges has
been called one of the most powerful
hypotheses in political economy and it’s
actually been argued that it is so
well-established empirically that the
evidence is so solid that we should stop
studying whether it exists and we should
instead focus on studying why it exists
however there is also a growing body of
research that challenges this
conventional wisdom so in a recent
article looking at Zambia for example my
colleagues and I show that there’s
actually a positive relationship between
diversity and better health outcomes
evidence of a diversity dividend
what’s more other researchers have shown
that this widely believed negative
relationship doesn’t exist in places
with stronger institutions or with
overarching community identities or
community spirit if you will and still
other research shows that they’re
actually direct benefits to diversity in
terms of innovation so the magic of
Silicon Valley so this story goes owes a
lot to the fact that such a high
percentage of its population was born
outside of the United States what we
should all be focusing on then is how to
create and nurture policies and
institutions that support diversity
benefits and minimize its costs and to
do this we need clear sighted realistic
understandings about what about
diversity precisely makes it sometimes
beneficial and sometimes problematic so
I want to talk about difference and this
is my second point
what about diversity precisely makes it
sometimes problematic why is it a
challenge
well many arguments boil down to just
this
ethnic and religious difference can
imply conflict over cultural norms
beliefs preferences value systems and
this conflict can be destructive and
costly for societies I think a lot of
good examples here relate to language in
schools and in government we might think
of countries as different as Canada and
Cameroon for instance which have both
had major long-running debates over
whether English or French should be
primary such differences create not only
outright conflicts but also
inefficiencies or extra costs so if we
take the language example it probably
does cost a bit more to provide services
in two languages rather than one still
these sorts of inefficiencies can also
often be managed made to work well and
lead to new things and here I can give
you a personal example so when my
husband and I were planning our wedding
a huge sticking point for us was the
service we’re not religious either of us
but we both wanted something that
reflected our cultural backgrounds and
so no one single Church would do and as
a result we had the only Buddhist
Lutheran Muslim wedding ceremony that
I’ve ever attended and it happened to be
officiated by chance by a Jewish
Catholic convert to Buddhism so so it
was long it was a pain to plan it was
probably the most complicated ceremony a
lot of our guests that ever attended but
it was also at least in my opinion
original and beautiful and suggestive of
some of the innovation potential of
diversity of course differences can’t
always be smoothed over right there
aren’t always win-win solutions and when
difference coincides with disadvantage
we have a particularly thorny problem
and this is my third point so when
groups are separated not only by culture
but also by socioeconomic status by how
much money they make by the type of jobs
they have
by their levels of education by their
power and their access to power this
sort of inequality creates additional
barriers to their interaction I think
it’s important to note here that this
inequality affects not only minority
groups in society but also majority
groups so not only african-americans in
the United States for instance but also
Americans of European descent not only
migrants in Europe but also native
European populations but rather than
diversity being the central problem the
central problem is inequality inequality
intersecting with diversity and this is
what we should all be focusing on
addressing so when I say this I imagine
many of you are thinking affirmative
action because this is the policy
response that I think most of us are
most familiar with here and I think this
is one option that should be considered
seriously considered but there are a
number of other policy options and we
might think just to give one example
about promoting equal access to
education starting from early childhood
so all in all individuals on both sides
need to recognize that this debate over
diversity isn’t as simple as saying
diversity is good or diversity is bad it
can have benefits and it can have costs
and for liberal multiculturalists for
people sort of like me it means
recognizing that many of those who voted
for Trump and brexit do have some
concerns over difference and over
disadvantage that are worth considering
and worth speaking to and for Trump and
brexit supporters it can mean
recognizing that diversity isn’t just
something to manage it’s something to
value something that brings value I
think regardless of where you stand then
let’s try to look at the evidence
there’s a lot of research here the talk
just skims the surface
and let’s try to move away from these
politically entrenched positions I think
this can be really hard I know and it
will require tolerance and empathy and
kindness on all sides but I think and I
hope that in this way we can rebuild and
build a common ground a place from which
we can all move forward thank you
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