ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter will be on what the literature says about ethnic identity and interethnic identity. Hall (1996) argues that identity is constructed through recognition of common or shared characteristics with another person or group. The concept of identity is a strategic and positional one. He believes that, in modern times, identities are never fixed or unified but ‘increasingly fragmented and fractured; never singular but multiply constructed across different, often intersecting and antagonistic, discourse, practices and positions. They are subject to a radical historicisation, and are constantly in the process of change and formation” (1996, p. 4). Identities are about using resources such as history, language and culture and about becoming, not being ‘“who were are, or where we came from” as much as what we might become and how we represent ourselves. Identities are therefore constituted within, not outside representation’ (1996, p. 4).
