ABSTRACT
Increasing ethnic and cultural heterogeneity in countries in the West - the result of increased recent immigration - has led to an interest in multiculturalism as a likely model for societal arrangements in the future. In a multicultural state, different cultures are allowed to flourish and no attempt is made to assimilate the individuals in these cultures into a 'mainstream9 culture (usually the culture of the majority). Such a policy has the merit of recognizing that individual lives are lived within diverse ethnic and cultural frameworks. However, multiculturalism is not without its questions and dangers. For example, should group-differentiated rights be accorded to the various minority traditions? Or should one intervene in the longstanding practices of minority traditions (for example, compulsory arranged marriages, female circumcision)?
