ABSTRACT
Symbolic boundaries, cultural differences and ethnic conflicts have gained significance and new meanings in a global situation characterized by a dissolution of traditional political and societal structures. While communications, political and economic interactions increasingly cross the borders of states, nations and ethnic communities, symbolic borders and separate group identities are nevertheless asserted. International migration combines these two tendencies in an exemplary way. In this context, the perceived efforts of migrants to maintain their cultural and ethnic identities are often blamed as a cause of conflict within nation states. What some see as a development that enriches a society’s cultural reservoir, others take as a threat to their own culture and conception of themselves.
