The second edition of The Ethnicity Reader offers a comprehensive and engaging selection of readings for students of sociology, politics, international relations and race relations. Updated with a large proportion of new readings and extended editorial summaries, the reader analyses the ethnic component present in nationalism, multiculturalism and migration, making it indispensable to those seeking to understand the relevance of ethnicity as one of the most prominent forces in the modern world. Drawing on a wide range of examples, the selections included examine theories of nationalism and consider issues of ethnic integration and conflict in the USA, Middle East, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Quebec and Catalonia among other countries and regions. The concept of ethnicity, however, is discussed not only in relation to group rights in existing nation-states: many of the selections deal with the role of ethnicity in groups which are not nationalist at all but for which ethnicity is an important factor in the process of migration, extending the focus to transnational communities in a globalized world.

Contributors include Benedict Anderson, Etienne Balibar, James Clifford, Eric Hobsbawm, Michael Keating, Will Kymlicka, Tariq Modood, John Rex, Anthony D. Smith, Michel Wieviorka, and Franke Wilmer.