Page 430 - Cultures and Organizations

Intercultural Encounters 395

cess and the role of various parties in it. From what types of families are
students and teachers recruited? Are educational systems elitist or antielit-
ist? Visiting U.S. professors in a Latin American country may think they
contribute to the economic development of the country, while in actual
fact they contribute only to the continuation of elite privileges. What role
do employers play in the educational system? In Switzerland and Ger-
many, traineeships in industry or business are a respected alternative to
a university education, allowing people to reach the highest positions, but
this is not the case in most other countries. What role do the state and/or
religious bodies play? In some countries (France, Russia) the government
prescribes the curriculum in painstaking detail; in others the teachers are

free to define their own. In countries in which both private and public
schools exist, the private sector may be for the elites (United States) or for
the dropouts (the Netherlands, Switzerland). Where does the money for the
schools come from? How well are teachers paid, and what is their social
status? In China teachers are traditionally highly respected but poorly
paid. In Britain the status of teachers has traditionally been low; in Ger-
many and Japan, high.

Minorities, Migrants, and Refugees

What are considered minorities in a country is a matter of defi nition. It
depends on hard facts, including the distribution of the population, the eco-
nomic situation of population groups, and the intensity of the interrelations
among groups. It also depends on cultural values (especially uncertainty
avoidance and collectivism, which facilitate labeling groups as outsiders)
and on cultural practices (languages, felt and attributed identities, inter-
pretations of history). These factors affect the ideology of the majority and

sometimes also of the minority, as well as their level of mutual prejudice
and discrimination. Minority problems are always also, and often primar-
ily, majority problems.
Minorities in the world include a wide variety of groups, of widely
varying status, from underclass to entrepreneurial and/or academic elite:

■ Original populations overrun by immigrants (for example, native
Americans and Australian aborigines)
■ Descendants of economical, political, or ethnic migrants or refugees
(now the majorities in the United States and Australia, among other
countries)