This book takes the reader through key analytical debates drawing on a range of case study material from around the globe, including: Britain and migration; America as a post-slavery society; Hawai'i as a land dispossession society; and Malaysia as a 'plural' post-colonial society. In doing so, it addresses the question of whether there is a universal resurgence of ethnicity and coolly addresses competing theories of ethnicity and racism. Providing the reader with a clear conceptual frame within which to see long-standing debates afresh, it will be of relevance and value to both students in a range of social sciences and to specialists in the field.