Trigger words: ethnic (2) ethnicity
Indicator sentences: The concept of ethnicity isn't very defined.
Negotiation parts: "I don't understand it so it's just an arbitrary thing". That's flawed logic, and in this case perhaps even ignorant. I've heard a similar argument to deconstruct ethnicity and while there are many valid points, I think it's naive at times. There's a separation between what I see as physical ethnicity and identified ethnicity (not real terms, just what I could come up with). I understand someone can I identify as Swedish and not have ancestry from that region/history and I believe if you can assimilate into a country that well that you can identify with the culture, language, etc. then you have made a great effort and I believe they would be a wonderful addition to the country. But take a Japanese person and a French person and set them side by side and tell me there's no identifiable concept of physical ethnicity.
Trigger words: ethnicity
Indicator sentences: I'd like to see your definition of what does and does not count as an ethnicity.
Negotiation parts: Groups like the Finns would hit all of the notes in my book. I was more taking about Norway than Finland but forgive me if I'm wrong but doesn't Finland have large populations of people with Swedish and Russian ancestry? Forgive me because I don't know much about Finland but hasn't it been ruled by either Sweden or Russia far more than it has been independent in the last thousand years? Just because it is independent now, doesn't mean you can discredit that past, and the experiences of those people. It's hard to say whether or not there are large populations of "Swedish" people in Finland. Swedish as a language was enforced on the people of Sweden in a similar manner to how many Native Americans were forcibly westernized in America and Canada, and even when Finland gained its independence a significant minority of the nation still spoke Swedish as a first language (and in other historical cases, Swedish nobility and gentry moved to Finland, or the Finnish middle class voluntarily learned Swedish to mingle with the elite). Many of them believe they are ethnically Finnish but belong to a separate linguistic community, others believe that they are not Finnish at all, and there's no real consensus. By contrast, the Russian population of exceedingly small and recent, making up approximately 1% of the population, having increased ten times from 0.1% since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. As a whole the majority of Finland is a homogenous state, especially if you adhere to the belief that the Swedish-speaking minority are ethnically Finnish. Furthermore, a ethnicity does not need to have an independent nation-state to exist. I am descended in part from both staunch Catalan and Quebecois nationalist branches in my family: Catalonia has not been an independent country since the 14th century and Quebec has never been independent. Despite that, the Catalans and Quebecois maintain separate, distinct ethnic identities based on culture, art, history, language and consanguinity.