State-imposed ethnic identities shape social relations in multi-ethnic countries.
Ethnicity is a common thing in countries with many different groups of people. Some countries have special policies to deal with ethnic issues, which can create problems related to differences between ethnic groups. Ethnic identity comes from how different groups interact with each other and with the government. Ethnic-difference identity, on the other hand, is given by the government as part of its way of controlling the population. Both types of identity are created by modern states.