Divisive effects of official cultural pluralism

Official cultural pluralism exists in countries where there are two or more indigenous cultural groups. Because of the need for fair representation of each group, administrative procedure may become very slow and overloaded with personnel. The official recognition of more than one culture may serve to keep segregation and discrimination intact rather than integrating the groups into the national whole. Party politics may be divided on the basis of culture.

The French Government of 1993 was of the view that anything that emphasized cultural and religious differences feed racism and xenophobia among the French. It did not see the French as racists, but wanted foreigners to become French and adopt the country's traditions, laws and language, adding that in the last two decades, Arab and African immigrants and their French-born children have been concentrated in suburbs around Paris and other French cities, and today formed an underclass that distrusted, and was distrusted by, French society. The concern over fundamentalist Muslim influences led to the exemplary suspension from public school of two Muslim girls who insisted on wearing head scarves.