Frank Salter - Diversity Research

Diversity Research

From the mid-1990s Salter began to research ethnic diversity in addition to organizations; these studies focused on ethnic mafias, middlemen and freedom fighters (Risky Transactions, 2002) and the impact of ethnic diversity on welfare states (Welfare, Ethnicity, & Altruism, 2004). The question asked: can ethnic altruism be adaptive? Salter’s findings confirmed the view advanced by Pierre van den Berghe in his book The Ethnic Phenomenon, that shared ethnicity is extended kinship at the genetic level, that members of an ethnic group are related in the same way that members of a family are related, though less strongly. One viewpoint is that Salter's findings fail to take into account a key assumption of Hamilton's Rule—no selection on an allele for altruism. Due to this assumption, Hamilton's Rule is only applicable to closely related kin; for more distantly related kin, the relatedness term is unreliable. It is currently undocumented as to what they results are in violating this assumption, but according to this assumption one can only apply Hamilton's Rule to closely related kin. Research is ongoing to determine the effects when extended towards distant kin.

However, others believe that this narrow interpretation of Hamilton’s Rule is incomplete. In his classic 1964 paper Hamilton did indeed limit his rule to close kin; however, by 1970 he had revised his theory and argued that genetic similarity is sufficient basis for Hamilton's Rule to operate, a view supported by Grafen. In addition, Salter’s definition of “ethnic genetic interests” in “On Genetic Interests” is independent of Hamilton’s Rule and derives from differences in gene frequencies between populations. Salter argues that investment in ethnic genetic interests is a rational choice dependent on individual values. Salter’s realization that ethnicity is extended kinship at the genetic level led to his conclusion that individuals have a large genetic stake in their ethnic groups, which could help explain the ubiquitousness of ethnic identity, solidarity and conflict from tribal times to the present. From the late 1990s Salter began studying the strategies used in group competition, with a particular interest in win-win strategies, those that would be adaptive to all groups. The outcome of this analysis was Salter’s theory of “Universal Nationalism,” described in his book On Genetic Interests: Family, Ethnicity, and Humanity in an Age of Mass Migration.

Salter has argued that "multi-ethnic societies are often confronted with the problem of discrimination and group conflict." He has written:

More ethnically homogeneous nations are better able to build public goods, are more democratic, less corrupt, have higher productivity and less inequality, are more trusting and care more for the disadvantaged, develop social and economic capital faster, have lower crime rates, are more resistant to external shocks, and are better global citizens, for example by giving more foreign aid. Moreover, they are less prone to civil war, the greatest source of violent death in the twentieth century.

Salter has also argued that it is often the original majority group who suffer the most as a result of immigration-induced ethnic diversity:

They are pushed out of areas of employment and business; they suffer from the higher rates of crime often shown by immigrant communities; they become the minority is poorer suburbs; and they sense a threat to their continuity as a people belonging to a particular place. They observe that the newcomers have a different group identity, one that excludes them, and that where there were few, now there are many. They sense, sometimes with justification, that they are losing their country.