Racial Minorities in government outside Western Europe and the Americas

[ꙮ]

I recently read through the thread on Korea's election and saw that the first ethnic non-Asian was elected to the South Korean legislature this year: Ihn Yo-han, descendant of 19th century American missionaries. I also happened to see today that there is a half-Rwandan member of the Ukrainian Parliament, Zhan Beleniuk.

The Americas and Western Europe have historically seen high levels of immigration and population movement, so the existence of minorities in government in those places seems less notable to me. If anything Korea has the exact opposite reputation, I was quite surprised to see that a naturalized citizen had been elected. Are there other examples of minorities in government in countries outside these areas?

[ꙮ]

I suppose South Africa would be one obvious example, I know there are still plenty of White politicians there. I know there also used to be 2 seats in the Indian Parliament reserved for Anglo-Indians which were only abolished in the last 5 years (bizarre it took that long given anglo-Indians make up an infinitesimal proportion of the Indian population nowadays).

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I recall hearing about a member of the Thai Parliament who was the daughter of a mixed American-Thai couple, and looked more white than Asian.

[Oryxslayer]

I think this depends on the type of group you are asking about: minorities who have been present for a very long time, or those who are recent immigrant populations?

I ask because there are plenty of examples of the former, and it usually leads to ethnic political groupings in some fashion. The Chinese populations scattered across Southeast Asia - most who are descendants of a merchets from centuries ago, but some who arrived through colonial policies - are a classic example. Or countries in Africa where there is no true ethnic majority, just many large and allied/competing minorities who are majorities in specific regions.

[Storr]

There’s Guy Scott. He was acting president of Zambia in 2014-15 after the previous President died in office. Both of his parents were immigrants from the UK during the colonial period. But they were both pro-Independence and thus stayed after the colonial period ended.

Lol: “Referring to a 2012 meeting with former U.S. President George W. Bush (who sponsors various charity initiatives in Zambia), he said, "when they introduced me as Vice President, he thought they were kidding.”“

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Scott

[wnwnwn]

Do black jewish oe druze Knesset members count?

[RI]

Various Chinese-descending politicians in Africa and Eastern Europe:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihhail_K%C3%B5lvart
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Ping
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandra_Wi%C5%9Bniewska
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Wang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenia_Shi-Chia_Chang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherry_Chen_(politician)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiaan-Bin_Huang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fay_Chung

[Storr]

Various Chinese-descending politicians in Africa and Eastern Europe:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihhail_K%C3%B5lvart
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Ping
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandra_Wi%C5%9Bniewska
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Wang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenia_Shi-Chia_Chang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherry_Chen_(politician)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiaan-Bin_Huang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fay_Chung

That reminded me of the Koryo-saram in various ex-Soviet countries:

Alexey Tsoy Kazakhstan Minister of Health 2020-21
Vitaly Fen Uzbekistan Ambassador to South Korea 1995-2013
Oleksandr Sin Mayor of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine 2010-15
Vitaly Kim Governor of Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine 2020-Present

[TML]

Japan once had a Finnish-born man (who moved to Japan as an adult) as one of its councilors in the Diet.

[Sol]

There's ofc Sonia Gandhi.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

During apartheid South Africa had a tricameral system, with one chamber for whites, one of “colored” (Indians, mixed race mostly), and blacks to “manage their own affairs” for the last ten years

There are ten Arab members of the Knesset

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

This is "cheating" but I think you can find large numbers in Australasia and Malaysia/Singapore/Indonesia.

[Ragnaroni]

Zambia's white prime Minister in 2014 or so. Only reason I know this is that my dad had a contractor job there during those years.
.

[mileslunn]

I can think of a few.

Israel - have Arabs and amongst Jews have mix of Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, Sephardic, and even Beta Israel.

South Africa - Have multiple white politicians

Mauritius - Have South Asian, Chinese, Black, and white

Kazakhstan - Have some whites, those of Russian descent mainly although declining as their share of population following.

India - You do have some who are more East Asian in appearance but they are indigenous to India not immigrants as in the Himalayas people have very different appearances than rest of India

Malaysia & Singapore - You have Chinese, Malays, and Indians

Indonesia - While also indigenous, you have Papuans who are racially different from rest of Indonesia

Taiwan - Pretty sure you have a few Aborigines in parliament

Australia & NZ - They are more like Western Europe and Americas.

[David Hume]

There’s Guy Scott. He was acting president of Zambia in 2014-15 after the previous President died in office. Both of his parents were immigrants from the UK during the colonial period. But they were both pro-Independence and thus stayed after the colonial period ended.

Lol: “Referring to a 2012 meeting with former U.S. President George W. Bush (who sponsors various charity initiatives in Zambia), he said, "when they introduced me as Vice President, he thought they were kidding.”“

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Scott

Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto, the son of Japanese immigrants became President of Peru.

[wnwnwn]

There’s Guy Scott. He was acting president of Zambia in 2014-15 after the previous President died in office. Both of his parents were immigrants from the UK during the colonial period. But they were both pro-Independence and thus stayed after the colonial period ended.

Lol: “Referring to a 2012 meeting with former U.S. President George W. Bush (who sponsors various charity initiatives in Zambia), he said, "when they introduced me as Vice President, he thought they were kidding.”“

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Scott

Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto, the son of Japanese immigrants became President of Peru.

Peru is in the Americas