The social and cultural demography of minorities

This paper briefly introduces the social and cultural demography of minorities. Summarizing the papers presented in this special issue, we focalize on the methodological challenge: sampling strategies, data construction, analytical tools, and their implications in terms of results. It is essential to always explicitly address the issue of the interrelations between the definition of a subpopulation and the demographic peculiarity of this group. We conclude on the necessity to explore more systematically the question of multiple affiliations.