Lithium is a first-line maintenance treatment for bipolar disorder yet delays in diagnosis and lithium initiation remain common. This retrospective cohort study examined whether time to bipolar disorder diagnosis and lithium initiation differ by ethnicity, gender or age among 88 patients at South London and Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust. Delay outcomes were non-normally distributed and log-transformed before analysis. No demographic characteristic was significantly associated with time to lithium initiation. Ethnicity was significantly associated with diagnostic delay, with individuals from minority ethnic groups experiencing longer delays than White individuals (median 556 v. 50.5 days; IQR [89.8, 1342] v. [6.25, 222]), which persisted after adjustment for age, gender, substance use and illness severity, and remained robust to outlier removal. Although social deprivation was not accounted for, these findings suggest possible systematic diagnostic inequities in bipolar disorder, calling for culturally informed diagnostic practices and further investigation in larger, multi-site samples.

COVID-19 was the most recent pandemic to highlight profound ethnic inequities. However, most mathematical epidemiological models do not adequately represent these inequities, limiting the potential for such models to inform equitable public health responses and interventions. This systematic review identifies mathematical models of infectious respiratory disease transmission that report results by ethnic group and surveys the different mathematical modelling approaches used to attempt to capture ethnicity-related outcomes. Only 28 studies met the inclusion criteria, which is rare relative to the volume of infectious disease modelling literature. The most common model frameworks were compartmental models (11 studies), individual-based models (12 studies), and metapopulation models (5 studies). Across these studies, ethnic heterogeneities were represented directly by incorporating some combination of ethnic group population demographics, ethnicity-specific interaction patterns, and ethnicity-specific disease parameters, or indirectly through spatial differences in interaction patterns or disease transmission. Consideration of ethnicity in mathematical models of disease transmission is in its infancy, with only three of the studies published before 2020, but it has the potential to provide improved evidence for public health action that reduces the epidemic burden and inequities across ethnic groups.

In this retrospective cohort study, we assessed the prevalence of post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) and its determinants among six ethnic groups in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. We analysed data from participants of the HELIUS cohort with SARS-CoV-2 infection who answered questions on the presence and duration of COVID-19-related symptoms between May and November 2022. We estimated the prevalence of PCC, defined as having ≥1 of 15 pre-determined COVID-19-related symptoms remaining for at least 3 months after infection, by ethnicity at several timepoints since infection adjusted for age and sex, and assessed determinants of PCC overall using logistic regression. Of 932 infected participants, 31% [95% confidence interval (95%CI): 27%–37%] developed PCC. At 3 months after infection the adjusted prevalence of PCC varied from 17% (95%CI: 13%–24%) in the Dutch-origin group to 41% (95%CI: 34%–48%) in the South-Asian Surinamese group, and was significantly higher among participants of South-Asian Surinamese, Turkish and Moroccan origin compared to those of Dutch origin (all P < 0.001). Participants who were of South-Asian Surinamese origin, older, female, without a vocational education or university degree, or obese were more likely to have PCC. Those of Ghanaian origin or infected during the period of Omicron predominance were less likely to have PCC. There were clear between-ethnic differences in the prevalence of PCC, which was more common in individuals of South-Asian Surinamese, Turkish, and Moroccan origin compared to those of Dutch origin. These differences mirror ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease severity. Certain factors of PCC emerged, while consistent across ethnic groups.

Theories of metaphor must account not only for embodied universals but also for systematic sociocultural variation. Although recent scholarship has highlighted the role of context in metaphor production, the extent to which intersecting macro-social variables shape metaphorical source-domain choice remains underexplored. This study therefore tests the hypothesis that metaphorical source-domain selection is systematically associated with group-level social identity by examining how NATIONHOOD is conceptualised in Nigerian presidential discourse and whether these choices correlate with ethnicity, region, and religion. Using CORNIPS, a 65-year diachronic corpus of Nigerian presidential speeches, and hierarchical log-linear analysis, the study finds that ethnicity emerges as the primary predictor of metaphorical choice. Specifically, leaders from the historically dominant Hausa-Fulani group show a marked preference for metaphors of personification and conflict (NATION AS PERSON, NATION AS WAR), while a minority-group leader favours metaphors of inclusion (NATION AS FAMILY). This suggests that these speakers draw on distinct cognitive models, notably NATION-AS-PERSON/ORGANISM-UNDER-THREAT and NATION-AS-KINSHIP to conceptually structure the nation. Although the findings are situated within specific historical and individual contexts, the study nevertheless shows that metaphorical cognition is meaningfully shaped not only by embodied experience but also by social identity, political history and cultural context.

Being financially prepared for later life can make the difference between living in poverty and not. Existing research in the UK has evidenced gaps in pension protection between working-age individuals from different minority ethnic communities; however, research that examines how ethnicity interacts, specifically with gender and other demographic, health and socio-economic characteristics to affect pension membership, is lacking. Using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study between 2009 and 2023, this paper first examines patterns of continuity and change in pension membership among working-age individuals from minority ethnic groups. Focusing on the most recent wave, the analysis then assesses the importance of ethnicity and gender, alongside other demographic, health, socio-economic and subjective wellbeing factors in explaining individuals’ private pension participation and non-pension savings/investments. The findings show persistent ethnic and gender gaps, with Bangladeshi and Pakistani individuals faring worse than other ethnic groups, and women within such groups faring the worst. Factors indicating better socio-economic and subjective financial situation are associated with a greater likelihood of having a personal pension or expecting to use savings/investments in retirement. The paper critically discusses how current policies address the ethnic gaps in pension membership, and how such gaps can be addressed more effectively in the future.

Racial minority political influence may be jeopardized when constituent subgroups disagree on policy priorities and on the political parties that best represent their interests. In this study, we examine the prevalence of political fracturing—the formation of pluralistic subgroups that coalesce around political ideology, identity, trust, engagement, and issue opinions within broader racial groups—within the Asian American electorate, an increasingly influential minority group. We capitalize on granular data from the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey to assess the prevalence and characterizing features of political fracturing, and we test several possible explanations of political fracturing among Asian Americans, especially those that relate to ethnic variation within the Asian American electorate. Latent class analysis uncovers three distinct classes of roughly equal sizes that broadly align with liberal, conservative, and politically ambivalent groups. Logistic regressions reveal that class membership is predicted by respondent ethnicity, and that age, education, income, and religious identification partly explain effects from ethnicity. These findings uncover evidence of political fracturing among Asian Americans that is not captured by isolated analyses of issue opinion and political participation and suggest that a focus on broad racial categories in minority group politics research may mask considerable political subgroup heterogeneity within minority racial groups.

This article reconsiders the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) “Media Trial” that followed in the wake of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. While both the original trial (2000–03) and its appeal (2007) have been widely analyzed, most observers have approached it as a case against three media bosses. This article suggests that the Media Trial was not only invested in the line between press freedom and criminal hate speech and, in relation to Ferdinand Nahimana, not solely concerned with his role at “hate radio” station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM). Drawing on trial transcripts, other court records, and press coverage of the trial, I show how the tribunal actively interrogated Nahimana’s status as a historian and his research and scholarship as part of its judicial process. As such, I argue that the Media Trial helped codify the notion that Rwandan history had become “deadly” before the genocide and that the Rwandan historical field would need to be fundamentally transformed.

This Special Issue (SI) explores the enduring relationship between race and migration, arguing that race remains a central—yet often underexamined—analytical category in migration studies. Although overtly racialized migration policies have declined since the mid-20th century, racial dynamics continue to shape mobility regimes, access to rights, and perceptions of migrants across global contexts. This SI highlights how contemporary migration is structured by a “global mobility divide,” where racial hierarchies influence who can move, how they move, and how they are received. With interdisciplinary contributions, the SI examines several migration experiences, including forced displacement and labor migration across diverse geographical contexts; and methodologies, from participatory research to media analysis, uncovering how racialization operates at interpersonal, institutional, and structural levels. Collectively, the contributions challenge fragmented approaches within migration studies and call for a more integrated framework that centers race, advancing scholarship by demonstrating how racial politics shape migrants’ lived experiences.

The meanings of race and ethnicity vary across cultures and states. The differences are a result of different histories of colonization, migration, and, in consequence, racialization. The concept of race is a more encompassing category in Western European societies and the USA, where it is also a political commodity that structures social and political relations and views. The same concept in the Western Balkan states, organized along ethnic lines, still draws on the disputed biological notion of race. The same conceptual differences structure the views of racist as opposed to ethnic humor. The Western European idea of race as a cultural construct that lumps different social groups through the process of racialization and the interpretation of racism as an ideology that discriminates against any social group, informs the Western reading of both racist and ethnic humor. On the other hand, Balkan societies and their ethnic based structuration and distinct understanding of race and ethnicity inform different views of the concepts of racist and ethnic humor. In this respect, this study tends to empirically evidence the cross-cultural variations between European societies and the USA, and Balkan societies regarding the understanding of the differences between racist and ethnic humor.

Using data from Afrobarometer surveys conducted across 39 countries (n ≈ 53,000), this study examines the relationship between ethnic identification and public attitudes toward interethnic marriage in Africa. Descriptive analyses indicate that most Africans are either supportive of or indifferent toward such unions. However, multivariate regression results show that individuals who identify more strongly with their ethnicity than their nationality are significantly less likely to support interethnic marriage. This negative association is particularly strong among rural residents. These findings suggest that strong ethnic identification can act as a barrier to social integration in multiethnic societies. They also highlight the importance of policies that foster inclusive national identities and encourage intergroup engagement through education and civic initiatives.