Majority Minority: a comparative historical analysis of political responses to demographic transformation

This study asks: What drives divergent reactions to demographic transformation? This question has grown in salience as the politics of the United States and Western Europe react to the prospect of becoming Majority Minority states - where the native constituency of people, defined by race, ethnicity...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of ethnic and migration studies Vol. 47; no. 16; pp. 3701 - 3728
Main Author Gest, Justin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 10.12.2021
Carfax Publishing Company, Abingdon Science Park
Subjects
Constituents
Demographic change
Discontent
Ethnic identity
Ethnicity
Historical analysis
history
immigration
Majority
minority
National identity
political
Political attitudes
Political institutions
Political majority
Race
Racism
Redefinition
Religion
Religion & politics
Responses
State
Transformation
Xenophobia
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Summary:This study asks: What drives divergent reactions to demographic transformation? This question has grown in salience as the politics of the United States and Western Europe react to the prospect of becoming Majority Minority states - where the native constituency of people, defined by race, ethnicity, and/or religion, loses its numerical advantage in the territory of a sovereign state. Relatively little is known about how societies govern such demographic change in the course of global history such that we may anticipate and contextualise policy responses today. To address this question, I undertake a comparative historical analysis of six Majority Minority states - Bahrain (1920-2010), the Hawaiian Kingdom (1840-1900), Mauritius (1830-1880), historic New York State (1830-1880), Singapore (1850-1970), and Trinidad and Tobago (1840-2010). Earlier historical work and contemporary attitudinal analyses have focused on the ways that popular discontent, racism, and xenophobia drive responses. However, I find that that divergent political outcomes are subject to national institutions - specficially, whether the state equally enfranchises the newcomer population and whether the government's subsequent redefinition of the national identity is inclusive or exclusive.
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ISSN:1369-183X
1469-9451
DOI:10.1080/1369183X.2020.1774113