People Changing Places

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 stateswhere 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 institutionsspecficially, 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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Migration and intercommunal relationships: an interdisciplinary and inter-regional dialogue

Thawnghmung

Fasolo

2020

Migration Studies

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Abstract The growing significance of migration on a global scale is generating increased scholarly interest in the subject, offering a fuller and more nuanced understanding of the nature and implications of different types of migration. However, research to date has presented divergent findings on the factors influencing the presence or absence of migration-induced conflicts, as most contributions are single-case studies focusing on different regions, levels of analysis, and measurements, whether applied to ‘objective’ or ‘subjective’ situations. We develop a framework to assess a wide spectrum of interactions between ‘local’ residents and ‘migrant populations’ by integrating the literature on ethnic conflict and considering the findings of studies that have investigated developed countries separately from developing countries; utilized a methodology specific to a particular discipline; or have focused on a single historical time frame or level of analysis. We propose a distinctive way of organizing and integrating the literature, incorporating three levels of analysis (independent variables) and a wide range of responses (dependent variables). We demonstrate that this framework enables researchers who employ one level of analysis at the expense of the others, or consider only one aspect or level of conflict, to assess the limitations and representativeness of their case studies; to identify gaps in operationalization and measurements of concepts and definitions; and to become aware of the trade-offs involved in their selection and scope of analysis.

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People Changing Places

Cited by 4 publications

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29 Political Demography

29 Political Demography

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

Migration and intercommunal relationships: an interdisciplinary and inter-regional dialogue

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