Justin Gest: MAJORITY MINORITY

How do societies respond to great demographic change? This question  lingers over the contemporary politics of the United States and other  countries where persistent immigration has altered populations and may  soon produce a majority minority milestone, where the original ethnic or  religious majority loses its numerical advantage to one or more  foreign-origin minority groups. Until now, most of our knowledge about  large-scale responses to demographic change has been based on studies of  individual people’s reactions, which tend to be instinctively defensive  and intolerant. We know little about why and how these habits are  sometimes tempered to promote more successful coexistence.
To anticipate and inform future responses to demographic change, Justin  Gest looks to the past. In Majority Minority, Gest wields historical  analysis and interview-based fieldwork inside six of the world’s few  societies that have already experienced a majority minority transition  to understand what factors produce different social outcomes. Gest  concludes that, rather than yield to people’s prejudices, states hold  great power to shape public responses and perceptions of demographic  change through political institutions and the rhetoric of leaders.  Through subsequent survey research, Gest also identifies novel ways that  leaders can leverage nationalist sentiment to reduce the appeal of  nativism—by framing immigration and demographic change in terms of the  national interest. Grounded in rich narratives and surprising survey  findings, Majority Minority reveals that this contentious milestone and  its accompanying identity politics are ultimately subject to unifying or  divisive governance.

Justin Gest is an Associate Professor of Policy and  Government at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and  Government. He is the author of six books, primarily on the politics of  immigration and demographic change—all from Oxford University Press or  Cambridge University Press.

Robert Misik, Author and Journalist