HIS21260

Nativism and anti-immigration (both terms will be used interchangeably throughout the course) refer to people's opposition and/or hostility to immigration or minorities. These terms have appeared repeatedly in explanations put forward to explain Brexit and Trump’s victory. But they have a much longer history. This course will examine nativism since the mid-nineteenth century around the world, starting with the fallout from anti-Chinese protests at goldmines in Australia. We will also look at the American anti-Chinese movement, South African efforts to exclude Indian immigrants, moves towards restrictionism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century United States, anti-Semitism in the inter-war period, and the varying treatment ‘postcolonial’ migrants, ‘guestworker’ immigrants and people in search of asylum in Europe received after 1945. The course will try to understand why anti-immigration rhetoric became prominent at certain times. Do people, political parties and certain media outlets communicate hostility towards immigrants and minorities more for economic or cultural (identity) reasons? Is anti-immigration inevitable when extensive immigration takes place? Is nativism bottom-up or top-down – that is, does it come from normal people reacting to economic and societal pressures or is it due to the arrival of charismatic politicians saying things that established parties will not? Why do men tend to vote for anti-immigration parties more so than women? Why do higher educated people vote less frequently for anti-immigration parties? What role has the media, including social media more recently, played in the rise of anti-immigration sentiments? Most readings will take the form of journal articles, but primary sources will be provided most weeks to enable us to examine the rhetoric used by prominent anti-immigrant voices in the past.