White Backlash: Immigration, Race, and American Politics

by Marisa Abrajano, Zoltan L. Hajnal

White Backlash provides an authoritative assessment of how immigration is reshaping the politics of the nation. Using an array of data and analysis, Marisa Abrajano and Zoltan Hajnal show that fears about immigration fundamentally influence white Americans' core political identities, policy preferences, and electoral choices, and that these concerns are at the heart of a large-scale defection of whites from the Democratic to the Republican Party.Abrajano and Hajnal demonstrate that this political backlash has disquieting implications for the future of race relations in America. White Americans' concerns about Latinos and immigration have led to support for policies that are less generous and more punitive and that conflict with the preferences of much of the immigrant population. America's growing racial and ethnic diversity is leading to a greater racial divide in politics. As whites move to the right of the political spectrum, racial and ethnic minorities generally support the
left. Racial divisions in partisanship and voting, as the authors indicate, now outweigh divisions by class, age, gender, and other demographic measures.White Backlash raises critical questions and concerns about how political beliefs and future elections will change the fate of America's immigrants and minorities, and their relationship with the rest of the nation.

Genres: Race, Politics, Political Science, Americana, Nonfiction, Sociology, Psychology

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 22, 2015

Reviews

[Melissa Lefler · Rating 2 out of 5]

The information in this book is important for all Americans. Immigration matters, as well as how much we decide to allow the media to shape our perception of immigration. For me, the studies discussed here reinforce the need to be an active participant in politics and informing myself—through multiple sources—on a variety of social and political issues.

That being said, this is a “goodreads” review, and for the sake of that I’m giving it two stars because it was not good (or fun) to read. This is really a textbook. The information MATTERS. But it can be summarized in an article with sources cited and be just as effective :).

[Elliott Balch · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rigorous and timely look at the deeper dynamics that may underly part of the "Trump phenomenon" of the day, after you peel away the bluster and personality. Even if you find that the basic findings make intuitive sense, I think you'll be surprised — as I was — about the clarity of the data and the scope of the effects of attitudes toward immigration on other areas of politics.

[Mills College Library]

324.089 A1611 2017