Report: Change is Hard: Managing Fear and Anxiety about Demographic Change and Immigration in Polarized Times

In this reporrt, Suzette Brooks Masters set out to understand how anxieties about demographic change, immigration and American identity can power the rise of authoritarian populists and ethnonationalists. After extensive review of the vast and growing multidisciplinary literature on these topics, and numerous discussions with experts and colleagues, Ms. Masters wrote this compact yet provocative research brief.  Here it is:  Change is Hard: Managing Fear and Anxiety about Demographic Change and Immigration in Polarized Times by Suzette Brooks Masters

A summary of the findings:

• Immigration is a cultural and identity issue, not primarily one of policy. It needs to be addressed as such. Only discussing policy ideas governing who can enter and stay in the U.S. and under what terms doesn’t speak to the complexity of the issue, nor address the cultural and other concerns of Americans living in communities in demographic flux.

• Demographic change can trigger societal stress when not well managed. Growing racial  and ethnic diversity in the U.S. resulting from decades of immigration in all parts of the country  has been met with increased cultural anxiety, especially among whites.2 Relatedly, white alienation and a sense of grievance are on the rise, with many whites believing they are the subjects of racial discrimination and fearful of their loss of status as America closes in on becoming a majority-minority country. This drives them to identify as and behave like a racial minority. Trump’s ethnonationalist and anti-immigrant platform appealed to these voters and now threatens many social and civil rights that are the cornerstones of our democracy.3

• White nationalism is resurgent. Many elected leaders have benefited from and fueled the rise  of white nationalism in America. The rhetoric such elected leaders use legitimizes the expression  of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic sentiment in America, making more visible prejudices that would have been kept hidden or private in the past and shattering long-held social conventions. When such views are amplified at the highest levels of power, this leads to a marked increase in hate-driven violence and extremism.

• Growing polarization and partisan realignment threaten progress on immigration. The immigration debate is deeply divisive and dominated by the extremes on both sides. They feed off one another, becoming increasingly strident and eliminating space for nuance, complexity and realistic solutions. Yet the majority of public opinion (about two-thirds) is at neither extreme.

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