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