Abrajano and Hajnal find that immigration affects the partisanship of white Americans, and suggest that white backlash probably played a role in the “massive white Democratic defection” that has happened in the last few decades. They look at several factors that might have led to this backlash, and also touch upon how nativism has been influenced by immigration.

This article looks at Trump’s implicit advocacy for nativism and white nationalism. It focuses particularly on Trump’s comments on immigration in Europe: he advocates that Europe should not continue taking a large number of immigrants/refugees. Trump’s use of language in addressing this issue (i.e. bringing up ideas of Europe’s “culture”) is particularly interesting, as it is similar to white nationalist and nativist rhetoric.

  1. How do you think international demographic trends have influenced politics in the United States? Do you think that it has heightened white backlash?
  2. Abrajano and Hajnal focus extensively on the size of the immigrant population, the “threat narrative,” and the divisions between the two parties. Looking at the article, how do you think the idea of a “white culture” (one of the supposed features of “white nationalism”) arose from these three factors?
  3. How do you think portraying the United States/Europe as having “Western civilization” and a certain “culture” influences politics and policymaking?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/07/13/trumps-comments-on-european-immigration-mirror-white-nationalist-rhetoric/?utm_term=.753dc16912a3