Fight or Flight: Contested Communities in an Age of Immigration

• In Event: The Political Geography of Immigration Attitudes and Populist Voting

Abstract

As immigrant populations have expanded across the United States, many Americans have fled diversifying communities, whereas others have stayed and supported local policies targeting immigrants. In Fight or Flight, I develop a theory that explains the recent upswell of nativism in the United States. I argue that recent shifts in the American residential landscape have heightened tensions between immigrants and native-born residents, and find that expressions of nativism are most common among residents who encounter barriers to residential mobility.

Author

• Yamil Velez, Columbia University