Holding Fast: Immigrant and Emigrant Responses to the Trump Era

Political Science Public Talk
Holding Fast: Immigrant and Emigrant Responses to the Trump Era
James McCann
Fulbright Canada Research Chair in North American Politics
In his 2016 campaign for the US presidency, Donald Trump ran on a harsh anti-immigrant policy agenda. As president, he sought to follow through on much of this agenda. In this talk, I will discuss how Latino immigrants - the principal targets of the Trump White House - responded to threats. Did fear, disappointment, and anger among foreign-born Latinos lead to alienation from American society and disengagement from civic life? Drawing from an original three-wave panel survey of Latino immigrants, I find the opposite. Under duress, Latino immigrants “held fast” in their trusting of Americans, in their desire to remain in the country, and in their political involvement, even as they became wary of governing institutions under Trump. A separate survey of Americans living in Canada further shows that this tendency to “hold fast” under duress is not limited to Latino immigrants. Emigrants from the US who expressed anger or fear over Donald Trump became more eager to take part in American elections and continued to value their American citizenship. The findings from these two studies speak to civic resilience within populations that have genuine “exit” options when the going in US politics gets tough.

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