The Majority-Minority Divide in Attitudes Toward Internal Migration: Evidence from Mumbai

68 Pages Posted: 5 Aug 2014 Last revised: 23 Jun 2015

See all articles by Nikhar Gaikwad

Nikhar Gaikwad

Columbia University - Department of Political Science

Gareth Nellis

Yale University

Date Written: 2014

Abstract

Rapid urbanization is among the major processes affecting the developing world. The influx of internal migrants to cities frequently provokes antagonism on the part of native residents, manifested in labor-market discrimination, political nativism, and even violence. We implemented a large, face-to-face survey experiment on a representative sample of the population of Mumbai to elucidate the causes of anti-migrant hostility. Our findings point to the centrality of material self-interest in the formation of native attitudes. Dominant-group members fail to heed migrants' ethnic attributes, yet for minority-group respondents, considerations of ethnicity and economic threat offset one another. We introduce a new mechanism to explain this divergence in majority/minority opinion. Minority communities in a position of persistent insecurity use in-migration by co-ethnics as a means of enlarging their demographic and electoral base, thereby achieving "safety in numbers."' We contribute insights both to the immigration literature, and to policy debates over urban expansion.

Keywords: migration, urbanization, immigration attitudes, labor-market threat, ethnic prejudice, cross-cutting cleavages

Suggested Citation

Gaikwad, Nikhar and Nellis, Gareth, The Majority-Minority Divide in Attitudes Toward Internal Migration: Evidence from Mumbai (2014). Paper Presented at the 2014 Annual American Political Science Association Meeting, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2451748

Nikhar Gaikwad (Contact Author)

Columbia University - Department of Political Science ( email )

7th Floor, International Affairs Bldg.
420 W. 118th Street
New York, NY 10027
United States

Gareth Nellis

Yale University ( email )

493 College St
New Haven, CT CT 06520
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
77
Abstract Views
629
Rank
563,673
PlumX Metrics