Abstract/Description

Ben Helms presented a dissertation chapter that investigates whether globalization fuels nativist politics in emerging economies. He argues that global economic integration can contribute to nativist movements even when its economic impacts are positive. These nativist movements are caused by geographic labor mobility towards production clusters where the effects of liberalization are most prominent, and which promise economic opportunities to migrants. Helms asserts that this fuels anti-migrant movements where internal migration is politically contentious. He adopted a difference-in-difference research design to estimate the independent variable – the effects of exposure to the Multi-Fiber Trade Arrangement (elimination of quotas) in the textile and apparel sector in India between 1999 and 2010. Instances of reported riots in a given district each year are used to measure the dependent variable – nativist sentiment. Helms’ research has implications on how labor reacts to globalization in emerging economies.