Nativism (politics)

Nativism is the political position of supporting a favored status for certain established inhabitants of a nation (i.e. self-identified citizens) as compared to claims of newcomers or immigrants. According to Fetzer, (2000) opposition to immigration is common in many countries because of issues of national, cultural, and religious identity. The phenomenon has been studied especially in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, as well as Europe in recent years, where immigration is seen as lowering the wages of the natives. Thus nativism has become a general term for 'opposition to immigration' based on fears that the immigrants will distort or spoil existing cultural values. In situations where immigrants greatly outnumber the original inhabitants, nativistic movements can allow cultural survival.

In scholarly studies nativism is a standard technical term. The term is typically not accepted by those who hold this political view, however. Dindar (2010) wrote "nativists... do not consider themselves as nativists. For them it is a negative term and they rather consider themselves as 'Patriots.'"Anti-immigration is a more neutral term for opponents of immigration.

In the United States, nativism has a long history. The term was used by 1844, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (under "Nativism") 1844: Whig Almanac 1845 4/2 "Thousands were Naturalized expressly to oppose Nativism, and voted the Polk ticket mainly to that end."

For a while Benjamin Franklin was hostile to Germans in colonial Pennsylvania, but he reversed himself and became a supporter. The Federalist Party in 1798 passed the Alien and Sedition Acts which lengthened the citizenship process to 14 years to weaken the political role of radical immigrants from France and Ireland. This became a major political issue in the 1800 election; the Jeffersonians won. They welcomed immigrants and repealed most of the restrictions.

Nativism gained its name from the "Native American" parties of the 1840s and 1850s. In this context "Native" does not mean indigenous or American Indian but rather those descended from the inhabitants of the original Thirteen Colonies. It impacted politics in the mid-19th century because of the large inflows of immigrants after 1845 from cultures that were different from the existing American culture. Nativists objected primarily to Irish Roman Catholics because of their loyalty to the Pope and also because of their supposed rejection of republicanism as an American ideal.

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