Marcel Roman (APRW)

Speaker

 Marcel Roman, "The Immigration-to-Reproduction Shift: Latino Population Growth and White Support for Legal Abortion"

Abstract

The literature on White Americans’ reaction to demographic change largely focuses on immigration policy at the expense of reproductive politics. We extend past research on White backlash against ethnic diversification to the domain of reproductive policy—testing the idea that prejudiced Whites will support abortion in response to growing minority populations as a means of slowing demographic change via non-White reproduction. Using a large sample of the American public, we find that Whites residing in locales with large growth in the non-White population are more supportive of legal abortion. Consistent with demographic trends, this relationship is driven by Latino population growth. Critically, this relationship is not observed among non-Whites, is confined to racially prejudiced Whites, and is most pronounced when Latino population growth coincides with growth in the local Latino youth population—suggesting that a burgeoning population of Latino children facilitates Whites’ connection of Latino growth to reproductive policy.

The American Politics Research Workshop (Gov 3004) presents an opportunity for graduate students and Harvard faculty to present and receive feedback on their current research. The workshop highlights key theoretical and empirical findings from Harvard affiliates on topics related to American politics. 

All interested Harvard affiliates are invited to attend.