Global Economic Integration and Nativist Politics in Emerging Economies

Nativist political movements are globally ascendant. In advanced democracies, rising anti-immigrant politics is in part a backlash against economic globalization. In emerging economies, where nativists primarily target internal migrants, there is little investigation of whether trade liberalization fuels antimigrant sentiment, perhaps because trade benefits workers in these contexts. I argue that global economic integration causes nativist backlash in emerging economies even though it does not dislocate workers. I highlight an alternative mechanism: geographic labor mobility. Workers strategically migrate to access geographically uneven global economic opportunity. This liberalization-induced mobility interacts with native–migrant cleavages to generate nativist backlash. I explore these dynamics in the Indian textile sector, which experienced a positive shock following global trade liberalization in 2005. Using a difference-in-differences analysis, I find that exposed localities experienced increased internal migration and nativism, manifesting in antimigrant rioting and nativist party support. Liberalization can fuel nativism even when its economic impacts are positive.