Book Workshop with Dr. Justin Gest “Democratic Drain”
Aspen Institute España held a Book Workshop last Wednesday, November 27, with Dr. Justin Gest, Professor of Politics and Government at the Schar School of Politics and Government at George Mason University. This event focused on his upcoming book, Democratic Drain, which discovers the way global migration weakens the prospects for democracy in countries of origin. Drawing on data from over 135 countries and interviews with over 100 democratic activists, migrants, and prospective migrants over a decade of research, Dr. Gest finds that democratic values are an independent and powerful predictor of people’s desire to emigrate. The book’s conclusions hold immediate implications for the politics of human mobility and foreign affairs.
Justin Gest
He is a Professor of Policy and Government at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government. He studies immigration and the politics of demographic change. He is the author of six books: Apart: Alienated and Engaged Muslims in the West (Oxford University Press/Hurst 2010); The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality (Oxford University Press 2016); The White Working Class: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press 2018); Crossroads: Comparative Immigration Regimes in a World of Demographic Change (Cambridge University Press 2018); a textbook, Mass Appeal: Communicating Policy Ideas in Multiple Media (Oxford University Press 2020); and Majority Minority (Oxford University Press 2022). He also co-edits the Oxford University Press book series, “Oxford Studies in Migration and Citizenship.” He has authored peer-reviewed articles in journals including Comparative Political Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, the International Migration Review, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He has provided reporting or commentary for ABC, BBC, CBC, CNN, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, NPR, The New York Times, Politico, Reuters, Vox, and The Washington Post. In 2014 and 2020, Professor Gest received Harvard University’s Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize and the George Mason University Teaching Excellence Award, respectively each university’s highest award for faculty teaching. In 2013, he received the 2013 Star Family Prize for Student Advising, Harvard’s highest award for student advising. In 2007, he co-founded the Migration Studies Unit at the London School of Economics (LSE).
Democratic Drain by Justin Gest
How does emigration affect the countries people leave behind? In Democratic Drain, social scientist Justin Gest discovers that many people who choose to depart their countries of origin — whether to pursue economic opportunities abroad, reunite with loved ones, or otherwise — are likely to hold more liberal democratic values than the countrymen they leave behind. In other words, ‘demmigrants’ make up a disproportionate share of emigrants. Just as brain drain can leave countries poorer and less productive, Democratic Drain likely weakens the prospects for liberal democracy. Drawing on data from more than 135 countries and interviews with more than 100 democratic activists, migrants, and prospective migrants over a decade of research, Gest finds that democratic values are an independent and powerful predictor of people’s desire to emigrate. At a global scale, the correlation between migration choices and democratic values implies that people are self-sorting into more and less democratic spaces. This introduces a new reason why authoritarian countries may have struggled to democratize in the decades since the end of the Cold War spurred the so-called Third Wave of democratization — a period when the stock of international migrants has grown so significantly worldwide, and authoritarians’ resolve has hardened.
