Nativism refers to the restoration of a native culture particularly in antithesis to acculturation. The concept of nativism is anti-migrant.
According to Myron Weiner nativism is a type of ethnic politics. It is a form of ethnic individuality which tries to dismiss those who are not a part of the regional or native ethnic groups living or serving in a region as the individuals are not indigenous to the area or country. In the past, there have been numerous nativist movements all over the world.
An example of Nativism from the western world is when the Irish people came to the USA in the mid-1800s and the country was struggling with Potato famine. The native people together appealed to the government to not grant the right to vote.
Another instance is when India after independence saw the rise of one of the most popular nativist movements called ‘Telangana Nativist Movement’. The movement began in the year 1969.
Originally, the objective of the movement was the perpetuation of mulki laws and Telangana laws formed at the time of the creation of the state of Andhra Pradesh in the year 1956. After some time the movement’s aim changed to the creation of a separate state from the state of the Andhra Pradesh
One of the major cause of the rise of nativism is increasing competition native population face from the migrant population. They feel that the migrants or the ‘outsiders’ are snatching away their jobs and the migrant population against whom these movements are started mostly belong to culturally distinct indigenous groups, belonging to the middle strata of the society.
Thus, nativism is an illogical bias towards immigrants and often the migrant people are subject to discrimination and racism on the basis of their culture, ethnic as well as physical outlook.
