Go Back to Where You Came From ─ The Backlash Against Immigration and the Fate of Western Democracy

Bigoted and dangerous views on immigration were once confined to the margins of political discourse. Now, with politicians like Donald Trump in the United States, Marine Le Pen in France, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, and Frauke Petry in Germany gaining popularity, these sentiments are being given a loud public voice.

Journalist Sasha Polakow-Suransky is uniquely positioned to report on this trend and make global connections between populist movements and the demagogues who lead them. Polakow-Suransky speaks with supporters of nativist movements, who resent the fact that refugees are moving into their neighborhoods; working class people who used to identify as progressive, but now feel abandoned by politicians currying favor with Muslims and immigrants, and are turning to the nativism, xenophobia, and nostalgia peddled by right-wing movements. The new right has masterfully appropriated what used to be left-wing causes like feminism, gay rights, and combating antisemitism. A generation after Jean-Marie Le Pen dismissed the Holocaust as a detail of history, his daughter is actively courting Jewish voters and is surrounded by young gay advisors.

Polakow-Suransky shows how even established, mature democracies are susceptible to majoritarianism and illiberalism. Unprecedented population shifts like the Syrian refugee crisis and extremist rhetoric about immigration could lead countries like the United States, France, and the Netherlands into a backslide--destroying protections for minorities, eroding government institutions, and a watering down rule of law.

Sasha Polakow-Suransky was most recently an op-ed editor for the New York Times. He was a senior editor at Foreign Affairs from 2007 to 2011 and holds a doctorate in modern history from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar from 2003 to 2006. His writing has appeared in the American Prospect, Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune, New Republic, Guardian, and Newsweek. His first book, The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa was published by Pantheon in 2010. He divides his time between London and New York.