Ethnoracial Demograpic Change in Europe and the Cultivation of Fear

Building on a burgeoning, primarily US-based literature on 'population politics' (e.g. Alba2020 , Rodriguez Muniz, 2021), my contribution focuses on the political discourse and rhetoric of demographic change in Europe, particularly in relation to ethno-racial demographic change, by highlighting a) how demographic knowledge about ethno-racial change (e.g. categories of ethno-racial groups) is produced and how this can lead to a 'racialisation' of demographic processes, and b) how different actors use these population statistics, in particular demographic projections about ethno-racial change, to cultivate 'demographic anxieties' among specific audiences.

Drawing on the specific case of contemporary population policy in Flanders (Belgium), I will show how public discourse and different political actors have actively worked to (re)construct a dramatic view of ethno-racial changes in the population, and how the political cultivation of demographic change feeds into the status insecurities and fears of status loss of specific population groups.

_{Alba, R (2020) The Great Demographic Illusion. Majority, Minority and the Expanding Mainstream. Princeton University Press.}

_{Rodriguez-Muniz (2021) Figures of the Future. Latino Civil Rights and the Politics of Demographic Change. Princeton University Press.}

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