¡Fuera! Nativism and Defensive Nationalism in Panama and the Dominican Republic

Politicians mobilize nativist sentiment in various ways, but one common strategy is to make minority population groups scapegoats for their nation’s social ills. Panama and the Dominican Republic represent two compelling case studies that demonstrate how defensive nationalism can generate legislative efforts to strip birthright citizenship from targeted communities. Historically, both nations exhibited anti-immigrant tendencies grounded in xenophobia, racial discrimination, and exclusionary citizenship. This paper, based on research undertaken in Panama, the Dominican Republic, and at the United States National Archives, seeks to consider ways that volatile nativist politics emanated from and further distorted Panamanian and Dominican conceptions of race, national identity, and citizenship.