Justin Gest

Associate Professor

Immigration policy, minority political behavior, comparative immigration politics

Justin Gest is an Associate 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)
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, and has edited special issues of Citizenship Studies and Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

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).