Demography is not Destiny

Will Texas become majority minority? Will the electorate become majority-minority? Will there be public policies that reflect the will of the majority of Texas residents? Public intellectual and UTSA Dean of Public Policy Rogelio Saenz will discuss the ways recent demographic trends shape policy in Texas and the ways that policy debates complicate an easy connection between demographics and electoral outcomes. By focusing on changes in urban and suburban areas – like Midwestern migrants to ethnically diverse suburbs to demographic changes in majority-minority metropolitan Texas – Rogelio Saenz will underline the importance of demography to public policy.

Dr. Rogelio Sáenz is Dean of the College of Public Policy and Peter Flawn Professor of Demography at The University of Texas at San Antonio. He holds the Mark G. Yudof Endowed Chair at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Sáenz has written extensively in the areas of demography, Latina/os, race and ethnic relations, inequality, immigration, public policy, and social justice. He is co-author of Latinos in the United States: Diversity and Change and co-editor of The International Handbook of the Demography of Race and Ethnicity. Sáenz regularly writes op-ed essays on current demographic, social, racial, and policy issues with his contributions appearing in such newspapers as the Austin American-Statesman, Baltimore Sun, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, New York Times, and the San Antonio Express-News, and he writes a monthly column for Ahora Sí, the Spanish-language newspaper of the Austin American-Statesman. Sáenz is also a Policy Fellow of the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire.