Everything about Xenophobia totally explained
Xenophobia is a fear or contempt of that which is foreign or unknown, especially of strangers or foreign people. It comes from the
Greek words ξένος (
xenos), meaning "foreigner," "stranger," and φόβος (
phobos), meaning "fear." The term is typically used to describe a fear or dislike of
foreigners or of people significantly different from oneself.
General
As with all
phobias, a xenophobic person is aware of the fear, and therefore has to believe at some level that the target is in fact a foreigner. This arguably separates xenophobia from
racism and ordinary
prejudice in that someone of a different race doesn't necessarily have to be of a different nationality. In various contexts, the terms "xenophobia" and "racism" seem to be used interchangeably, though they can have wholly different meanings (xenophobia can be based on various aspects, racism being based solely on race and ancestry).
For xenophobia there are two main objects of the phobia. The first is a population group present within a society that's not considered part of that society. Often they're recent
immigrants, but xenophobia may be directed against a group which has been present for centuries. This form of xenophobia can elicit or facilitate hostile and violent reactions, such as mass expulsion of immigrants, or in the worst case,
genocide.
The second form of xenophobia is primarily cultural, and the objects of the phobia are cultural elements which are considered alien. All cultures are subject to external influences, but cultural xenophobia is often narrowly directed, for instance at foreign loan words in a national language. It rarely leads to aggression against individual persons, but can result in political campaigns for cultural or linguistic purification.
Isolationism, a general aversion of foreign affairs, isn't accurately described as xenophobia.
Notable instances of Xenophobia
From 1641 to 1853, Japan had a policy of exclusion of virtually all foreigners (not merely an avoidance of foreign relations), known as 'national closure', or
sakoku. In the early 19th century, Mito scholars advocated
jōi, the forceful expulsion of 'barbarians', though almost none existed there. By the middle of the 19th century, with outside pressure mounting, some Japanese scholars and leaders tied 'Western Learning' and 'Nativist Studies' (kokugaku) to a goal of nation building.
Nihonjinron, a widely popular type of nonfiction literature emerging in the second half of the 20th century, has been described as xenophobic, though most of the works in the genre lack this element.
Currently, the only legal protection foreign citizens enjoy from xenophobic practices is Article 14 of the
Constitution, which states: "all of the people shall be equal under the law,and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic, or social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status or family origin[...]". Japan ratified the
ICERD in 1995, but has failed to enact appropriate legislation as directed by Article 2b, simultaneously using 'freedom of expression' rights as a shield against the stipulations of Article 4a and b. The 2006 report by the
UN Special Rapporteur for Racial Discrimination,
Doudou Diène, was highly critical of current Japanese xenophobia and on-going discriminatory practices, which include difficulties in access to housing, accommodation (hotels) and other commercial establishments open to the public (spas, bars, night-clubs, restaurants and others) based on physical appearance and myth, and bullying at school of foreign-looking children..
According to an
Amnesty International, the
United Nations and The Human Rights Watch, physical attacks against Haitians have increased since 1992 and reports of the lynching of Haitians surfaced as late as 2006. Homes of suspected Haitians are sometimes burned to the ground and police roundups of "Haitian looking" people are conducted on a regular basis. According to another
New York Times report in 2004, grandchildren and great grandchildren of Haitians are denied birth certificates, medical care, education and social services because of their race and decendancy. In 2007 the United Nations found "profound and entrenched" racism at all levels of Dominican society, including within families.
(External Link
) (External Link)
During the
2007 Swiss federal election, the
right-wing populist Swiss People's Party gained 29% of the seats in parliament, the highest any party of this type has achieved since World War I. The party was accused of increasing racism and xenophobic sentiment by publishing a controversial poster during its campaign, showing a white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag. The poster was condemned by the
United Nations. During the campaign the party also proposed a change to the
penal code to allow judges to deport foreigners guilty of serious crimes once they've served their sentence. If the criminal is under the age of 18, the proposed law allows the entire criminal's family to be deported as soon as sentence is passed. If the bill passes into law, then it'll be the first such law in Europe since the
Sippenhaft law by the
Nazis. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) had already reported in 2003 on certain xenophobic incidents in Switzerland, ranging from police discrimination and misbehaviour towards members of certain minority groups, to an intolerant climate within society toward certain groups, particularly Africans and
asylum seekers.
There was
a spate of attacks against foreigners in
South African townships in May 2008. The attacks originated in the township of Alexandra which is an impoverished suburb in the city of Johannesburg. Social tension is high, because of the influx of foreigners into South Africa in recent years, most notably 2–4 million
Zimbabweans (roughly a quarter of the population of Zimbabwe). The South African government seems unwilling or unable to enforce border control. In additions to the porous borders, the South African Department of Home Affairs –tasked with matters of
immigration– are slow and inefficient at processing
asylum seekers, creating many loopholes for unscrupulous immigrants who simply apply for refugee status in order to obtain the necessary permits to then work and move freely in South Africa. These foreigners are in direct competition for jobs and living space with the poorest citizens. Many incidents of crime are also blamed on these foreigners. More than 50 foreigners were reportedly killed in the attacks with roads barricaded and police battling with the protesters.
(External Link) South African President Thabo Mbeki has since called on the South African Armed Forces to help the SAPS to prevent any further killings of immigrants. Xenophobic violence also spread to the Western Cape in Du Noon in Milnerton with hundreds of terrified foreigners forced to run for their lives, there's a possibility of attacks being carried out in
Knysna.
(External Link)
As the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia collapsed in the 1990s, xenophobic views between ethnicities who were rivals over territory began to develop. Atrocities and
ethnic cleansing occured during the
Yugoslav wars between these ethnic groups. Since the collapse of Yugoslavia,
ethnic Albanians,
Bosniaks, and
Croats typically have a negative outlook on
Serbs, whose armed forces fought wars to keep Serbs united with
Serbia and committed atrocities against all these groups. In
Bosnia and Herzegovina, the number of serious and large scale atrocities committed by nationalist Serb forces there caused the
United Nations to intervene and push for the internal partition of Bosnia & Herzegovina into a Serb Republic (
Republika Srpska) and a Bosniak-Croat federation (
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina). In turn, Serbs have an especially negative outlook on ethnic Albanians and Croats. Many Serbs saw
Croatia under the leadership of
Franjo Tudjman as similar to that of the fascist
Ustase regime in World War II which committed genocide against Serbs, and nationalistic Serbs see Croats themselves as the enemies of Serbs. In Kosovo, many Serbs are opposed to Kosovo's declaration of independence due to Kosovo's historical links to Serbia, and Serbs have claimed that Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority have pressured Serbs to leave and committed atrocities against Serbs.
Sociobiological Explanation
The effects of xenophobia (dislike against the genetically dissimilar out-group and nepotistic favoritism towards the genetically similar in-group) are analyzed by many
sociobiological researchers. Some see it as an innate biological response on the part of the evolved human organism in inter-group competition. In his famous book,
The Ethnic Phenomenon,
Pierre L. van den Berghe, anthropological professor of the
University of Washington, discusses the concepts of
kin selection,
ethnic nepotism, and the biologically-rooted tendency of people that are more similar genetically to behave more generously toward each other. In
Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing, author
James Waller argues that all human beings "have an innate, evolution-produced tendency to seek proximity to familiar faces because what is unfamiliar is probably dangerous and should be avoided. More than two hundred social psychological experiments have confirmed the intimate connection between familiarity and fondness. This universal human tendency is the foundation for the behavioral expressions of ethnocentrism and xenophobia" (Oxford University Press, USA, 2002, p. 156). Frank Salter, an ethological researcher of the
Max Planck Institute, deals with similar "taboo" topics in his controversial book,
On Genetic Interests: Family, Ethnicity and Humanity in An Age of Mass Migration; this work has been praised by well-known sociobiology innovator
E.O. Wilson as "a fresh and deep contribution to the sociobiology of humans." Salter posits an "innate group-descent module" in the human mind to explain the universal occurrence of ethnic nepotism. In Salter's view, favoritism towards one's own ethnicity is an evolutionarily-based "objective" value and, from a political science perspective, Salter proposes a "universal nationalism", in which all planetary ethnic-based communities or nations have the right to preserve their own heritage and distinctiveness.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Xenophobia'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://xenophobia.totallyexplained.com">Xenophobia Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
