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| Xenophobia towards Latin Americans has a strong base in the United States. Xenophobic views towards Latin Americans include stereotypes that view Latin Americans as being associated with organized crime (especially illicit drug trade), illegal immigration, and accusations that Latin American political organizations which demand bilingualism (English and Spanish) in North America will destroy American culture. | Xenophobia towards Latin Americans has a strong base in the United States. Xenophobic views towards Latin Americans include stereotypes that view Latin Americans as being associated with organized crime (especially illicit drug trade), illegal immigration, and accusations that Latin American political organizations which demand bilingualism (English and Spanish) in North America will destroy American culture. | ||
| North America has had a current of xenophobia against black people, especially in the United States. The issue of civil rights for African-Americans was a tense issue which split the United States in two during the ] with Unionists of the northern states of the United States supporting an end to slavery while the ] formed of southern states, supported the continued use of slavery. The Unionists were victorious over the Confederates but hostility between whites and blacks in the United States would continue in the form of racial segregation for years. In the 1960s, the strong civil rights push by ] led to an official end of segregation in the United States, though it caused black-white racial tensions, especially among whites who believed that blacks were racially inferior. However King's assassination in 1968 caused fury in the black community resulting in violent race riots in Detroit by blacks and a rise in radical black nationalist groups, such as the ] in the late 1960s and 1970s. Historically American media has promoted xenophobic and stereotypical views of black people, in recent years, black people have often been shown in the media for committing crimes. | |||
| In ]'s western-most province of ], there has been a history of xenophobia towards people of Asian descent living there. In the late 19th century to the mid 20th century, people of Asian descent were considered savage and uncivilized people and racial violence occurred against members of the ], ], and ] communities during that time. In World War II, both Canada and the United States interned citizens of Japanese-descent as Japan was associated with the ]. Japanese were displayed as a vile and dangerous people in government propaganda. Japanese-American and Japanese-Canadian property was confiscated and not returned by U.S. and American authorities. | In ]'s western-most province of ], there has been a history of xenophobia towards people of Asian descent living there. In the late 19th century to the mid 20th century, people of Asian descent were considered savage and uncivilized people and racial violence occurred against members of the ], ], and ] communities during that time. In World War II, both Canada and the United States interned citizens of Japanese-descent as Japan was associated with the ]. Japanese were displayed as a vile and dangerous people in government propaganda. Japanese-American and Japanese-Canadian property was confiscated and not returned by U.S. and American authorities. | ||
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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. When the word appears in science fiction, it usually refers to a fear of extraterrestrials.
General
As with all phobias, a xenophobic person is aware of the fear, and therefore has to genuinely think or 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 does not 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 is not considered part of that society. Often they are 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, is not accurately described as xenophobia.
Examples
Australia
Australia has a long history of xenophobia, beginning with European settlement. Colonial settlers and authorities would often kill local aboriginal people as they saw fit. The Black War refers to a period of intermittent conflict between the British colonists and Aborigines in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) in the early years of the 1800s. The conflict has been described as a genocide resulting in the elimination of the full-blood Tasmanian Aboriginal population, though there are presently many thousands of individuals with degrees of Tasmanian Aboriginal background. The culmination of this period was the forcible removal of the survivors, in the 1830s, to Flinders Island in Bass Strait. The specially built settlement was not suitable, with terrible living conditions and many died from disease introduced by Europeans. Later they were moved to a settlement at Oyster Cove south of Hobart. Some of the descendants of the Tasmanian Aborigines still live on Flinders Island and nearby Cape Barren Island. Massacres were carried out by some white settlers in order to "remove" a "troublesome" group, and by authorities and others who wished to take control of land which was being used by a native population. These massacres are yet to be acknowledged by an Australian government. Colonial authorities and settlers often targeted Asian settlers, anti Chinese laws were even passed in the 1850s. At the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, a racial equality clause was brought forward by Japan. Australia's Prime minister Billy Hughes was opposed to this, even making threats to leave the conference if it was included.
A policy known as the White Australia policy was introduced. As the name stated, it was intended at restricting all non-white (Especially Asiatic)populations from existing inside Australia. Non-White populations were not included in the census, or permitted to vote. In 1925, Prime Minister Stanley Bruce said:
"We intend to keep this country white"
The Stolen Generations are a dark chapter in Australia's history. From the early 1860s until 1969 thousands of Aboriginal children Were taken by force by missionaries, church officials, police and various government authorities under an official policy to "protect" these children. The motivation behind these removals was primarily to "Breed Out" the aboriginal characteristics in mixed race children, in order to preserve "White Purity". Racism and Xenophobia still exists to some extent within the white populations of Australia. In the 1990s, nationalism surged amongst white populations. Since the 9/11 attacks, Islamaphobia exists to some degree in a small proportion of the less-informed and less tolerant among the population. The then Prime Minister John Howard Introduced acts that some might view as racist, including:
The Pacific Solution Australian citizenship test (which includes highly trivial and Irrelevant questions such as "which of these Australians is famous for playing cricket (game)"
See Also:
Islamaphobia
North America
Xenophobia in North America has been particularly strong against aboriginal peoples, Latin American peoples, black people, and people of Asian descent.
Colonialism by European powers in the Americas resulted in the rise of xenophobic views towards the aboriginal peoples there. Aboriginal peoples were viewed at the time as "savages" and "sub-humans". In the Americas, persecution and wars were used against aboriginal peoples to allow European powers to conquer the Americas. After the United States was formed, U.S. westward expansionism led to violence against aboriginals to make way for settlement by American white citizens. For many years, North American aboriginals were vilified in books and films as savage tribes attacking and pillaging American settlers. Common xenophobic views continue to exist in North America towards aboriginals which focus on casting negative stereotypical views on aboriginal people which include a view that all aboriginals are alcoholics, that aboriginal peoples all intentionally taking advantage of reserves and government assistance. Sociologists have studied that North American aboriginal peoples have had problems with alcoholism because alcohol had not been consumed by aboriginals until European powers brought alcohol to the Americas in the 16th century, resulting in aboriginal peoples' naturally having less tolerance to alcohol than people of European background who have been accustomed to alcohol for further periods of time and have developed a higher tolerance to the intoxicating effects of alcohol. Furthermore the common stereotype that most North American aboriginal people intentionally take advantage of the reserve system and government assistance is untrue because most North American aboriginal peoples live off reserves and receive no government assistance.
Xenophobia towards Latin Americans has a strong base in the United States. Xenophobic views towards Latin Americans include stereotypes that view Latin Americans as being associated with organized crime (especially illicit drug trade), illegal immigration, and accusations that Latin American political organizations which demand bilingualism (English and Spanish) in North America will destroy American culture.
In Canada's western-most province of British Columbia, there has been a history of xenophobia towards people of Asian descent living there. In the late 19th century to the mid 20th century, people of Asian descent were considered savage and uncivilized people and racial violence occurred against members of the Chinese, Japanese, and Sikh communities during that time. In World War II, both Canada and the United States interned citizens of Japanese-descent as Japan was associated with the Axis Powers. Japanese were displayed as a vile and dangerous people in government propaganda. Japanese-American and Japanese-Canadian property was confiscated and not returned by U.S. and American authorities.
The aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks by the militant Islamic fundamentalist organization Al Qaeda have led to increased suspicion and xenophobia towards people of Middle Eastern descent or Islamic religious backgrounds. The result has been a number of arrests of wrongly accused people of Islamic descent on charges of terrorism.
Europe
Northern and Northwestern Europe
In Northern and Northwestern Europe, a variety of xenophobic trends have occurred throughout its history. These xenophobic trends have largely been focused towards xenophobia towards people of non-European descent, anti-semitism, Catholic-Protestant strife, and xenophobia towards people of southern and eastern European descent.
The worst era of xenophobia in this area and in Europe as a whole was during the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler in Germany which committed mass-persecution and genocide of Jews and other minorities.
Since the end of the Cold War, there has been a resurgence of xenophobic nationalism at the political level in countries like Germany and France towards minorities which both countries governments have set out to oppose. In Germany, xenophobia and neo-nazism has risen in response to increased immigration to Germany by non-white people such as Turkish immigrants. In France, a history of xenophobia towards France's Muslim population has existed for sometime, with political parties like the National Front campaigning on xenophobic views towards Muslim people in France.
Southeastern Europe (Balkans)
Southeastern Europe has been subject to degrees of xenophobia for many years and heighted xenophobia during the 20th century to present. Religious and ethnic divisions have caused antagonistic relations between the peoples of Southeastern Europe. The creation of Yugoslavia in 1918 led to escalating ethnic and religious rivalries and violence which fully exploded in World War II, when the Axis Powers backed xenophobic nationalist forces in Croatia to form an independent Croatian state which proceeded to persecute and kill hundreds of thousands of Serbs and Jews. Xenophobic nationalism amongst Serbs rose in response leading to ethnic violence against Croats and other ethnicities which Serb nationalists deemed as complicit with the destruction of Yugoslavia, such as Bosniaks and Albanians. These extreme nationalist forces were contained under the authoritarian rule of Communist dictator Joseph Broz Tito who repressed ethnic nationalism in Yugoslavia until his death in 1980. As the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia collapsed in the 1990s, xenophobic views between ethnicities who were rivals over territory began to develop. Atrocities, ethnic cleansing and genocide occurred during the Yugoslav wars between these ethnic groups, with the most atrocities being committed by military and paramilitary forces of the largest and most well-armed ethnic faction, the Serbs. Serb nationalists committed atrocities as acts of revenge for long-standing historical rivalries and disputes against Croats, Bosniaks, and Albanians who they claimed were occupying Serb lands and had to be ethnically cleansed. Since the collapse of Yugoslavia, ethnic Albanians, Bosniaks, and Croats typically have a negative and sometimes hostile outlook on Serbs, whose armed forces fought wars to keep Serbs united with Serbia and committed atrocities against all these groups. In turn, the primary rival to the Serb ultranationalists were Croat ultranationalists who saw Serbs as occupying Croatian lands and saw the Bosniak people as Muslim Croats who should be assimilated into Croatian culture, those who refused faced violence. 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, Bosniaks, and Croats. In Serbia, the Serbian Radical Party whose leader is associated with xenophobic nationalism and being held on trial for crimes against humanity, is currently Serbia's largest political party.
United Kingdom and Ireland
The United Kingdom has had a long history of xenophobia both internally and in its previous colonial possessions. Internally, the United Kingdom has faced ethnic tensions with Irish people. Irish people were historically looked down upon in British society with stereotypes of Irish being alcoholics, violent, and irresponsible people. Ethnic tensions between Ireland and Britain escalated after the Potato famine which Irish accused Britain of not helping the Irish people leading to the needless deaths of thousands of people. Ireland's struggle for independence in the early 20th century led to xenophobia between the dominant Catholic Irish people of Ireland and the minority Protestant Irish people situated in Northern Ireland. Some militant Catholic Irish nationalists have seen Protestant Irish loyal to the United Kingdom as essentially British occupiers and traitors which led to a string of violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
Japan
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.
Dominican Republic
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.
Middle East
The Middle East, far from being an Arab monoculture as wrongly portrayed in the West, is subject to multiple disputes along religious and ethnic lines which have involved xenophobia, especially in Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian National Authority, Cyprus, Lebanon, and Iraq. In Egypt, discrimination against the coptic minority has only slowly decreased. In Israel and the Palestinian National Authority, continuous violence between Jews and Arabs over disputed territory has created xenophobic sentiment amongst the two sides as well as in many Muslim countries towards Israel. In the island of Cyprus, the land is divided between a majority-Greek and minority-Turk population who both have claims on the island. Civil violence has occurred in Cyprus between Greeks and Turks, the Turks have their own, unrecognized autonomous republic in the north. In Lebanon, xenophobia has increased towards Palestinian Arab refugees who a number of Lebanese see as causing instability in their country. In Iraq, religious and ethnic tensions have exploded since the Iraq War began in 2003. Religious sectarian violence exists, as Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims have engaged in violent attacks on each other, while in the north, ethnic tensions are high between the Kurds and Arabs in northern Iraq and Turks in neighbouring Turkey. The Assyrians, a Christian minority, suffer persecutions from Arabs, Kurds and Turks. In Iran, the Ba'hai religion is not recognized, despite being larger than the recognized religious minorities.
South Africa
Main article: Xenophobia in South AfricaSouth Africa has had continual problems with xenophobia, most infamously under apartheid rule by the white-minority led government during the twentieth century. Under apartheid, black South Africans were automatically second-class citizens, who could not vote, could not participate in the political affairs of the country, and were not allowed to access facilities and public places that were designated for white South African use only. The apartheid government of South Africa was belligerent to neighbouring African countries, occupying Namibia whose people demanded independence, supporting white-minority rule in the former Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe) and waging war in Angola. Apartheid rule came to an end in the 1990s and South Africa's new constitution committed the country to creating a multicultural South Africa in which blacks and whites could live in equality, but tensions between the races remain.
A new phenomenon in South Africa has been increasing xenophobia towards foreigners by South Africa's black majority. A series of attacks against foreigners in South African townships in May 2008. The attacks originated in the township of Alexandra, an impoverished suburb of Johannesburg. An influx of foreigners in recent years, most notably 2–4 million Zimbabweans (roughly a quarter of the population of Zimbabwe), has led to social tension. Poor local residents believe foreigners are in direct competition for jobs and living space, and many incidents of crime are also blamed on these foreigners. More than 60 foreigners were reportedly killed in the attacks with roads barricaded and police battling with the protesters. South African President Thabo Mbeki has since called on the South African National Defence Force to help the SAPS (South African Police Service) 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.
Switzerland
Swiss people voted a new parliament in 2007, giving the right-wing Swiss People's Party a consolidated grip on power. UN Human Rights are fearful of the alleged xenophobia that some say exists in Switzerland, and condemned laws that target the country's immigrants as unjust and racist. The Swiss People's Party which has the largest number of seats in the Swiss parliament and is a member of the country's coalition government, drew worldwide condemnation with an ad campaign depicting three white sheep kicking a black sheep off a Swiss flag. The poster is, according to the United Nations, the sinister symbol of the rise of a new racism and xenophobia in the heart of one of the world's oldest independent democracies. The United Nations special rapporteur on racism, Doudou Diène, has observed that Switzerland suffers from racism, discrimination and xenophobia. The UN envoy explained that although the Swiss authorities recognised the existence of racism and xenophobia, they did not view the problem as being serious. Diène pointed out that representatives of minority communities said they experienced serious racism and discrimination. More than half of the Swiss population are xenophobic and two thirds want foreigners to be better integrated, according to a survey published in June 2006 which measures the development of xenophobic and rightwing extremist attitudes. This first type of data, which was not uncontroversial, tends to support observations made by anti-racist institutions, as well as outside observers.
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.
See also
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References
- Definition at Reference.com
- Wakabayashi, Bob Tadashi, Anti-Foreignism and Western Learning in Early-Modern Japan, Council on East-Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1986. ISBN 0674040376
- Befu, Harumi, Hegemony of Homogeneity, Melbourne: Trans-Pacific Press, 2001.
- Dominican Republic: Haitian Workers Face Deportations, Rights Violations in Dominican Republic, Amnesty International Investigation Finds
- Dominican Republic: A life in transit - The plight of Haitian migrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent | Amnesty International
- http://www.http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/786433623r246231/
- http://www.websterfl.edu/~corbetre/haiti//misctopic/dominican/conception.htm
- Haiti: Conceptions of Haiti in the D.R
- The Pogroms in South Africa: a crisis in citizenship, Mute Magazine, June 2008 http://www.metamute.org/en/the_pogroms_in_south_africa_a_crisis_in_citizenship
External links
- h2g2 Xenophobia Edited Guide Entry
- Stories of Culture and Living in Foreign Cultures Compiled by The Glimpse Foundation
- Nationalism and xenophobia in Russia, SOVA Center's reports and daily updates on xenophobia in Russia
