Xenophobia
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Xenophobia is a fear or contempt of that which is foreign or unknown, especially of strangers or foreign people.[1] 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.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] Examples of Xenophobia
[edit] Germany
Germany has had a long history of tensions with minorities, the most infamous being under the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler in which Jews, Roma, Slavs, coloured people and other minorities were initially persecuted and later mass-murdered in the genocide known as The Holocaust. Both prior and since the Nazi regime, Germany has contained elements of society which have endorsed xenophobic nationalism and blame Germany's historical and present problems on minorities and have sought to remove them from public life and from the country in general. As of present, various neo-Nazi and xenophobic nationalist groups and political organizations in Germany have been known to intimidate and commit violence against minorities.
[edit] 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.[2] Nihonjinron, a widely popular type of nonfiction literature emerging in the second half of the 20th century, has been described as xenophobic,[3] though most of the works in the genre lack this element.
[edit] 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. [4] 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.[5] [6] [7] [8] In 2007 the United Nations found "profound and entrenched" racism at all levels of Dominican society, including within families. [1] [2]
[edit] Middle East
The Middle East is subject to multiple disputes along religious and ethnic lines which have involved xenophobia, especially in Israel, the Palestinian National Authority, Cyprus, Lebanon, and Iraq. In Israel and the Palestinian National Authority, continuous violence between Jews and Arabs over disputed territory has created xenophobic sentinment 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.
[edit] South Africa
South 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.[9] 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[citation needed] (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. [3] 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. [4]
[edit] Switzerland
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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 Swiss People's Party counters that a "black sheep" has always symolized criminals and/or deliquents pretending to be law abiding individuals. According to Pascal Sciarini, professor of political science at the University of Geneva, the People's Party's recent electoral success is down to its tough line on foreigners, and it is now a prisoner of this strategy: "They have to keep the fires burning, and that means they have to come up with new ideas and at the same time harden their stance," he said. Other experts assert that the Swiss People's Party is only responding to the statistical behavior of recently arrived immigrants and their children in a rational way rather than acting in an agressive or racist manner. Although Switzerland has Europe's toughest naturalisation laws - foreigners must live for 12 years in a Swiss community before they can apply, and being born in Switzerland brings no right to citizenship -, Swiss People's Party passed a new naturalisation procedure in 2007, called Democratic Naturalisation in this new procedure foreigners must often be approved by the entire voting community, in a secret ballot, or a show of hands. A report, from Switzerland's Federal Commission on Racial Discrimination, into the new process of naturalisation says the current system is discriminatory and in many respects racist, and recommends far-reaching changes. It criticises the practice of allowing members of a community to vote on an individual's citizenship application. Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and people from the Balkans, Africa, Asia and Latin America are the most likely to be rejected, the report points out. It cites the case of a disabled man originally from Kosovo. Although fulfilling all the legal criteria, his application for citizenship was rejected by his community on the grounds that his disability made him a burden on taxpayers, and that he was Muslim. Swiss People's Party claims that Swiss communities have a democratic right to decide who can or cannot be Swiss. In addition, the report said "Official statements and political campaigns that present immigrants from the EU in a favourable light and immigrants from elsewhere in a bad light must stop", according to the Swiss Federal Statistics Office in 2006, 85.5 percent of the foreign residents in Switzerland are European [5]. 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.[6] [7] [8]
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.[9]
[edit] Former Yugoslavia
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 occurred during the Yugoslav wars between these ethnic groups. 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 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. 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. The rise of Serb nationalism was associated with revanchism and xenophobia directed against other ethnicities deemed to be natural 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. These ethnicities which fought each other during the Yugoslav Wars typically have poor and antagonistic relations with each other. Since the wars, violence and intimidation these groups has been widespread even outside of the Balkans. Athletic competitions which have resulted in competitions between the former Yugoaslav peoples, especially between Croats and Serbs have been marred with derogatory slurs, flag burnings, intimidation, and violence. Some countries like Canada have automatically shut down games between Croat and Serb ethnic teams when such competitions resulted in ethnic atheltic games, to avoid possible violence. 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] See also
- Discrimination
- Ethnic cleansing
- Intercultural competence
- List of Xenophobic terms
- Nationalism
- Nativism
- Pauline Hanson
- Racism
- Genocide
- Xenophily
- Xenology
- Xenophobe
- Race and crime
- Tribalism
[edit] 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
[edit] 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
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