Xenophobia: Fear and Hatred

Xenophobia means fear of strangers or hatred of foreigners. The word combines the Greek xenos, stranger, and phobos, fear. It is the name given to a person’s fear and hatred of foreigners or of people who are in some way different from them. It is a fear rooted in the idea that what is different is dangerous.

Looking at the historical roots of hostility towards foreigners, the way ancient Greece called foreigners “barbarians” and looked down on them is an important example. This has been a common pattern throughout history, and today we face similar forms of xenophobia. In ancient Greece, for example, the word “barbarian” was generally used for those who did not speak Greek, and over time it became a sign of a belief in the superiority of a particular culture or group.

We can also observe the deep roots of this anxious state of mind in South African writer J. M. Coetzee’s novel Waiting for the Barbarians. Coetzee’s work shows how historical examples are reflected in the modern world. Today, too, factors such as widespread prejudice against different cultures and ethnic groups, and the media fanning it, keep xenophobia and hostility towards foreigners alive.

As is well known, there are many reasons for hatred of foreigners and migrants. They may rest on economic, political and social factors:

• Widespread prejudice against different cultures and ethnic groups,
• The economic and social changes that migration brings,
• Increased competition in the labour market,
• Anxiety caused by different ways of life,
• The media spreading hatred out of ignorance or deliberately,
• Unacceptable attitudes and negative behaviour of foreigners themselves.

We see that many studies have been carried out to explore and understand the causes and consequences of negative attitudes towards foreigners. A study on xenophobia among young people aged 15 to 32 in Turkey stresses that those with lower incomes are more xenophobic. Interestingly, on the other hand, the level of xenophobia rises as the level of education increases.

I would like to share here two observations I read in an article on the problem of xenophobia and found very important:

• Xenophobia is a form of attitudinal, emotional and behavioural prejudice and, unlike other prejudices, a phenomenon with many dimensions and many causes. Xenophobia is also linked in complex ways to the concepts of nationalism and ethnocentrism. Both concepts are characterised by a belief in the superiority of one’s own nation-state over others.
• Xenophobia and racism are closely related forms of oppression that support each other. Undoubtedly, xenophobia and racism interact and reinforce one another. But racism does not always mean xenophobia. Nor does xenophobia always involve racist attitudes.

There can, of course, be many reasons for hostility towards foreigners. Knowing them will help us understand the origins of prejudice and find solutions.

Looking at the statistics, we see that the countries hosting the most refugees in the world were, as of 2023, led by Iran, Turkey and Germany.

Reactions against foreigners are growing in both Germany and Turkey. For now, we can see the simple fact that they host such large numbers of people in need of protection as one factor fuelling this.

Empathy

At this point I would like to share a personal experience.

In the society I live in, I have come across such people and such negative examples that, after what I saw and heard myself, I thought I could not understand the hatred directed at foreigners any better.

In the local aid activities I took part in as a volunteer, I heard true stories from very young people. I met old men, grey in hair and beard, trying to hold on to life again. I listened to so many stories that I realised there may be reasons that drive people to behave in a certain way, and how little effort I had made to understand people and accept them in their own situation.

Once, for example, I listened to the story of a young Afghan who had seen the inside of a school for only a few years in his whole life and had fled his country as a child. He told of his journey through Turkey and Greece to Germany. I heard how in Turkey he had to work for low wages and without insurance, almost as forced labour, and about the years he spent in refugee camps in Greece. Yet in some people’s eyes he was just “a lazy refugee living off the taxes they pay”.

Cases Where Hatred Towards Foreigners Stems from Themselves

• Our bad experiences,
• Our prejudices,
• Certain facts as plain as day,
• Statistics,
• Negative examples
• Or our selfishness…

Sadly, at some point all of us tend to make generalisations.

Yet an unjust act or a crime committed by a person should be judged independently of their ethnic origin or where they come from.

I do not ignore this either: perhaps knowing where a person comes from may help us, or make it easier, to solve a problem at its root. For example, the reasons for the high crime rates among young, single male migrants and refugees from Africa and Syria may concern criminologists, social scientists, academics and politicians when it comes to taking precautions. But producing generalising, hate-spreading news that targets all migrants and refugees on the basis of such negative examples, or politicians turning migrants into material for cheap politics with populist rhetoric, is utterly merciless.

Besides all this, a person who throws rubbish on the ground, works illegally or shows no respect for the people living in the same building does not need to be a foreigner to draw the hatred of those around them. Unfortunately, as a saying attributed to Einstein puts it, breaking the prejudices formed by looking at such negative examples is harder than splitting the atom.

So while foreigners try to understand the reasons for the negative views directed at them, they should also make their own effort to break down prejudices. 

(Negative) Discrimination

In general, the discrimination foreigners face, whether through degrading words and actions or through being treated differently, is an obstacle to their social integration. It is truly painful to be subjected to rude and inhuman treatment you do not deserve by someone who does not know you and does not even have an opinion about you.

Many examples of negative discrimination and humiliation can be given:

• Certain statements and actions: “Foreigners are lazy”, “They are taking our jobs”, “Foreigners are criminals”,
• Belittling people for speaking their mother tongue.
• Discrimination based on religion and belief (antisemitism, Islamophobia, hostility towards Alevis),
• Discrimination in hiring,
• Difficulties in renting and buying housing,
• Social exclusion,
• Foreign pupils being subjected to discrimination at school, and so on.

Every contribution made to the fight against discrimination in society is invaluable for the positive contribution it makes to a culture of living together in peace.

We will continue our series on migration with the topic of integration and two examples, one negative and one positive.