XENOPHOBIA

A FEAR OF STRANGERS

Prof. Dr Zorica MrševićDeputy Ombudsman of Serbia

A fear of strangers

• Fear of or aversion to

• Persons from other countries

• Other cultures, subcultures and subsets of belief systems

In short:

Anyone who meets any list of criteria about their:

– origin – religion – personal beliefs – habits– language– orientations, or – any other criteria

Xenophobia consists of two parts:

• Xeno (a combining form meaning "guest, stranger, person that looks different, foreigner")

• and

• Phobia ("fear, horror or aversion, especially if morbid").[

“Target" group is a set of persons

• Not accepted by the society

• Only the phobic person need hold the belief that the target group is not (or should not be) accepted by society

Phobic person

• Is aware of the aversion (even hatred) of the target group

• They may not identify it or accept it as a fear

Xenophobia is similar to:

• Racism

• Prejudice

• Discrimination

Racism 1

• is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and

• that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.

In the case of institutional racism

• Certain racial groups may be denied rights or benefits, or

• get preferential treatment

• while reverse racism

• favors members of a historically disadvantaged group at the expense of those of a historically advantaged group.

Racism 2

• Racial discrimination typically points out taxonomic differences between different groups of people,

• Even though anybody can be racialised, independently of their somatic differences.

According to the UN conventions: there is no distinction between the term

racial discrimination and ethnic discrimination.

A prejudice

• Is an implicitly held belief, often about a group of people.

• Race, economic class, gender or sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age and religion are other common subjects of prejudice.

Prejudices are abstract-general preconceptions

or abstract-general attitudes

Towards any type of situation object or person.

Forms of prejudice

Tree types

• Cognitive Prejudice refers to what people believe to be true

• Affective Prejudice refers to what people like and dislike: for example, in attitudes toward members of particular clasess such as race, ethnicity, national origin, or creed.

• Conative Prejudice refers to how people are inclined to behave.

Examples

• Someone may believe that a particular group possesses low levels of intelligence, but harbour no ill feeling towards that group.

• A group may be disliked because of intense competition for jobs, but still recognise no differences between groups.

Traditional psychologists described

prejudice a result of frustration

Personality approach

• Classical explanation on prejudice concerns the personalities which create tendency on prejudice against minorities.

• Psychologists suggested various personalities contributing to discrimination, including authoritariarism, dogmatism, closed-mindedness, dominant orientation, etc

People having these personalities

refuse to accept belief-contradicting

informationthus remain their stereotype

on the prejudiced group.

Intergroup approach

• Social psychologists explain prejudice as the effect of group interaction.

• When we are identified with a group, we show some general characteristics including:

• Ethnocentrism,

• ingroup favoritism,

• intergroup differentiation

• and so on,

• which contribute to prejudice.

Learning theories

provide a way of understanding how behaviour develops and

propagates among generations

Parents/child

• Although, empirical results often showed significant correlation between parents’ and child’s attitude,

• The correlation is typically low especially after the child grew up.

• Learning theory can only explain part of the reason behind prejudice.

• Learning theorists suggest that prejudice is learned from others

• and therefore

• Are unable to explain how prejudice emerges from the very beginning.

Subjective uncertainty reduction theory

people are motivated to reduce subjective uncertainty

by identifying with social groups

Discrimination

• Treatment taken toward or against a person of a certain group that is taken in consideration based on class or category.

• The UN explains: "Discriminatory behaviours take many forms, but they all involve some form of exclusion or rejection."

Types of discrimination

• INDIVIDUAL

• INSTITUTIONAL

• STRUCTURAL

CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION

AGAINST WOMEN

UN

CEDAW

Article I

• For the purposes of the present Convention, the term "discrimination against women" shall mean

• Any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex

which has the effect or purpose of

• impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women,

• irrespective of their marital status,

• on a basis of equality of men and women,

• of human rights and

• fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.

Racial discrimination

• Racial discrimination differentiates between individuals on the basis of real and perceived racial differences.

• It has been official government policy in several countries, such as South Africa in the apartheid era, and the USA.

Sociological definition of racism

• Racism is a system of group privilege.

• “Culturally sanctioned beliefs, which, regardless of intentions involved,

• Defend the advantages whites have because of the subordinated position of racial minorities

Xenophobia

there are two main objects of the phobia

The first object

• 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

• or

• Became part of this society through conquest and territorial expansion.

This form of xenophobia can elicit or facilitate

hostile and violent reactions, such as

mass expulsion of immigrants, pogroms

or in the worst case, genocide.

The second form of xenophobia is primarily cultural

The objects of the phobia are cultural elements which are

considered alien.

Cultural xenophobia

• Is often narrowly directed

• At foreign loan words in a national language.

• It rarely leads to aggression against individual persons.

Can Result In

• Political campaigns for cultural or linguistic purification.

• Isolationism is a general aversion of foreign affairs, is not accurately described as xenophobia.

Cultural xenophobia

• It can be used to characterize beliefs about other things as well,

• Including "any unreasonable attitude that is unusually resistant to rational influence

Xenophily or xenophilia means an affection for unknown objects or human

beings.

It is the opposite of xenophobia or xenophoby.

Origin

Greek "xenos" (stranger, unknown, foreign)

and

"philos" (love, attraction).

In common usage it means

• An attraction to foreign peoples, cultures, or customs.

• For example,

• A person may date someone of another race not because they like them as people but specifically because they are different.

Xenophilia

• Xenophilia is a theme found in science fiction

• In which one explores the consequences of love and sexual intercourse

• Between humans and non-humans, including extraterrestrials.

• In the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a character named Xenophilius Lovegood (the father of one of Harry Potter's more eccentric friends, Luna Lovegood)

• Is characterized by his interest in unusual or unknown objects, animals, and concepts.

George Washington, in his 1796 Farewell Address

described the influence xenophily in politics,

which he saw as negative

A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils.

Sympathy for the favorite nation

• Facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest

• In cases where no real common interest exists, and

• Infusing into one the enmities of the other

• Betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter

• Without adequate inducement or justification.

It leads also

• To concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions.

• A disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld.

It gives to

• Ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation)

• Facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, sometimes even with popularity

Avenues to foreign influence

• As in innumerable ways

• Such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot.

• How many opportunities do they afford to:

• Practice the arts of seduction

• Mislead public opinion

• Influence or awe the public councils.

Such an attachment of a small or weak

towards a great and powerful nation dooms the former

to be the satellite of the latter

Mapping Discrimination

• General Forms

• Social

• Manifestations

• Movements

• Policies

Discrimination - General Forms

• Ageism

• Colorism

• Racism

• Religious intolerance

• Sexism

• Xenophobia

Social

• Ableism Adultism Classism Elitism

• Gerontophobia Heightism Heterosexism

• Heteronormativity Homophobia

• Lesbophobia Lookism Misogyny Transphobia

• Against cultures Against religions

Manifestations

• Ethnic cleansing Enthocide

• Gay Bashing Genocide

• Hate crime

• Lynching Pogrom Race war

• Religious persecution

• Slavery

Movements

Discriminatory

Anti discriminatory

Discriminatory

• American Nazi Party

• Aryanism

• Grey Wolfs

• Ku Klux Klan

• Neo Nazism

• South African National Party

• Supremacism

Anti discriminatory

• Abolitionism

• Children’s rights

• Civil rights

• Disability rights

• Egalitarianism

• LGBT rights

• Feminism, Women’s rights, Women’s Universal suffrage

• Youth rights

Policies

Discriminatory

Anti discriminatory

Discriminatory

• Apartheid

• Race/ religion/ Sex segregation

• Numerus Clausus

Anti-discriminatory

• Civil rights

• Desegregation

• Emancipation

• Integration

• Equal opportunities

• Gender equality