XENOPHOBIA
A FEAR OF STRANGERS
Prof. Dr Zorica Mršević
Deputy 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:
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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
information
thus 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:
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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
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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
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Ethnic cleansing Enthocide
Gay Bashing Genocide
Hate crime
Lynching Pogrom Race war
Religious persecution
Slavery
Movements
Discriminatory
Anti discriminatory
Discriminatory
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American Nazi Party
Aryanism
Grey Wolfs
Ku Klux Klan
Neo Nazism
South African National Party
Supremacism
Anti discriminatory
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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
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Civil rights
Desegregation
Emancipation
Integration
Equal opportunities
Gender equality