Xenophobia

AbstractXenophobia refers to a tendency to distrust, dislike, or be frightened of those people who are considered as foreign, strange, or different. The etymology stems from the Greek wordsxenosandphobos, which literally suggests “an irrational fear of strangers.” However, this literal understanding is not always expedient, because xenophobia may be irrational but could also have a rational basis, fear may be involved but it may not, and the targets of xenophobia may constitute strangers but at the same time they may have been rooted locally for a long time. Ultimately, xenophobia is an aversion to those whom one considers as originating and belonging elsewhere. It is a helpful term for understanding tensions that can exist between people, and has much in common with terms like racism, ethnocentrism, and prejudice. However, it is crucial to distinguish xenophobia from racism in particular as the two are often confused. Whereas racism is a negative attitude toward those who have a different physical appearance from oneself, xenophobia is about having a similar negative attitude toward those who are considered to have originated in a different place from oneself. Racism and xenophobia are often used interchangeably because they often coalesce, operate concurrently, and are characterized by a loathing of mixture between peoples and cultures that are imagined to be pristine.