Xenophobia

Xenophobia is the fear or hatred of, or aversion to, outsiders or foreigners. It is related to prejudice, ethnocentrism, and racism and is a component of genocide and ethnic cleansing. In the context of ethnic community relations, foreigners or outsiders are members of other ethnic, religious, racial, or national groups. Xenophobia is an individual psychological state in that it is experienced by individuals rather than groups. However, in the 1990s, when the term came into popular use, its applicability was broadened to group sentiments and actions, such as French efforts to restrict settlement by people from other nations, attacks by German neo-Nazis on Turks and other foreigners in Germany, and racial and ethnic slurs directed at non-European soccer players in Europe. Most attention in recent years has been given to xenophobia in Europe, with one survey by the European Union in 1997 indicating trends toward xenophobia in 33 percent of Europeans surveyed. To combat the trend, 1997 was designated the European Year Against Racism, and various conventions, commissions, and programs were initiated to educate Europeans.

Little research has been conducted on xenophobia, and consequently, little is known about what emotions and behaviors are in fact xenophobic, whether it occurs in all individuals and all cultures, whether it is rational or irrational, and where it comes from. Xenophobia is linked to ethnocentrism, although not all forms of ethnocentrism involve the extreme hatred and fear that define xenophobia. There have been suggestions that xenophobia has its origins in the fear of strangers, a reaction typical of infants.