Recent protests in South Africa against the presence of Nigerian and Zimbabwean immigrants placed a renewed focus on the sheer universality of xenophobia. Regardless of race, religion, or social class, narratives of immigrants stealing jobs from locals and indulging in criminal activities have permeated political discourses across the globe. These negative sentiments have contributed to a worldwide interpersonal phenomenon of isolationism in the age of globalization, wherein people unquestioningly pledge their allegiance to arbitrarily delineated borders and contrived constructions of ‘national identity’.
The most recent demonstrations against foreigners in South Africa are just the latest iteration of xenophobic protests that have surfaced in the nation over the past decade, with similar movements arising in 2015, 2017, and 2019.
Similarly, Venezuelan refugees and asylum seekers in South America—who emigrate to escape hyperinflation, poverty, food and medicinal shortages, crime, and rampant political corruption and suppression—are treated with disdain across the continent. They have borne the brunt of public scorn in Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, and Colombia, to name but a few of the countries where Venezuelans have sought refuge.
Likewise, guest workers and expatriates in Singapore are subjected to “racist, aggressive, and militarized rhetoric”, where the blame for economic inequality and government mismanagement is laid at the feet of immigrants.
There is also a burgeoning anti-immigrant sentiment across Europe, with the rise of far-right parties capitalizing on these simmering feelings of hatred against non-Europeans. These trends have been observed in France, Germany, the United Kingdom (UK), Italy, Hungary, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Bulgaria, and Finland, demonstrating that these attitudes are not limited to one region of Europe; rather, they are prevalent across the continent. In fact, they are even present between European nations as well, with Eastern European immigrants from Poland, Romania, and Lithuania often reporting discrimination due to their nationality in the United Kingdom (UK).
In the United States (US), this anti-immigrant rhetoric is passed down right from the highest levels of government, with President Donald Trump implementing a ban on travelers from Muslim countries, calling Mexican immigrants “rapists and criminals”, and decrying that the US offers visas to citizens from “shithole countries” like Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Sudan, and Haiti.
Australia has for decades welcomed thousands of immigrants from Lebanon, Greece, China, Vietnam, India, and Italy, many of whom have reported systemic racism and mistreatment on the basis of their country of origin. In recent times, more immigrants have been arriving at Australian shores from Africa, and many of them are treated like criminals, thieves, second-class citizens, and even sub-human.
North Koreans who defect to the South to escape imprisonment, torture, starvation, rape, and public executions experience “mistreatment, discrimination, and alienation” when they cross the border into their new host country. South Koreans perceive them as “cold-blooded” and “helpless” communists, despite belonging to the same race and hailing from what is essentially the same land.
India is one of the foremost contributing countries to immigrant populations around the globe; yet, ironically, the country itself is plagued by anti-immigrant sentiments. Bangladeshi migrants, for instance, are treated as infiltrators. As Raja Singh, a member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) publicly proclaimed, “If these Rohingyas and Bangladeshi illegal immigrants do not leave India respectfully, then they should be shot and eliminated,” calling them “pests” and adding, “Only then will our country be safe.”
In the same vein, Mexico, which is most frequently at the receiving end of Trump’s vitriolic anti-immigrant rants, is home to the same pervasive beliefs. In fact, 51% of Mexicans favor the use of the National Guard to “combat the migration of undocumented Central Americans in Mexico”, which is identical to the percentage of Americans who favor a similar policy to combat the migration of Mexicans into the US. In addition, 55% of Mexicans endorse deporting Central American refugees rather than giving them temporary residency. Furthermore, 63% of Mexicans support closing the border with Guatemala, while 67% are in favor of militarizing all entry points into the country. Their reasoning is virtually indistinguishable from their far-right counterparts in the US, with citizens of both countries saying that immigrants take jobs away from locals and indulge in crime.
These cases point to the ubiquity of xenophobia, and the examples of South Africa and South Korea in particular suggest that these sentiments aren’t necessarily tied to race or religion. This could perhaps indicate that anti-immigrant attitudes are derived purely from national boundaries, wherein those who aren’t born within a country’s borders are actively ‘otherized’.
However, this deduction essentially gives a free pass to the clearly racist bile spewed by Trump, Orbán, and the like. While it is certainly inarguable that xenophobia is universal, it is also evident that immigrants from certain countries are more ‘desirable’ than others.
For example, visa applicants from African countries are the least likely to obtain a Canadian temporary resident visa (TRV), with the approval rate for applicants from the continent falling by 18.4% between 2015 and 2018. Some might counter that this is part of an overall decrease in visa approval rates, given that the approval rates for applicants from the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Latin America and the Caribbean also fell during these years. However, it is telling that the approval rate for visa applicants from Europe rose by 4.4% during this same period.
In the same way, when Trump said that he wanted fewer immigrants from “shithole countries”, he also said in the same breath that “We should have more people from places like Norway.” Likewise, while India’s newly unveiled Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) offers a path to citizenship for refugees escaping religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, it does not extend the same courtesy to Muslims from those same countries. This is hardly an oversight or coincidental, considering that politicians from the ruling party describe Muslim migrants as “pests” and harbingers of crime.
However, while xenophobia doesn’t necessarily have to be tied to race or religion, human beings are perhaps predisposed to either search for or invent other differences between themselves, such as caste, language, tribes, and socioeconomic status. Creating such divisions allows them to limit the equitable distribution of resources in this zero-sum world.
National borders and identities do hold some value, in terms of promulgating diverse cultures, customs, and traditions. However, they are ultimately social constructs and do not exist independent of our understanding and creation of them. If these constructs are intentionally made to be exclusionary and prevent people from living a comfortable life, then they are either not worth holding onto so dearly, or they require a seismic reimagination.
Are Anti-Immigrant Sentiments Derived Solely From National Borders?
Xenophobia doesn’t necessarily have to be tied to race or religion, as human beings are perhaps predisposed to either search for or invent other differences between themselves.
October 13, 2020
IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGESUS President Donald Trump has called for tighter controls on immigration and expedited deportations of undocumented immigrants.