The word xenophobia is popularly used to account for the hatred, suspicion, hostility and rejection that a person or group shows towards an individual or a group.
Although, also, the word is usually used to formally designate the type of phobia that someone can manifest towards ethnic groups other than their own or towards people whose social, political and cultural appearance is unknown.
As with racism, xenophobia can be classified as an ideology of rejection, which will tend to the social exclusion of anyone who does not share the same cultural identity. It will only differ from racism in that it does not imply a feeling of racial or cultural superiority, although as he, too, will proclaim cultural segregation, yes, they will accept immigrants and foreigners as long as they comply with the socio-cultural assimilation that they maintain. and propose.
The arguments on which xenophobia is based, such as religious, historical, cultural prejudices or already considered opinions, always tend to justify the total and obligatory separation of the different ethnic groups with the sole objective of not "corrupting" one's own culture and thus favoring one's own identity, which would otherwise be seriously resented.. For example, in the case of some communities, both their own and those staunch defenders of the same, tend to wield, to justify the prohibition of entering their territories, which in this way are preventing the same, still pure of some issues, they get intoxicated from the worst of human beings.
Too, xenophobia, will reject and exclude those foreigners who have achieved very little integration in the country to which they emigrated. In this case, responsibilities could be wielded from both sides, on the one hand, those who arrive and who do not show interest in integrating to the new customs and, on the other, the native inhabitants who are inhospitable, taking away from foreigners the desire to participate more actively and also feel that they are owners of the country.
The economic and social crises that some countries suffered towards the end of the 20th century was something like a starting point for the unleashing of the most brutal aggressive manifestations of xenophobia that could be seen reflected, from the most innocent graffiti and posters, to attacks. melee among diverse groups in which armed violence was the common denominator.
Some concepts spilled from the top of a government, and even sometimes those spilled from the media, where foreign customs and cultures are often presented as super strange dimensions and worthy of the greatest care, contribute to arousing xenophobic feelings among the population. to which they belong.
According to some psychological currents that have studied in depth the issue of the origin of xenophobia, it is due to a distortion of perception and that those who suffer from it make them greatly overvalue their culture, their race, their tradition over the others.
