Xenophobia and Discriminatory Immigration Policy
Mariam, Undergraduate Student (UM-Dearborn) The United States is a country that was built on the backs of hard working immigrants. Despite this, the US has a long history of xenophobia, or the fear or hatred of immigrants. Early American xenophobia directed towards the Irish immigrants, who were targeted by an anti-Catholic immigrant party that described Irish families as enemies to the country’s democracy. Next came Chinese immigrants, whom the governor of California blamed for social and economic problems plaguing the state in 1876. Later, the Chinese Exclusion Act made Chinese immigration to the US nearly impossible for 61 years. In response to Italians and Europeans from certain regions migrating to America, discriminatory national origin quotas were established in the 1890s to prevent a greater influx of their arrival. Xenophobic rhetoric wrongly spurs on the idea that immigrants are a threat to the citizens of a country, which drives the fear of the citizens and evokes certain actions by both ordinary citizens, politicians, and government authorities. Xenophobia is dangerous because it can drive violence against a group of foreigners, as well as discriminatory immigration policies that negatively affect the lives of immigrants. Policies that push for border closures, refusal of entry for refugees, and mass deportation have the effect of separating immigrant families and keeping them in harm's way. Recent immigration policies have been aimed at restricting specific groups of immigrants from the US. These groups are referred to as the “undesirable immigrants” and are feared or hated because of their foreign ethnicity, cultures and religion. For example, immigrants are collectively accused of being either criminals, drug traffickers, or terrorists in order to drive citizens’ fear and hatred against them. People use the negative stereotypes to attack immigrants and push legislators and federal governments to come up with restrictive immigration policies. More recently, executive orders targeting to block certain groups of immigrants, particularly from Mexico and some Muslim countries, have continued to embed xenophobia within the law. This may have the ability to affect how citizens perceive immigrants from those nations. One of the solutions to the problem of xenophobia is to reduce the negative stereotypes about immigrants in order for the citizens to perceive them as fellow human beings with dignity. When prominent politicians and the government repeatedly attacks an entire nationality or country by labelling them as criminals, citizens will follow suit and attack or discriminate against the foreigners. Additionally, scholars argue that discrimination is perpetrated by an “unjust system of laws and policies” which can be changed to have policies that eliminate discrimination (Pacock and Chan 2018). The media, including social media, also plays a major role in spreading misinformation and discriminatory rhetoric about certain groups of people which plays a role in shaping public discourse. Following the 9/11 attacks, American media was filled with discriminatory rhetoric that accompanied the “war on terror” campaign directly, which increased prejudiced attitudes towards migrants, and international xenophobia (Pacock and Chan 2018). The media can therefore play a critical role in changing the narrative about immigrants and therefore be used to combat negative stereotypes. Ultimately, there is a long history of xenophobia in the US, which is a current and key immigration problem. The fear and hatred of foreigners in the US has been perpetrated by unjust laws and policies that pitch “native” Americans against immigrants from foreign nations. Xenophobia falsely creates the notion that immigrants are dangerous and a threat to the security and welfare of nationals, which drives fear and evokes discriminatory actions against them. These immigrants from the “undesirable” countries such as Mexico and Muslim countries are linked with crimes and other social vices so that they can be unfairly targeted and removed from a nation that supposedly prides itself in being a melting pot of all cultures and religions. References: 1. Anderson-Nathe, Ben, and Kiaras Gharabaghi. 2017. “Trending rightward: Nationalism, xenophobia, and the 2016 politics of fear.” Child & Youth Services 38(1):1–3. 2. Lee, Erika. 2019. “Trump’s xenophobia is an American tradition — but it doesn’t have to be.” Washington Post. 3. Pacock, Nicola, and Clara Chan. 2018. “Refugees, Racism and Xenophobia: What works to reduce discrimination? - Our World.” Our World . Retrieved February 8, 2021 (https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/refugees-racism-and-xenophobia-what-works-to-reduce-discrimination).
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