On Xenophobia
I believe there is a fundamental misunderstanding in many people about why people fear out-group members; people from other cultures, countries or continents. In my personal opinion
Xenophobia is not about race. Or colour. Or dressing. Not even about religion, or ethnicity per se.
It is about the fear of the Unkown - which is a commonplace - so I'll try to take it one step further:
It is ALL about Our beliefs about the possible behaviour of Others.
No one to blame. This is how human psyche works. Still, you can be more aware of it, and stop for a moment to think.
Imagine that you are a Swedish girl in the 19th century. White, blonde with classical germanic traits. Living in Helsingborg, daughter of a sea merchant. Raised in a Catholic family by the norms, ethics and values of a higher-mid-class societal group. You would definitely have a well-tailored set of beliefs regarding how the world was created, how it goes, what our goals are in it, and what it takes to live a normal, socially expected life.
Now, imagine that you were about to go on a month long voyage to Morocco, but you could only afford a shared cabin of the liner. And you were about to choose a same-sex cabin-mate for a month. Tough one, eh?
There are other passengers with whom you can team up: one if them is a young English lady by the name of Margaret who had visited her doctor in Helsingborg, and now travels to the tropics for medical reasons. She is currently up-deck reading the works of Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard. The other person is a black, elderly woman, told to be of Nigerian origins, called Mbawa'unde. A person creating a feeling of true fascination in you, even if mixed with a bit of fear of the unknown. The woman's cheeks are tattooed and she is sporting a classical afro hairstyle, neither of which your eyes could have been used to in your hometown, despite it being a busy seaport. The shaman-looking woman is fully dressed in an authentic,Yoruba tribal gown and constantly murmurs some gibberish in an inexplicable tongue, as if in a ritual. Who would you choose?
Normally, people would team-up with those whom they percieve to be alike them. There is a very simple explanation for that which follows an evolutionarily stable and resaonable logic:
The best way to ensure that no harm will come to me is to control the social environment around myself.
The best way to control the social environment around myself is to predict almost all potential outcomes of any social situations.
The best way to do that is to distinguish between what is possible and what is probable. For I'll need to prepare for the most probable outcome, while I can ignore those which are possible, yet highly unprobable to occur.
In case of an unknown person there is always the unnerving feeling of unpredictability.
Now, I know myself, I know what is good for me and I know what to do or think to ensure my well-being.
The more similar is someone to me, the more probable it is that she/he would see the world in a similar fashion (including the knowledge of what is good for me).
Conversely, the more someone differs from me, the higher chances there are that we see the world differently (including what is good for me).
So, from all possible actions another person can direct towards me I would best predict the probable ones, if I know how that person sees the world. The bigger the similarity between us, the more I can predict his/her behaviour. So, you must see that it's all about the probability of certain behaviours which we have to get prepared for.
But enough of theorizing, let's get practical and see how it works day by day. You find out that your boss is a supporter of the sports team which is the Arch nemesis of yours. It is Friday now, and yesterday your team beat his, making it through to the final of the tournament, which will happen on Sunday evening. You'd like to ask Monday off as an extra holiday to properly celebrate whatever will happen to your team on Sunday evening. It is highly probable that this request will be turned off by him, if he learns your motives for the extra day-off.
How would you proceed? ...
We constantly evaluate probabilites of another person's possible behavioural patterns, just as in this example.
Back to the ship.
You haven't made up your mind who to choose yet. You decide to ask around, see if anyone knows these women, after all you must make an informed choice. After half a day of investigation and to your biggest surprise you find plenty of extra information - seems your fellow passangers know them well. It turns out, that the African woman originally was indeed a tribal healer before turning to become a Christian missionary herself as well.
The young British lady on the other hand is said to be a daughter of an Earl, the head of some blue-blooded, intermarrying aristocrat family. A dangerous practice, which took its toll on the poor lass causing serious mental health issues, mostly anxiety and impulsivity control disorders. She is also told to have secretly poisoned her father and her fiancé at the engagement party since she wanted to escape the arranged marriage. Now, who would you choose as your cabin-mate for a month? See?
It is all about our beliefs regarding how Others might or might not behave.
That's our problem with different-from-us people. We automatically infer that they would behave in an unpredictable or an unwanted way, which will cause us harm. It is a bias that evolved to protect us, but in modern times it takes us further to become aware of the operations of such heuristics, suspend them at least temporarily, and make efforts to learn more about the situation.