Xenophobia is a dislike/prejudice against people from other countries. Its origin was from a brace of words found in Ancient Greek: Xenos, which means stranger/guest, and Phobos, which means flight/fear.
Some examples of xenophobia include acts of discrimination or/and violence against Latinx, Mexican and Middle Eastern immigrants. It often overlaps with some forms of prejudice (including racism and homophobia), but there are distinctions. Racism, homophobia and more are based on other specific characteristics. Xenophobia is mainly rooted in the perception that members outside the community are “foreign” to the inside group.
As crazy as it sounds, there are symptoms of this phobia. Some typical signs include: feeling uncomfortable around people of different groups, doing significant changes to avoid particular areas, refusing to interact with people because of their skin colour, mode of dress, or any other external factors, difficulty of connecting with a teammate because they don’t fall in the same cultural, racial or religious group.
Whether xenophobia qualifies as a mental disorder is still a subject of debate. It may represent an actual fear, though most xenophobes do not have a true phobia. This term is most often used to describe people who discriminate against immigrants or/and foreigners. People who express this phobia usually believe that their culture/nation is superior and want to keep immigrants out of what they like to think of as their community. Some may even engage in detrimental actions to the people perceived as outsiders.
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