Americas Brazil Despite the majority of the country's population being of mixed (
Pardo), African, or indigenous heritage, depictions of non-European Brazilians on the programming of most national television networks is scarce and typically relegated for musicians/their shows. In the case of
telenovelas, Brazilians of
darker skin tone are typically depicted as housekeepers or in positions of lower socioeconomic standing.
Canada Muslim and
Sikh Canadians have faced racism and discrimination in recent years, especially since the 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. and the spillover effect of the United States'
war on terror. An increase in hate crimes targeting
Ontario Muslims was reported after
ISIS took responsibility for the
November 2015 Paris attacks. A 2016 survey from The Environics Institute, which was a follow-up to a study conducted 10 years prior, found that there may be discriminating attitudes that may be a residual of the effects of the
11 September 2001 attacks in the United States. A poll in 2009 by ''
Maclean's'' revealed that 28% of Canadians viewed
Islam favourably, and 30% viewed the Sikh religion favourably. 45% of respondents believed Islam encourages violence. In
Quebec in particular, only 17% of respondents had a favourable view of Islam.
Colombia According to the
UNHCR, by June 2019, 1.3 million of the 4 million
Venezuelan refugees were in
Colombia. Because of their urgent situation, many migrants from Venezuela crossed the border illegally, indicating they had few opportunities to gain "access to legal and other rights or basic services and are exposed to exploitation, abuse, manipulation and a wide range of other protection risks, including racism, discrimination and xenophobia". Since the start of the migrant crisis, media outlets and state officials have raised concerns about increasing discrimination against migrants in the country, especially xenophobia and violence against the migrants.
Mexico Racism in Mexico has a long history. Historically, Mexicans with light skin tones had absolute control over dark skinned Amerindians due to the structure of the Spanish colonial caste system. When a Mexican of a darker-skinned tone marries one of a lighter skinned-tone, it is common for them say that they are 'making the race better' (
mejorando la raza)". This can be interpreted as a self-attack on their ethnicity. Despite improving economic and social conditions of indigenous Mexicans, discrimination against them continues to this day and there are few laws to protect indigenous Mexicans from discrimination. Violent attacks against indigenous Mexicans are moderately common and many times go unpunished. On 15 March 1911, a band of
Maderista soldiers entered
Torreón, Mexico, and
massacred 303 Chinese and five Japanese. Historian Larissa Schwartz argues that
Kang Youwei had successfully organized the prosperous Chinese businessmen there, making them a visible target for class antagonism made extreme by xenophobia. The Chinese were easy to identify in northern cities and were frequent targets especially in Sonora in the 1930s. Systematic persecution resulted from economic, political, and psychological fears of the Chinese, and the government showed little interest in protecting them. Theresa Alfaro-Velcamp argues that the Porfiriato, 1876–1910 promoted immigration from the Middle East. However the revolution of 1910–20 saw a surge in xenophobia and nationalism based on "mestizaje." The community divided into the economically prosperous
Lebanese Mexicans who took pride in a distinct Lebanese-Mexican identity, while the downscale remainder often merged into the mestizo community. Racism against indigenous people has been a current problem in Mexico. Domestic workers, many of whom are indigenous women who have moved from rural villages to cities, often face discrimination including verbal, physical or sexual abuse.
Panama Peter Szok argues that when the United States brought in large numbers of laborers from the Caribbean—called "
Afro-Panamanians"—to build the
Panama Canal (1905–1914), xenophobia emerged. The local elite in Panama felt its culture was threatened: they cried out, "La Patria es el Recuerdo." ("The Homeland is the Memory") and developed a Hispanophile elitist identity through an artistic literary movement known as "Hispanismo." Another result was the election of the "overtly nationalist and anti-imperialist"
Arnulfo Arias as president in 1940.
Peru Racism against indigenous people is a current problem in Peru. Domestic workers, many of whom are indigenous women who have moved from rural villages to cities, often face discrimination including verbal, physical or sexual abuse. Due to
Tren de Aragua's heavy presence in
Lima, there were increased sentiments of xenophobia against Venezuelans. Following clashes between Peruvians and Venezuelan migrants at the
Gamarra Market in Lima, the "Los Gallegos" chapter of the Tren de Aragua released a video stating: "There will be no peace for Peruvians who support xenophobia. We will begin to kill all Peruvian mototaxi drivers.
Venezuela In Venezuela, like other South American countries, economic inequality often breaks along ethnic and racial lines. A 2013 Swedish academic study stated that Venezuela was the most racist country in the Americas, Discrimination against racial, ethnic, and religious minorities is widely acknowledged, especially in the case of African Americans and African Diasporic peoples in the United States, as well as other ethnic groups. Members of every major American ethnic and religious minority group have perceived discrimination in their dealings with members of other minority racial and religious groups. Philosopher
Cornel West has argued that "racism is an integral element within the very fabric of American culture and society. It is embedded in the country's first collective definition, enunciated in its subsequent laws, and imbued in its dominant way of life." A 2019 survey by the
Pew Research Center suggested that 76% of black and Asian respondents had experienced some form of discrimination, at least from time to time. Studies which have been conducted by the
PNAS and
Nature have found that during traffic stops, officers spoke to black men in a less respectful tone than they spoke to white men and those same studies have also found that black drivers are more likely to be pulled over and searched by police than white drivers. Black people are also reportedly overrepresented as criminals in the media. In 2020 the
COVID-19 epidemic was often blamed on China, leading to attacks on Chinese Americans. This represents a continuation of xenophobic attacks on Chinese Americans for 150 years.
Asia Bhutan In 1991–92,
Bhutan is said to have deported between 10,000 and 100,000 ethnic Nepalis (
Lhotshampa). The actual number of refugees who were initially deported is debated by both sides. In March 2008, this population began a multiyear resettlement in third countries including the U.S, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia.
China The Boxers The
Boxer Rebellion was a violent anti-foreign,
anti-Christian, and
anti-imperialist uprising which occurred in China between 1899 and 1901. It was led by a new group, the ‘Militia United in Righteousness', the group was popularly known as the
Boxers because many of its members had practiced
Chinese martial arts, at the time, these martial arts were popularly referred to as Chinese Boxing. After China's defeat in war by Japan in 1895, villagers in North China feared the expansion of
foreign spheres of influence and resented the extension of privileges to Christian missionaries. In a severe drought, Boxer violence spread across
Shandong and the
North China Plain, destroying foreign property, attacking or murdering Christian missionaries and
Chinese Christians. In June 1900, Boxer fighters, convinced that they were invulnerable to foreign weapons, converged on
Beijing, and their slogan was "Support the Qing government and exterminate the foreigners." Diplomats, missionaries, soldiers and some Chinese Christians took refuge in the diplomatic
Legation Quarter. They were besieged for 55 days by the Imperial Army of the Chinese government and the Boxers. George Makari says that the Boxers, "promoted a violent
hatred of all those from other lands and made no effort to distinguish the beneficent from the rapacious ones.... They were unabashedly xenophobic." The Boxers were overthrown by an
Eight Nation Alliance of American, Austro-Hungarian, British, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Russian troops—20,000 in all—that invaded China to lift the siege in August 1900. The allies imposed the
Boxer Protocol in 1901, with a massive annual cash indemnity to be paid by the Chinese government. The episode generated worldwide attention and denunciation of xenophobia.
Chinese nationalism and xenophobia Historian
Mary C. Wright has argued that the combination of
Chinese nationalism and xenophobia had a major impact on the Chinese worldview in the first half of the 20th century. Examining the bitterness and hatred which existed towards
Americans and
Europeans in the decades before the
Communist takeover in 1949, she argues:The crude fear of the white peril that the
last imperial dynasty had been able to exploit in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 had been submerged but not overcome, and expanding special privileges of foreigners were irritants in increasingly wide spheres of Chinese life. These fears and irritations provided a mass sounding board for what otherwise might have been rather arid denunciations of imperialists. It is well to remember that both Nationalists and Communists have struck this note.
COVID-19 In China, xenophobia against non-Chinese residents has been inflamed by the
COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China, with foreigners being described as "foreign garbage" and targeted for "disposal". Some
black people in China were evicted from their homes by police and told to leave China within 24 hours, due to disinformation that they and other foreigners were spreading the virus. Expressions of Chinese xenophobia and discriminatory practices, such as the exclusion of black customers from restaurants, were criticized by foreign governments and members of the diplomatic corps.
Hong Kong Black people in Hong Kong have experienced negative comments and instances of discrimination in the job market and on public transport. Expats and South Asian minorities have faced increased xenophobia during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Persecution of Uighurs Since 2017, China has come under intense international criticism for its treatment of one million Muslims (the majority of them are
Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic minority mostly in
Xinjiang) who are being held in
detention camps without any legal process. Critics of the policy have described it as the
Sinicization of Xinjiang and some have also called it an
ethnocide or a
cultural genocide.
Indonesia A number of discriminatory laws against
Chinese Indonesians were enacted by the government of
Indonesia. In 1959, President
Sukarno approved
PP 10/1959 that forced Chinese Indonesians to close their businesses in rural areas and relocate into urban areas. Moreover, political pressures in the 1970s and 1980s restricted the role of the Chinese Indonesian in politics, academics, and the military. As a result, they were thereafter constrained professionally to becoming entrepreneurs and professional managers in trade, manufacturing, and banking. In 1998,
Indonesia riots over higher food prices and rumors of hoarding by merchants and shopkeepers often degenerated into anti-Chinese attacks. Native
Papuans in the country have faced racism, and several reports have accused Indonesia of committing a "
slow-motion genocide" in
West Papua. Hostility towards the LGBT community has been recently reported, especially in
Aceh.
Japan During its Edo period, Japan had successfully isolated itself from the outside world, allowing anti-foreign sentiments and myths to multiply unchecked by actual observation. In 2005, a United Nations report expressed concerns about racism in Japan and it also stated that the government's recognition of the depth of the problem was not total. The author of the report,
Doudou Diène (
Special Rapporteur of the
UN Commission on Human Rights), concluded after a nine-day investigation that racial discrimination and xenophobia in Japan primarily affected three groups:
national minorities,
Latin Americans of Japanese descent, mainly
Japanese Brazilians, and foreigners from poor countries. Surveys conducted in 2017 and 2019 have shown that 40 to nearly 50% of the foreigners who were surveyed have experienced some form of discrimination. Another report has also noted differences in how the media and some Japanese treat visitors from the West as compared to those from East Asia, with the latter being viewed much less positively than the former. Japan accepted just 16
refugees in 1999, while the United States took in 85,010 for resettlement, according to the UNHCR. New Zealand, which is 30 times smaller than Japan, accepted 1,140 refugees in 1999. Just 305 persons were recognized as refugees by Japan from 1981, when Japan ratified the UN
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, to 2002. Former Prime Minister
Taro Aso called Japan a "one race" nation. A 2019
Ipsos poll also suggested that Japanese respondents had a relatively lower sympathy for refugees compared to most other countries in the survey. Sharon Yoon and Yuki Asahina argue that
Zaitokukai, a right-wing organization, succeeded in framing Korean minorities as undeserving recipients of Japanese welfare benefits. Even as Zaitokukai declined, the perceptions of a Korean internal threat powerfully influences public fears.
Malaysia The racial tension between the dominant poor
Malay Muslims and the minority wealthier Chinese has long characterized Malaysia. It was a major factor in the
separation of Singapore in 1965 to become an independent, primarily Chinese nation. Amy L. Freedman points to the electoral system, the centrality of ethnic parties, gerrymandering, and systematic discrimination against the Chinese in education and jobs as critical factors in xenophobia. Recently the goal of creating a more inclusive national identity has been emphasized. In Malaysia, xenophobia occurs regardless of race. Most xenophobia is towards foreign labourers, who normally came from Indonesia,
Bangladesh and Africa. There is also a significant degree of xenophobia towards neighbouring Singaporeans and Indonesians.
South Korea Xenophobia in South Korea has been recognized by scholars and the United Nations as a widespread social problem. An increase in
immigration to South Korea since the 2000s catalyzed more overt expressions of racism, as well as criticism of those expressions. In a 2010–2014
World Values Survey, 44.2% of South Koreans reported they would not want an immigrant or foreign worker as a neighbor. Racist attitudes are more commonly expressed towards immigrants from other Asian countries and Africa, and less so towards European and white North American immigrants who can occasionally receive what has been described as "overly kind treatment". Related discrimination have also been reported with regards to mixed-race children,
Chinese Korean, and North Korean immigrants.
Middle East In 2008, a
Pew Research Center survey found that negative views concerning Jews were most common in the three predominantly Arab nations which were polled, with 97% of Lebanese having an unfavorable opinion of Jews, 95% of Egyptians and 96% of Jordanians.
Egypt The Egyptian
Muslim Brotherhood leader
Mohammed Mahdi Akef has denounced what he called "the myth of
the Holocaust" in defense of the former-Iranian president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
denial of it. In an article in October 2000 columnist Adel Hammoda alleged in the state-owned Egyptian newspaper
al-Ahram that Jews make
Matza from the blood of non-Jewish children (see
Blood libel). Mohammed Salmawy, the editor of
Al-Ahram Hebdo, "defended the use of old European myths like the blood libel against Jews" in his newspapers.
Jordan Jordan does not allow entry to Jews who have visible signs of Judaism or possess personal religious items. The Jordanian ambassador to Israel replied to a complaint by a religious Jew who was denied entry by stating that security concerns required that travelers who are entering the Hashemite Kingdom should not do so with prayer shawls (
Tallit) and phylacteries (
Tefillin). Jordanian authorities state that the policy is to ensure the Jewish tourists' safety. In July 2009, six
Breslov Hasidim were deported after attempting to enter Jordan to visit the tomb of
Aaron / Sheikh Harun on
Mount Hor, near
Petra. The group had taken a ferry from
Sinai, Egypt because they understood that Jordanian authorities were making it hard for visible Jews to enter their country from Israel.
Israel !" reportedly sprayed by settlers on a house in
Hebron According to the 2004 U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for Israel and the Occupied Territories, the Israeli government had done "little to reduce institutional, legal, and societal discrimination against the country's Arab citizens." The 2005
US Department of State report on Israel wrote: "[T]he government generally respected the human rights of its citizens; however, there were problems in some areas, including... institutional, legal, and societal discrimination against the country's
Arab citizens." The 2010 U.S. State Department Country Report stated that Israeli law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, and the Israeli government effectively enforced these prohibitions. Former
Likud MK and Minister of Defense
Moshe Arens has criticized the treatment of minorities in Israel, saying that they did not bear the full obligation of Israeli citizenship, nor were they extended the full privileges of citizenship. The
Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) published reports which documented racism in Israel, and the 2007 report suggested that
anti-Arab racism was increasing in the country. One analysis of the report summarized it thus: "Over two-thirds of Israeli teens believe that Arabs are less intelligent, uncultured and violent. The Israeli government spokesman responded that the Israeli government was "committed to fighting racism whenever it raises its ugly head and is committed to full equality to all Israeli citizens, irrespective of ethnicity, creed or background, as defined by our declaration of independence". Khaled Diab of
The Guardian wrote in 2012 that demonisation was a two-way street, with Palestinians in Israel reportedly holding negative stereotypes of Israelis as devious, violent, cunning and untrustworthy. A 2018 poll by Pew Research Center also suggested there to be particularly widespread anti-refugee sentiment among surveyed Israelis compared to the people from other selected countries. Israeli people also have a long history of discrimination towards Palestinians
Kuwait In April 2020, an actress said on Kuwaiti TV that migrants should be thrown out "into the desert", amidst reported exploitation of foreign labourers in the country. Reports of Sierra Leonean, Indonesian and Nepalese workers suffering abuse in Kuwait have prompted the 3 countries' governments to ban its citizens from being employed as domestic workers there. Expat surveys done by InterNations have ranked the country amongst the most unfriendly for expatriates.
Lebanon Hezbollah's
Al-Manar TV channel has often been accused of airing antisemitic broadcasts, accusing the Jews/
Zionists of
conspiring against the Arab world, and frequently airing excerpts from
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which the
Encyclopædia Britannica describes as a "fraudulent document which served as a pretext and rationale for anti-Semitism in the early 20th century". In another incident, an Al-Manar commentator recently referred to "Zionist attempts to transmit
AIDS to Arab countries". Al-Manar officials denied broadcasting any antisemitic incitement and they also stated that their group's position is anti-Israeli, not antisemitic. However, Hezbollah has directed strong rhetoric against both Israel and Jews, and it has cooperated in publishing and distributing outright antisemitic literature. The government of Lebanon has not criticized Hezbollah's continued broadcast of antisemitic material on television. There are also substantial accounts of abuses against
migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, notably from Ethiopia, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and other countries in Asia and Africa, exacerbated by the
Kafala system, or "sponsorship system". Increases in abuse occurred during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Palestine Various Palestinian organizations and individuals have been regularly accused of being antisemitic.
Howard Gutman believes that much of Muslim hatred of Jews stems from the ongoing
Arab–Israeli conflict and that peace would significantly reduce
antisemitism. Anti-US and anti-Israeli sentiment had led some Palestinians to support the 2001
September 11 attacks in New York. In August 2003, senior
Hamas official Dr
Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rantisi wrote in the Hamas newspaper
Al-Risala:It is no longer a secret that the Zionists were behind the Nazis' murder of many Jews, and agreed to it, with the aim of intimidating them and forcing them to immigrate to Palestine. In August 2009, Hamas refused to allow Palestinian children to learn about the Holocaust, which it called "a lie invented by the Zionists" and referred to
Holocaust education as a "
war crime". A 2016
Gallup International poll had roughly 74% of Palestinian respondents agreeing there was religious superiority, 78% agreeing there was racial superiority, and 76% agreeing there was cultural superiority. The percentages were among the highest out of 66 nations surveyed.
Saudi Arabia Racism in Saudi Arabia is practiced against labor workers who are foreigners, mostly from
developing countries. Asian maids who work in the country have been victims of racism and other forms of discrimination, foreign workers have been raped, exploited, under- or unpaid, physically abused, overworked and locked in their places of employment. The international organisation
Human Rights Watch (HRW) describes these conditions as "near-
slavery" and attributes them to "deeply rooted gender, religious, and racial discrimination". In many cases the workers are unwilling to report their employers for fear of losing their jobs or further abuse.
Europe against politicians accused of pro-Russian sympathies, 17 November 2018. The sign reads: "...all
Russians...go away from the Czech Republic or die!" A study that ran from 2002 to 2015 mapped the countries in Europe with the highest incidents of racial bias towards black people, based on data from 288,076 white Europeans. It used the
Implicit-association test (a reaction-based psychological test designed to measure implicit racial bias). The strongest bias was found in
Czech Republic,
Lithuania,
Belarus,
Ukraine,
Malta,
Moldova,
Bulgaria,
Italy,
Slovakia, and
Portugal. A 2017 report by the University of Oslo Center for Research on Extremism tentatively suggests that "individuals of Muslim background stand out among perpetrators of antisemitic violence in Western Europe". Negative views of
Muslims have varied across different parts of Europe, and
Islamophobic hate crimes have been reported across the region. A 2017
Chatham House poll of more than 10,000 people in 10 European countries had on average 55% agreeing that all further migration from
Muslim-majority countries should be stopped, while 20% disagreed. Majority opposition was found in Poland (71%), Austria (65%), Belgium (64%), Hungary (64%), France (61%), Greece (58%), Germany (53%), and Italy (51%).
Belgium There were recorded well over a hundred antisemitic attacks in
Belgium in 2009. This was a 100% increase from the year before. The perpetrators were usually young males of immigrant background from the Middle East. In 2009, the Belgian city of
Antwerp, often referred to as Europe's last
shtetl, experienced a surge in antisemitic violence.
Bloeme Evers-Emden, an Amsterdam resident and
Auschwitz survivor, was quoted in the newspaper
Aftenposten in 2010: "The antisemitism now is even worse than before the
Holocaust. The antisemitism has become more violent. Now they are threatening to kill us."
France In 2004, France experienced rising levels of Islamic antisemitism and acts that were publicized around the world. In 2006, rising levels of antisemitism were recorded in French schools. Reports related to the tensions between the children of North African Muslim immigrants and North African Jewish children. In the first half of 2009, an estimated 631 recorded acts of antisemitism took place in France, more than the whole of 2008. Speaking to the
World Jewish Congress in December 2009, the French Interior Minister Hortefeux described the acts of antisemitism as "a poison to our republic". He also announced that he would appoint a special coordinator for fighting racism and antisemitism.
Germany The period after Germany's loss of
World War I led to the increased espousal of
anti-Semitism and other forms of racism in the country's political discourse, for example, emotions which were initially expressed by members of the right-wing
Freikorps finally culminated in the ascent of
Adolf Hitler and the
Nazi Party in 1933. The
Nazi Party's racial policy and the
Nuremberg Race Laws against Jews and other non-
Aryans represented the most explicit racist policies in twentieth century Europe. These laws deprived all Jews (including half-Jews and quarter-Jews) and all other non-Aryans of German citizenship. The official title of Jews became "subjects of the state". At first, the Nuremberg Race Laws only forbade racially mixed sexual relationships and marriages between Aryans and Jews but later they were extended to "
Gypsies,
Negroes or their bastard offspring". Such interracial relationships were known as "racial pollution"
Rassenschande, and they became a criminal and punishable offence under the race laws. The Nazi racial theory regarded
Poles and other
Slavic peoples as racially inferior
Untermenschen. Nazi Germany's Directive No.1306 stated: "Polishness equals subhumanity. Poles, Jews and gypsies are on the same inferior level." After the 1950s the steady arrival of Turkish workers led to xenophobia.
Hungary Anti-refugee sentiment has been strong in Hungary, and Hungarian authorities along the border have been accused of detaining migrants under harsh conditions with some reported instances of beatings and other violence from the guards. Surveys from Pew Research Center have also suggested that negative views of refugees and Muslims are held by the majority of the country's locals. As in other European countries, the
Romani people faced disadvantages, including unequal treatment, discrimination, segregation and harassment. Negative stereotypes are often linked to Romani unemployment and reliance on state benefits. In 2008 and 2009 nine attacks took place against Romani in Hungary, resulting in six deaths and multiple injuries. According to the Hungarian curia (supreme court), these murders were motivated by
anti-Romani sentiment and sentenced the perpetrators to
life imprisonment.
Anti-Romani sentiment in Italy takes the form of hostility, prejudice, discrimination or racism directed at Romani people. There's no reliable data for the total number of Roma people living in Italy, but estimates put it between 140,000 and 170,000. Many national and local political leaders engaged in rhetoric during 2007 and 2008 that maintained that the extraordinary rise in crime at the time was mainly a result of uncontrolled immigration of people of Roma origin from recent European Union member state Romania. National and local leaders declared their plans to expel Roma from settlements in and around major cities and to deport illegal immigrants. The mayors of Rome and Milan signed "Security Pacts" in May 2007 that "envisaged the forced eviction of up to 10,000 Romani people". According to a May 2008 poll 68% of Italians, wanted to see all of the country's approximately 150,000 Gypsies, many of them Italian citizens, expelled. The survey, published as mobs in Naples burned down Gypsy camps that month, revealed that the majority also wanted all Gypsy camps in Italy to be demolished. In early 2012 the Dutch right-wing
Party for Freedom established an
anti-Slavic (predominantly
anti-Polish) and
anti-Romani website, where native
Dutch people could air their frustration about losing their job because of cheaper workers from
Poland,
Bulgaria,
Romania and other non-Germanic
Central and Eastern European countries. This led to commentaries involving
hate speech and other racial prejudice mainly against Poles and Roma, but also aimed at other Central and Eastern European ethnic groups. According to a 2015 report by the
OECD and
EU Commission, 37% of young people born in the country with immigrant parents say they had experienced discrimination in their lives. In the
Netherlands, antisemitic incidents, from verbal abuse to violence, are reported, allegedly connected with Islamic youth, mostly boys of Moroccan descent. A phrase made popular during football matches against the so-called Jewish football club
Ajax has been adopted by Muslim youth and is frequently heard at pro-Palestinian demonstrations: "Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas!" According to the Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel, a pro-Israel lobby group in the Netherlands, in 2009, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in
Amsterdam, the city that is home to most of the approximately 40,000
Dutch Jews, doubled compared to 2008.
Norway In 2010, the
Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation after one year of research, revealed that
antisemitism was common among Norwegian
Muslims. Teachers at schools with large shares of Muslims revealed that Muslim students often "praise or admire Adolf Hitler for his killing of Jews", that "Jew-hate is legitimate within vast groups of Muslim students," and "Muslims laugh or command [teachers] to stop when trying to educate about the
Holocaust." Additionally that "while some students might protest when some express support for
terrorism, none object when students express hate of Jews" and that it says in "the Quran that you shall kill Jews, all true Muslims hate Jews." Most of these students were said to be born and raised in Norway. One Jewish father also told that his child after school had been taken by a Muslim mob (though managed to escape), reportedly "to be taken out to the forest and hanged because he was a Jew".
Russia and
Empress Elizabeth. Lien Verpoest explores the era of the Napoleonic wars to identify the formation of conservative ideas ranging from traditionalism to ardent patriotism and xenophobia. Conservatives generally controlled Russia in the 19th century, and imposed xenophobia in education and the academy. In the late 19th century, especially after nationalistic uprisings in Poland in the 1860s, the government displayed xenophobia in its hostility toward ethnic minorities that did not speak Russian. The decision was to reduce the use of other languages, and insist on Russification. By the beginning of the 20th century, most European Jews lived in the so-called
Pale of Settlement, the Western frontier of the
Russian Empire consisting generally of the modern-day countries of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and neighboring regions. Many pogroms accompanied the
Revolution of 1917 and the ensuing
Russian Civil War, an estimated 70,000 to 250,000 civilian Jews were killed in the atrocities throughout the former Russian Empire; the number of Jewish orphans exceeded 300,000. During the
civil war era (1917–1922) both the Bolsheviks and the Whites employed nationalism and xenophobia as weapons to delegitimise the opposition. After World War II official national policy was to bring in students from Communist countries in East Europe and Asia for advanced training in Communist leadership roles. These students encountered severe xenophobia on campus. They survived by sticking together, but developed a hostility toward the Soviet leadership. Even after the fall of Communism foreign students faced hostility on campus. In the 2000s, "
skinheads" were especially visible in attacking anything foreign. Racism against both the Russian citizens (
peoples of the Caucasus,
indigenous peoples of Siberia and Russian Far East, etc.) and non-Russian citizens of Africans, Central Asians, South Asians(Indians,Pakistanis,etc), East Asians (Vietnamese, Chinese, etc.) and Europeans (Ukrainians, etc.) became a significant factor. Using surveys from 1996, 2004, and 2012, Hannah S. Chapman, et al. reports a steady increase in Russians' negative attitudes toward seven outgroups. Muscovites especially became more xenophobic. In 2016,
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that "Researchers who track xenophobia in Russia have recorded an "impressive" decrease in hate crimes as the authorities appear to have stepped up pressure on far-right groups". David Barry uses surveys to investigate the particularistic and xenophobic belief that all citizens should join Russia's dominant Orthodox religion. It is widespread among ethnic Russians and is increasing. A 2016
GlobeScan/
BBC World Service poll found that 79% of Russian respondents disapproved of accepting Syrian refugees, the highest percentage out of 18 countries surveyed.
Sweden A government study in 2006 estimated that 5% of the total adult population and 39% of adult Muslims "harbour systematic antisemitic views". The former prime minister
Göran Persson described these results as "surprising and terrifying". However, the rabbi of Stockholm's Orthodox Jewish community, Meir Horden, said, "It's not true to say that the Swedes are antisemitic. Some of them are hostile to Israel because they support the weak side, which they perceive the Palestinians to be." In March 2010, Fredrik Sieradzk told
Die Presse, an Austrian Internet publication, that Jews are being "harassed and physically attacked" by "people from the Middle East", although he added that only a small number of Malmö's 40,000 Muslims "exhibit hatred of Jews". Sieradzk also stated that approximately 30 Jewish families have emigrated from Malmö to Israel in the past year, specifically to escape from harassment. Also in March, the Swedish newspaper
Skånska Dagbladet reported that attacks on Jews in Malmö totaled 79 in 2009, about twice as many as the previous year, according to police statistics. In December 2010, the Jewish human rights organization
Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a travel advisory concerning Sweden, advising Jews to express "extreme caution" when visiting the southern parts of the country due to an increase in verbal and physical harassment of Jewish citizens by Muslims in the city of
Malmö.
Switzerland Swiss "Confederation Commission Against Racism" which is part of the Swiss "Federal Department of Home Affairs"published a 2004 report,
Black People in Switzerland:
A Life between Integration and Discrimination (published in German, French, and Italian only). According to this report, discrimination based on skin colour in Switzerland is not exceptional, and affects immigrants decades after their immigration.
Swiss People's Party claims that Swiss communities have a
democratic right to decide who can or cannot be Swiss. In addition, the report said "Official statements and political campaigns that present immigrants from the EU in a favourable light and immigrants from elsewhere in a bad light must stop", according to the Swiss Federal Statistics Office in 2006, 85.5% of the foreign residents in Switzerland are European. The
United Nations special rapporteur on racism,
Doudou Diène, has observed that Switzerland suffers from racism,
discrimination and
xenophobia. The UN envoy explained that although the Swiss authorities recognised the existence of
racism and xenophobia, they did not view the problem as being serious. Diène pointed out that representatives of minority communities said they experienced serious racism and discrimination, notably for access to public services (e.g. health care), employment and lodging. The
2009 Swiss minaret referendum banned the construction of new minarets—towers traditionally attached to mosques—by a 57 to 43 popular vote of the country. In the
2021 Swiss referendums, the electorate banned the wearing of a full face covering, which some Orthodox Muslim women wear.
Ukraine Israel's Antisemitism Report for 2017 stated that "A striking exception in the trend of decrease in antisemitic incidents in Eastern Europe was Ukraine, where the number of recorded
antisemitic attacks was doubled from last year and surpassed the tally for all the incidents reported throughout the entire region combined." Ukrainian state historian, Vladimir Vyatrovich dismissed the Israeli report as anti-Ukrainian propaganda and a researcher of antisemitism from Ukraine, Vyacheslav Likhachev said the Israeli report was flawed and amateurish. Use of the word "racism" became more widespread after 1936, although the term "race hatred" was used in the late 1920s by sociologist
Frederick Hertz. Laws, including the
Race Relations Act 1965, were passed in the 1960s that specifically prohibited racial discrimination. At the 1517
Evil May Day riots in London, protestors attacked the prominence of foreigners in London wool and cloth businesses; historians have called the event xenophobic. Xenophobia in popular literature targeted Germans in the early 20th centuries, based on fears of militarism and espionage. According to scholar
Julia Lovell, there has been a history of
sinophobia dating back to the early 20th century, propagated by writers like
Charles Dickens, which has endured to the present day with current media depictions of China. Racism has been observed as having a correlation between factors such as levels of unemployment and immigration in an area. Some studies suggest
Brexit led to a rise in racist incidents, where locals became hostile to foreigners. Studies published in 2014 and 2015 suggested that racism was on the rise in the UK, with more than one third of those polled admitting they were racially prejudiced. However a 2019 EU survey,
Being Black in the EU, ranked the UK as the least racist in the 12 Western European countries surveyed.
Sectarianism between
Ulster Protestants and
Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland has been called a form of racism by some international bodies. It has resulted in widespread discrimination,
segregation and serious violence, especially
during partition and
the Troubles. During the acrimonious
Brexit debate, xenophobia increased in London, especially against French living in the city.
Africa Ivory Coast Ivory Coast has a history of ethnic tribal hatred and religious intolerance. In addition to the many victims among the various tribes of the northern and southern regions of the country that have perished in the ongoing conflict,
white foreigners residing or visiting Ivory Coast have also been subjected to violent attacks. According to a report by Human Rights Watch, the Ivory Coast government is guilty of fanning ethnic hatred for its own political ends. In 2004, the
Young Patriots of Abidjan, a strongly
nationalist organisation, rallied by the state media, plundered possessions of foreign nationals in
Abidjan. Calls for violence against whites and non-Ivorians were broadcast on national radio and TV after the Young Patriots seized control of its offices. Rapes, beatings, and murders of persons of European and Lebanese descent followed. Thousands of expatriates and white or ethnic Lebanese Ivorians fled the country. The attacks drew international condemnation.
Mauritania Slavery in Mauritania persists despite its abolition in 1980 and mostly affects the descendants of black Africans abducted into
slavery who now live in
Mauritania as "black
Moors" or
haratin and who partially still serve the "white Moors", or
bidhan, as slaves. The practice of slavery in Mauritania is most dominant within the traditional upper class of the Moors. For centuries, the
haratin lower class, mostly poor black Africans living in rural areas, have been considered natural slaves by these Moors. Social attitudes have changed among most urban Moors, but in rural areas, the ancient divide remains.
Niger In October 2006,
Niger announced that it would deport to Chad the "
Diffa Arabs",
Arabs living in the Diffa region of eastern Niger. Their population numbered about 150,000. While the government was rounding up Arabs in preparation for the deportation, two girls died, reportedly after fleeing government forces, and three women suffered miscarriages. Niger's government eventually suspended their controversial decision to deport the Arabs.
South Africa , Johannesburg, 23 April 2015] Xenophobia in South Africa has been present in both the
apartheid and
post–apartheid eras. Hostility between the British and
Boers exacerbated by the
Second Boer War led to rebellion by poor Afrikaners who looted British-owned shops. South Africa also passed numerous acts intended to keep out Indians, such as the Immigrants Regulation Act of 1913, which provided for the exclusion of "undesirables", a group of people that included Indians. This effectively halted Indian immigration. The Township Franchise Ordinance of 1924 was intended to "deprive Indians of municipal franchise". Xenophobic attitudes toward the Chinese have also been present, sometimes in the form of robberies or hijackings, and a hate speech case in 2018 was put to court the year later with 11 offenders on trial. In 1994 and 1995, gangs of armed youth destroyed the homes of foreign nationals living in
Johannesburg, demanding that the police work to repatriate them to their home countries. In 2008, a widely documented spate of xenophobic attacks occurred in Johannesburg. It is estimated that tens of thousands of migrants were displaced; property, businesses and homes were widely looted. The death toll after the attack stood at 56. This followed remarks by
Zulu King
Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu stating that the migrants should "pack their bags and leave". As of 20 April 2015, 7 people had died and more than 2000 foreigners had been displaced.
Sudan In the
Sudan,
black African captives in the civil war were often
enslaved, and female prisoners were often abused sexually, with their
Arab captors claiming that Islamic law grants them permission. According to
CBS News, slaves have been sold for US$50 apiece. In September 2000, the
U.S. State Department alleged that "the Sudanese government's support of slavery and its continued military action which has resulted in numerous deaths are due in part to the victims' religious beliefs." Jok Madut Jok, professor of history at
Loyola Marymount University, states that the abduction of women and children of the south is
slavery by any definition. The government of Sudan insists that the whole matter is no more than the traditional tribal
feuding over resources.
Uganda Former British colonies in
Sub-Saharan Africa have many citizens of
South Asian descent. They were brought by the
British Empire from
British India to do clerical work in imperial service. The most prominent case of
anti-Indian racism was the
ethnic cleansing of the Indian (called Asian) minority in
Uganda by the
strongman dictator and human rights violator
Idi Amin. The
Immigration Restriction Act 1901 (
White Australia policy) effectively barred people of non-European descent from
immigrating to Australia. There was never any specific policy titled "White Australia." The term was invented later to encapsulate a collection of policies that were designed to exclude people from Asia (particularly China) and the
Pacific Islands (particularly
Melanesia) from immigrating to Australia. The
Menzies and
Holt governments effectively dismantled the policies between 1949 and 1966 and the
Whitlam government passed laws to ensure that race would be totally disregarded as a component for immigration to Australia in 1973. The
2005 Cronulla riots were a series of
race riots and outbreaks of
mob violence in Sydney's southern suburb
Cronulla which resulted from strained relations between
Anglo-Celtic and (predominantly Muslim)
Lebanese Australians. Travel warnings for Australia were issued by some countries but were later removed. In December 2005, a fight broke out between a group of
volunteer surf lifesavers and Lebanese youth. These incidents were considered to be a key factor in a
racially motivated confrontation the following weekend. Violence spread to other southern suburbs of Sydney, where more assaults occurred, including two stabbings and attacks on ambulances and police officers. On 30 May 2009, Indian students protested against what they claimed were racist attacks, blocking streets in central
Melbourne. Thousands of students gathered outside the
Royal Melbourne Hospital where one of the victims was admitted. In light of this event, the Australian Government started a
Helpline for Indian students to report such incidents. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Navi Pillay, termed these attacks "disturbing" and called for Australia to investigate the matters further. ==See also== == References ==