Xenophobia is a symptom not a disease

There are quite a few people living in my home town that my mother would call Johnny Foreigners (*) if she were still alive. Being an affluent place, they are almost all either students, self-employed or people with jobs. In other words, they all make a net contribution to the community.

I know this. I am a mostly rational person.

And yet there are times when I feel uncomfortable with them around me. I think that is called xenophobia.

Yesterday I was walking along and there were 4 young men approaching from the other direction. This was fine until I could hear that they were talking in a foreign language. Not just a language I cannot speak; a language I could not even identify. Suddenly I felt threatened. For just a moment.

So it was their language, not their appearance.

Actually, it was probably their gender too. Because previously I have noticed that when there are women walking near me talking a foreign language, I don't feel threatened in the same way. I feel alienated. Like I don't fit in... in my home town.

It was that last point that got me thinking. I hardly ever talk to my neighbours. When I do, I kind of get the impression that they are just being polite and would rather be doing something else.

So people talking foreign languages around me are not threatening my sense of community. Instead they are making me realise that I don't really have a community to be part of.

Am I alone in this? Is the anti-immigrant (xenophobic) sentiment stoked by hate publications like the D@ily M@il, and interfering morons like Donald Trump, really a symptom of the breakdown of community in the UK?

I think it could be a factor.

People seem to be spending more and more time (via their phones) with their family and close friends. And consequently less and less time with the people who live nearby.

Hell. I don't think I even know the names of the people who live more than 2 doors away from me. That is shocking, isn't it? If I went and knocked on their door they would probably think I was being weird... or after something.

How did this happen, and how can we fix it?

The next time you find yourself thinking something negative about a foreigner, ask yourself if you ought to just try being a bit more friendly yourself!



(* did people with that attitude always assume foreigners were male?)