🧭 What Is Xenophobia? Understanding It So We Can Stop It
By Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita
Have you ever heard the word xenophobia and not been quite sure what it means?
Or maybe you've seen someone treated badly just because they "look different" or "come from somewhere else"?
Whether you're young, middle-aged, or older, xenophobia is something that affects all of us — and the only way to stop it is to understand it.
🧠 What is Xenophobia?
Xenophobia means fear or dislike of people from other countries or cultures.
It comes from Greek:
- "xeno" = stranger or foreigner
- "phobia" = fear
But it’s not always fear in the scary-movie sense. It can show up as:
- Assumptions about someone’s values or beliefs based on where they’re from
- Judging people for not “fitting in”
- Excluding or mistreating people who don’t speak the same language or look like the majority
👵🧓 Who Shows Xenophobia?
Xenophobia can exist in any age group:
- Older folks might say, “This country isn’t what it used to be.”
- Middle-aged people might complain, “They come here and change everything.”
- Even kids and teens can learn these attitudes at home or online.
But here’s the truth: every generation of immigrants has faced this.
📚 A Bit of History: We’ve Been Here Before
People said terrible things about:
- Irish immigrants in the U.S. and Canada
- Italians and Portuguese in France in the 1960s
- Chinese and Japanese in BC — who faced racism and internment
- Syrians, Afghans, Mexicans, and others in more recent times
Even people who are now considered “fully Canadian” or “white-passing” — their ancestors were once called “outsiders.”
🔍 Examples of Xenophobia Today
- Someone yells at a person in a headscarf: “Go back to where you came from!”
- A landlord refuses to rent to a family with an accent.
- A job applicant is passed over because of their name.
- A kid gets bullied for bringing traditional food to school.
- A neighbor complains that “they don’t belong here.”
Sometimes it’s loud and hateful. Sometimes it’s subtle. But it all hurts.
🧠 A Personal Example
I once said to a friend:
“You love going to Hawaii. What if you went there, and someone yelled at you, ‘Get out! We don’t want Canadians here!’ — how would that feel?”
That’s xenophobia — and suddenly it didn’t feel so abstract. When you’re the one being treated like a problem, it hits different.
🪶 But Wait — Who Was Here First?
Before we talk about how immigrants are treated, we must first talk about the people who were here long before anyone else:
Indigenous Peoples — First Nations, Métis, Inuit in Canada, and Native American tribes in the U.S.
These are the original stewards of the land. They welcomed others — and were met with:
- Colonization
- Land theft
- Violence
- Residential schools
- Erasure of language and culture
- And even today — systemic racism and poverty
Imagine watching others arrive, take over your land, push you aside — and then call you the outsider.
That’s not just xenophobia—it’s ongoing injustice.
🗣️ Words We Should All Hear
Chief Dan George (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) once said:
“If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them, you will not know them, and what you do not know you will fear. What one fears one destroys.”
He also reminded us:
“The Indian looked on all things in Nature as belonging to [us]… he expected to share them… and take only what he needed.”
His words invite us to live in balance, with each other and with the earth.
📖 A Story from Rez Dogs
In Rez Dogs by Joseph Bruchac, a young Indigenous character says:
“No one should feel guilty about the past. Unless they’re not doing anything about the present.”
This is the heart of it. We can't undo the past — but we can choose to do better now.
🌍 The Real Canadian Tradition?
Canada’s identity is built on:
- Indigenous stewardship and spirituality
- Generations of immigrants and refugees
We can’t move forward with fairness unless we:
- ✅ Respect Indigenous sovereignty
- ✅ Acknowledge historical trauma
- ✅ Treat newcomers with dignity
- ✅ Challenge harmful ideas when we hear them
📢 Want to Help?
- Share this post with someone who might need to read it
- Talk to elders and youth about kindness, fairness, and truth
- Support Indigenous movements like Land Back
- Explore the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation
- Read Indigenous authors like Joseph Bruchac and Chief Dan George
Together, we can build a kinder future — one that remembers the past, welcomes the present, and protects the future.
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