Let’s make clear at the very beginning: xenophobia is not racism. For some reason, this is one of the most frequent misunderstandings among people. Racism is being against people of different color, mostly black people, and thinking about them as a lower class that should have least respect and no privileges. On the other hand, xenophobia is being afraid of unfamiliar and foreign things. When we say foreign things, we mean items, dishes, as well as people. Now, when we have separated these two terms, we can start with finding out which is the least xenophobic country in the world.
Sometimes, people are just uncomfortable with unfamiliar and foreign things. Not because they are over-patriotic or bad people, but because of the circumstances we live in. sometimes we are raised this way. Remember when we were toddlers and our parents made us scared with some statement like ‘’If you don’t behave right, cops will come and take you away’’? Well, some parents scare their children with some other things such as foreigners and the most frequent result is xenophobia. The other reason can be being over-protective, watching too much mafia shows, or reading some news about foreign criminals in newspapers. To be honest, I would be afraid if last year some Muslim came into my neighborhood. Not because I have something personal against them, but because of the whole ISIS affair.
After Insider Monkey did a research of this topic based on the survey done by World Value Survey based on only two questions which were ‘’On this list are various groups of people. Could you please mention any that you would not like to have as neighbors?’’ and ‘’When jobs are scarce, employers should give priority to people of this country over immigrants. Do you agree, disagree, or neither agree nor disagree with this statement?’’, they came to the conclusion that the least xenophobic country in the world was Swiss.
Although, when the results of the answers to the first question came, Swiss wasn’t ranked first but fourth, since the first place were taken by Uruguay, it turned out much better for Swiss when answers to the next question were reviled. Only 14.3% of people said that locals should be prioritized over immigrants when it came to getting a job that gave it a first place on the Insider Monkey’s list of 10 least xenophobic countries in the world.
And what about you, and your country? How xenophobic are you and your neighbors? Click on the link and find out.
