Xenophobia is the fear, dislike and prejudice towards people from other country. Since people are not familiar with foreigners, they tend to treat them with hatred and distrust. This could have been built up because of pre conceived notions about someone or stereotypes about that certain nationality (Example: Foreigners fearing Indians because they are “uncultured”).
The term “xenophobia” comes from the Greek words “phobos” which means “fear” and “xenos” which means stranger or foreigner.
Phobias fall under the category of anxiety disorders. The trigger for this phobia is when you encounter the thing that you are afraid of. In the case of xenophobia, the clinical definition is as follows. In this case, you will fear all foreigners and even the thought of encountering a foreigner will give you anxiety. This will affect your everyday life completely as you would be afraid to even leave the house. The publicly used definition of xenophobia is different.
This definition of xenophobia is when people avoid foreigners because of their prejudices. They consider the people who are of different skin tones from them as dangerous and would reject even the thought of being around them or shopping in the same shops. A type of xenophobia is cultural xenophobia where the cultures outside of theirs are rejected. They make rude and negative remarks about another cultural outfits or foods which are signs of xenophobia. When a person speaks in another language than theirs and does not know English, they make negative remarks about them because they are not in the familiar circle as them.
Read more on the original article : https://www.indiatimes.com/explainers/news/explained-xenophobia-and-racism-606629.html