Xenophobia Causes

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2.0 Introduction
Africa has become the theatre of widespread violent attacks, crime, xenophobia, genocide and terrorism (Valji, 2003). Xenophobia as our main focus is a deep-rooted hatred towards foreign nationals, processed through such tragic incidents of attacking and killing foreigners. This act of xenophobia has emerged in Africa since the end of colonialism. This study seeks to utilise the existing literature on xenophobia to explain and discuss its various causes and impacts with a view to providing deeper understanding of its insecurity regime. The study will highlight the causes and impact xenophobia has on nations, specifically on South Africa’s international relations abroad.
2.1 The nexus between conflict and peace: negotiating …show more content…

South Africa has changed from apartheid governmental system to a democratic state, but different kinds of discrimination and or segregation ranging from racial, ethnic and nationalism are still prevailing. Nationalism is that which is based on political arrangements, but have in the latter led to a lot of confusion, and has been the center for xenophobia. There are a couple of explanations provided by different authors as to why the issues of xenophobia exist, and are predominantly increasing mainly in South Africa.Valji (2003)in his article “the rise of violent xenophobia in the new South Africa” state that xenophobia starts off as attacks against ‘illegal aliens’ soon it becomes attacks on ‘legally immigrants’ that are in the country with their families, and it goes on to being attacks on South Africans who ‘look foreign’ because they are deemed too dark to be south Africans (2003).according to Valji’ (2003) this is the evil story of beginning of fascism and ethnic cleansing which has been practiced in other parts of the world like …show more content…

He argues that the end of colonialism is not the end of the struggle for scarce resources. He sees the fading of African unity as a return to chauvinism in the most bitter and detestable manner (Fanon, 1990: 126). One of the regularly mentioned reasons for the occurrence of xenophobia in South Africa, which is not different from that of Fanon, is apartheid governmental system (Pately, 2013). Valji states that even before the implementation of the apartheid system, the immigration policies defined the South African state as a racially exclusionary in the 1937 act which described the desirable immigrants as ones from European heritage who will easily assimilate with the with population of the country (2003: 7).There is a notion that there is still hatred that lives in the people of South Africa which result to xenophobic act, which was adopted unconsciously from the apartheid governmental

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