ETHNIC DIVISIONS AND XENOPHOBIA ARE GLOBAL CHALLENGES

With the rapid advance of globalisation, more and more people find themselves living in countries other than their place of birth. Since the start of the 21st century, there’s been a 40% increase in the number of such people, now 244 million.

However, with the continuing stagnation of the global economy, xenophobic impulses have strengthened, creating increasingly difficult conditions for migrants and their families. Even if there is a comfort felt by people when they are surrounded by others who share the same culture or ethnic group, we must remain vigilant against the danger that this group consciousness will metamorphose into violent discrimination or antagonism directed at other groups at times of heightened social tension.

It is also crucial to search for means to counteract the drift toward xenophobia and to rehumanise the discourse around migrant and refugee populations, and civil society has a key role to play in this endeavour… The world is not simply a collection of states, nor is it composed solely of religions and civilisations. To view and judge others only through the prism of religion or ethnicity distorts the rich reality we possess as individuals.

In contrast, when we develop a deep appreciation, through our individual friendships, of each other’s unique value, differences of ethnicity or religion shine as the varied hues of diversity.