So what are the 10 least xenophobic countries in the world? This is an interesting question that often goes unanswered. In fact, if you search Google for xenophobic countries, all you often get are results which show the most and least racially tolerant countries in the world. However, there is a stark difference between racism and xenophobia, a difference which apparently many people are not significantly aware of. A xenophobe is a person who is afraid of foreign things, as well as foreign people. On the other hand, a racist person is someone who is afraid of a particular race and not nationality. But like I mentioned, people are often unable to grasp the subtle difference.
Due to a lack of results, it is hard to determine the least xenophobic countries in the world. On the other hand, it is extremely easy to find out about the most as well as least racist countries in the world, as evidenced by the 13 Least Racist Countries in the World. Most people will often use the terms xenophobe and racist interchangeably, mainly because quite often, people who are racist are also xenophobes and vice versa, of which a prime example is the esteemed President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, and his supporters, who has advocated both against races and against foreigners.
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When he first acted against blacks, way before he was president of the country and only a billionaire, that showed that he was a racist. When he supported people like Steve Bannon, the former chairman of the alt-right website Breitbart, which actively advocates against minority racists. But when he banned immigrants from seven countries, afraid they would spoil his chances to ‘make America great again,’ he was a xenophobe. See the difference? It is subtle but present.
Because racism is such a hot and controversial topic in not just the United States, but the world, there are a ton of studies and research carried out on the subject. We believe that with the current scenario that has enveloped America and Europe as well in recent times due to the influx of immigrants, xenophobia deserves to be displayed in the same light as racism.
While some countries are very xenophobic, other are not. These countries are very tolerant of people of other nationalities and are extremely welcoming. To confirm which countries would make our list, we consulted the World Value Survey, where most of the nations are asked dozens of different questions. One of the questions was ‘On this list are various groups of people. Could you please mention any that you would not like to have as neighbors?’ We looked at the countries where the smallest percentage of people wanted to avoid foreigners and immigrants as people they would not want to have as a neighbor. Meanwhile, another question was “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?’ We selected the countries where the smallest percentage of the people agreed with the statement. These two questions combined provided us with an accurate representation of the prevalence of xenophobia.
