Xenophobia

Xenophobia is fear, dislike or hatred of strangers and foreigners, or of people seen as different, usually shown as prejudice, exclusion or violence. Despite the “-phobia” ending, it is not a mental illness or a diagnosis; it is a social attitude. It does real harm to the mental health of the people it targets, and it can be reduced.

Also called: anti-foreigner sentiment; nativism. The word was first recorded in the 1890s, from the Greek xenos (stranger, foreigner) and phobos (fear).

Examples

blaming foreigners for crime, unemployment or failing public services
stereotypes, slurs and hate speech, online and in person
refusing foreigners jobs, housing, treatment at a clinic or a place in a school
“medical xenophobia”: health workers turning migrants away or treating them with contempt, so people stop seeking care
raids, looting and attacks on foreign-owned shops and homes

Causes

Xenophobia grows where people are frightened and someone offers a target. Human rights monitors in South Africa describe foreigners being scapegoated for economic insecurity, crime and the government’s failure to deliver services, with unemployment above 40%. Competition for scarce jobs and housing in poor communities, rising migration, and politicians or vigilante groups who profit from blame all feed it; studies disprove the claims that migrants cause the problems. When attacks go unpunished, the next wave comes sooner. Fear-based media and simply never having met the people being blamed make it easier to believe the worst of them. None of this is a disorder in the person who holds the view, and it isn’t treated as one.

In Nigeria

For Nigerians, xenophobia mostly means South Africa. In May 2008, violence that began in Alexandra, Johannesburg, spread to seven of nine provinces and killed 62 people, among them 21 South Africans, 11 Mozambicans, five Zimbabweans and three Somalis; about 40,000 foreign nationals left the country. Further waves came in 2015, in 2019, when Nigerians were the main target, and in 2021 to 2022 with the rise of vigilante groups. In September 2019, mobs destroyed thousands of foreign-owned businesses and homes, and about 300 Nigerians flew home on a free Air Peace flight. In April and May 2026 a new movement organised anti-migrant demonstrations in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Durban, with violent and sometimes fatal results, and in June 2026 the federal government began evacuating Nigerians again, 258 on the first flight.

Effects on mental health

Being on the receiving end is a health matter. A meta-analysis of 134 samples found that perceived discrimination harms mental and physical health and keeps the body’s stress response switched on. Among African postgraduate students at one South African university, nearly half reported xenophobia, and those who had were more likely to report depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms; social support softened the link with PTSD. Refugees who had been attacked carried trauma from before and after migration. People who were burnt out of a shop in Johannesburg, or who came home on an evacuation flight with nothing, may be living with PTSD, grief for a life built over years, and the shame of starting again.

How to address it

Contact. Across 515 studies, people who actually met members of another group became less prejudiced, most of all when they met as equals working on something together. Schools, workplaces and churches can create that.
Accountability. Investigating attacks and prosecuting those responsible; impunity invites the next wave.
Policy and practice. Reviews point to policies that promote integration, training for health workers and police, community engagement, and monitoring whether any of it is working.
At your own level. Challenge the “they take our jobs” line when you hear it, report attacks, and check who benefits from the blame.
For the people targeted. Support networks, legal help, and therapy for what the violence left behind.

Xenophobia vs a phobia vs racism

A phobia is an anxiety condition: a person is frightened of something, suffers for it and can be treated with exposure therapy. Xenophobia is an attitude aimed at other people, who do the suffering. Racism targets people by race; xenophobia targets them for being foreign, and the two often travel together, as when fellow Africans are the ones attacked.

When to get help

If you were attacked, displaced or evacuated and you are having nightmares, flashbacks, jumpiness or low mood weeks later, you can book a licensed therapist on Mytherapist.ng who works with trauma and PTSD, by video, voice or chat from wherever you are. If you have thoughts of ending your life, call 112 (or 767 in Lagos), or Safe Place Nigeria on 0800 800 2000. The full list is on our helplines page.