"As with all phobias, a xenophobic person is aware of the fear (of people from other countries), and therefore has to genuinely think or believe at some level that the target is in fact a foreigner. This arguably separates xenophobia from racism and ordinary prejudice in that someone of a different race does not necessarily have to be of a different nationality.
For xenophobia there are two main objects of the phobia. The first is a population group present within a society that is not considered part of that society. Often they are recent immigrants, but xenophobia may be directed against a group which has been present for centuries. This form of xenophobia can elicit or facilitate hostile and violent reactions, such as mass expulsion of immigrants, pogroms, or in the worst case, genocide.
The second form of xenophobia is primarily cultural, and the objects of the phobia are cultural elements which are considered alien. All cultures are subject to external influences, but cultural xenophobia is often narrowly directed, for instance at foreign loan words in a national language. It rarely leads to aggression against individual persons, but can result in political campaigns for cultural or linguistic purification."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XenophobiaI remember my father (not very political, but always voted repub) used to tell us in the sixties and seventies that he didn't hate Blacks. He just didn't want one moving next door because it would hurt property values. He was my father but I would acknowledge that as a racist attitude regardless of what he said about his real beliefs. You can't condone racial discrimination in the interests of preserving property values.
Most here who oppose H-1B visas would not concede to having any xenophobia (any more than my father would concede to being a racist). Can you be a racist or a xenophobe if you don't believe that you are? Is it xenophobic to oppose foreigners entering the country because it has an economic impact on me (like my father's attitude towards property values)? I am reluctant to think of my father as having been a racist, rather that he was "unenlightened" and had tinges of racism in his attitudes. Was his attitude worse because his "concern" was directed at other Americans, while one who opposes H-1B visas directs their "concern" at foreigners?
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