Xenophobia In American Culture

Xenophobia is the intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries. Most Americans have always showed some sort of xenophobic reactions to immigrants even if it consists of a racial blur towards them or an act of hate crime. Americans fear that these immigrants will bring culture and values that will not assimilate into communities. Immigrants were expected to assimilate into the American culture, since those who don’t are more distinctive and are deemed to xenophobia. Some of the immigrant cultures include unique types of clothes, languages, foods, and style of living. Americans don’t favor change and want their culture and values to be the best one out there. Another reason to Americans xenophobia reactions to immigrants

Many push-pull factors such as poverty and poor living conditions led my parents to migrate. My parents had an extremely difficult experience assimilating into the American culture since it was nothing like what they ever imagined. From learning how to dress to speaking English, it was a difficult transition for any ethical group. Worst of all, most Asians who are Indians were mostly vegetarian, so the choices of food were strictly limited. One experience we had at a restaurant a while ago when we went to eat for dinner was that a waitress handed us a custom menu for vegetarians. When we asked why the menu only contained vegetarian items, she replied, “I thought all of your types were vegetarian” We felt extremely humiliated but took the act of discrimination calmly and didn’t want to cause a problem. I was born here in America not too long after my parents migrated here. I was basically brought up in my Indian culture and values since my parents weren’t completely assimilated into the American culture. It was definitely a struggle for me as much as my parents to learn all the cultures and values to become an American, but at the same time preserve our own culture. My family and I would face xenophobia reactions everyday to the point where I was scared to go to school since I was ridiculed at for eating Indian food or speaking my

We can all speak English fluently without an accent and eat varies types of food even non-vegetarian. It was a tough transition and definitely took a long time to learn all of the values and culture of Americans. In today’s times, it is a necessity for immigrants to have a mindset of assimilating into the American culture if they wish to not face American xenophobia reactions. Immigrants struggle with assimilation, which causes them to go back to their home country, but I feel that one should freely live the way they wish to without fearing from anyone. Americans are a little better now compared to back when my parents moved here due to the tragic incident of 9/11 where Americans were threatened from Muslims, but mistaken Indians as them due to the similar skin color. This doesn’t mean that xenophobia doesn’t exist and immigrants to this day still face