In 1958, then U.S. Senator JFK published “A Nation of Immigrants.” JFK proposed liberalizing immigration law based on his argument that the United States is a country whose population is predominantly made up of non-native people – immigrants and refugees. In “America for Americans,” Professor Erika Lee of the University of Minnesota argued that the U.S. is also a nation of xenophobia. Throughout U.S. history, irrational fears, hatred, and hostility toward immigrants have been defining features. Germans, Irish Catholics, Chinese, Japanese, and Mexicans, etc., have had their times as targets of xenophobia. Today, some Americans fear Muslims, Latinos, Chinese (again), or just “refugees.”  The differentiation between “we” and “them,” which sociologists call “othering,” changes over time based on collective fear and prejudice. The phenomenon is not uniquely American but influences, if not defines the political discourse globally.

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