Gradually but inexorably, public opinion , aided by the ratings-hungry media, is visibly growing weary of feeling genuine compassion for refugees . Children dying at sea, the rush to build walls, overcrowded reception camps, governments competing to add insult to injury to the exile, the daring rescue, the exhausting and dangerous journey, the mockery of treating migrants like hot potatoes: these moral abominations are no longer news, nor do they arouse any degree of remorse in those who read and listen to the stories of survivors. For those living in the host society, refugees have always been (as they are today) strangers.
Anxiety generators
According to Polish sociologist, philosopher, and academic Zygmunt Bauman , strangers tend to cause anxiety precisely because they are "strange," frightening in their unpredictability and ridiculous in their diversity, unlike the people we interact with every day, who are convinced we know exactly what to expect from them. For all we know (which is very little), it could be our neighbor, our colleague, or our child's teacher who destroys what we hold dear, mutilating or overwhelming the way of life that is comfortably familiar to us. The stranger is a pragmatic example of how reality is constructed day by day through what we laboriously learn and are unwilling to give up.
Stigmatizing for not knowing
The renowned Treccani encyclopedia defines the term " stigma " (or "stimma") as "an attribution of negative qualities to a person or group of people, especially regarding their social status and reputation: an individual, a group affected by psycho-physical, racial, ethnic, or religious stigma ." Accustomed to elevating our characteristics (real or presumed) to units of measurement and evaluation of the humanity of others, we tend rather easily to convince ourselves that the person with a stigma is not properly "human" (a process defined in the social sciences as dehumanization ). The immediate result is a clear refusal to socially accept those branded as "abnormal," depriving them of any opportunity for comparison. They are, in fact, rejected, expelled, banished from the group to which they tacitly or proudly aspire, forced to accept the collective verdict of inadequate inferiority and recognize their own culpable inability to meet a unanimously negotiated and unequivocally legitimate standard. It is a clear example of how citizenship (understood from a legal perspective) very often depends on a handful of consents.
Intolerance breeds intolerance
Bauman, in his work " Strangers at the Gates ," citing American sociologist Erving Goffman in " Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity ," states that there are three possible reactions for those branded or associated with the physical or cultural defect generically attributed to that group. The first is a painful blow to self-respect : humiliation and shame lead to an unbearable sense of denigration of one's own person and of the characteristics that define one's subjectivity. If the stigmatized recipient accepts the verdict of "larger society," this can lead to a debilitating depression that, in many cases, causes real, irreversible psychological/psychiatric pathologies. The second reaction, directly opposite to the previous one, consists in interpreting stigma as an undeserved , damaging, and defamatory affront, which requires and justifies a retaliation strong enough to overturn the verdict of "larger society" and regain the self-esteem of which one has been robbed. This is accompanied, sooner or later, by the reversal of the hierarchy of values proclaimed and practiced by that same "larger society." The third reaction concerns those who are unmoved by the awareness of their inability to appear aesthetically and/or behave as "larger society" demands and, protected by their own beliefs about identity, consider themselves perfectly normal human beings , convincing themselves that it is others who are not, primarily because of their cruelty. Persuading oneself of one's own "normality" is not an individual achievement, since human beings are social animals: everything to which they assign value is an integral part of the context in which they live and interact. Being convinced requires a group affirmation that not everyone successfully pronounces: only the confirmation of significant others can safeguard that conviction, making it immune to the opinions and actions of the "larger society." Naturally, those who follow this pattern of reaction are feverishly seeking a society that satisfies these requirements and is simultaneously willing to let them in and engage in the collective defense of the revalued status they claim. The individual therefore tends to adopt a "chameleon-like" attitude, entirely prone to manipulation, in which they favor certain behaviors (while willingly avoiding others) with the intent of inspiring sympathy and admiration. Once these positive feelings have been aroused in those around them, whatever their cost in terms of energy, financial resources, and affection, the individual can consider themselves only partially accepted by the "larger society" since they have had to deny, perhaps not completely, themselves and their cultural roots.
Reflections by Zygmunt Bauman (1 of 3)
Julia Marra
