-Analysis-
CAIRO — Xenophobia is defined in Webster’s dictionary as: “fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign.” Britannica expands the definition, saying that it means to include the belief that certain foreign individuals and cultures represent a threat to the authentic identity of one’s own nation-state.
The term derives from the Ancient Greek: xenos (meaning “stranger”) and phobos (meaning “fear”), so it literally means fear of strangers, but in general it is used to mean discrimination and hostility toward migrants and foreigners.
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In the Greek and Coptic languages, there is an antonym: φιλόξενος, which means welcoming or hospitable. The term derives from Philo (loving) and Xénos (stranger), so it literally means (loving strangers): Xenophile.
Throughout the history of eastern Christianity, many clerics were named Philoxénos. I personally know Father Philoxénos al-Muharraqi, whose surname is linked to the Muharraq Monastery, or Monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the desert of the Assiut province in southern Egypt.
False reasons for hatred
More than a year ago, the conflict in Sudan broke out between the country’s military and the Rapid Support Forces, a notorious paramilitary group. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, and millions were forced to flee their homes, especially in the capital Khartoum and other major cities in the sprawling country of 47 million.
Egypt, like other countries bordering Sudan, received hundreds of thousands of Sudanese fleeing the devastating war. They were added to other refugees who fled conflicts in their home countries in recent years, especially Syria and Yemen.
Yet the deterioration of the economic situation in Egypt in recent years has caused many Egyptians to become hostile — yes, xenophobic — against refugees and migrants, including threats and insults on social media.
This can in part be explained by the spread of false information, some of which, unfortunately, is being released by the Egyptian government. Such bogus information includes blaming the refugees and migrants for the government’s economic failure, which resulted in mismanagement of the county’s finances and economy before the arrival of Sudanese refugees.
In a healthy and sound economic system, the presence of refugees and foreigners is an advantage.
Such false information included statements by Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly, that Egypt hosts 9 million migrants and refugees, costing the government over billion annually.
Madbouly’s comments included misleading information. The 9 million include refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and other foreigners who hold Egyptian residency. The United Nations refugee agency officially registered only 670,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt.
These foreigners include students in Egyptian universities and business owners, in addition to Russians and Ukrainians residing inside resorts by the Red Sea. Many of these foreigners live in Egypt at their own expense and do not constitute a burden on the Egyptian economy. They also pay to renew their residencies and obtain their papers, which is a source of income for the Egyptian government.
In a healthy and sound economic system, the presence of refugees and foreigners is an advantage.
A recent study by the Global Refuge group found that migrants and refugees bring productivity to their host countries, where they are integrated across various communities.
“As they find their footing, refugees contribute significant tax revenue, stimulate the economy, raise productivity, improve local worker wages, boost innovation, and often generate international trade because of their connections to various countries,” the study, released in March 2022, said.
Refugees are innocent
Sudanese refugees are not “corrupting” the economy, and the government is attempting to escape responsibility for the economic crisis that partly stems from its own mismanagement. Instead, learning to accept the Sudanese refugees is a multi-faced issue with moral, humanitarian, social and economic considerations.
It might be a personal choice between good and evil. We are now hosting people fleeing the hell of war. Many of them were exposed to death on their way to Egypt.
Welcome to your country, Egypt!
Is there anyone among us who can live with the guilt of turning away those who escaped death and sought refuge in Egypt? Can our conscience bear the death of an individual because we closed our door and let him die?
A few days ago, I was looking out from the balcony of my house in Heliopolis. There were four young Sudanese men walking along the street. On the other side, a delivery man was driving his motorbike. As soon as he approached them, he opened his arms and shouted: Welcome to your country, Egypt!
The scene lasted no more than a few seconds, but it was enough to give me some hope that Egyptians are not innately xenophobes, but xenophiles.
