Being abroad is not a piece of cake sometimes!

Do some people address you with superiority just because you are not a local? If so, you are not alone. Aliens always complain that they are discriminated on five specific grounds: Stereotypes nations memorize about each others, the color of their skins, their countries of origins, their beliefs, and the way of clothing.

Scant Knowledge!

The first question that jumps to mind is why people discriminate each other? We conducted our own survey asking foreigners about their own experiences and if they personally were victims of such attacks, and the answers were alarming: 100% of them have suffered some kind of discrimination, segregation, racism, or a sort of superior behavior of the locals. One word was frequently repeated by the mouths of foreigners when asked about the reason they think behind these phenomena: IGNORANCE. 

                “As much as you are ignorant, as much as you feel superior and you hate other ethnicities.” 

                 “Many people when I tell them where I’m from, think of camels, tents, and illiterate hungry kids, which looks nothing like our reality”

Rami, a student from Algeria who is studying in Poland

               ”Although I’ve studied in modern schools and universities in Lebanon, where most of our language teachers were native speakers, many people imagine us sitting in some schools without doors or windows while wearing torn rags; it’s so annoying.”

Rasha, a student from Lebanon

Upon asking students from Nigeria if they suffered from stereotypes in Europe, they told some funny and sometimes sad stories.

               “Besides staring at us in the streets as if we’d just landed from Mars, when dealing with us, locals still feel that the people of color are less than them and that they enjoy the supremacy of their whiteness“ 

Anthony, an engineering student in Poland

               “It’s painful sometimes just to walk in the street with many scanning eyes that chase you,”

                “I can’t say I’ve suffered any personal discrimination or an insult before, yet it’s a challenge to integrate here” 

Lucia, a nun studying in Poland

Be Aware, They Can Mock You Back!

To cope with this, foreigners have created their own instruments: it became a second nature for them to joke and mock back while answering the repetitive stereotyped questions people keep asking them. “We came to Europe flying on a camel and refueled it in the air,” says Ali, a Saudi medical student in Poland, answering questions like how did you come to Europe? Do you have roads and streets in your countries? Do you still use cattle in your transportations? “

In the beginning, we spend hard times explaining to people that what you hear from the media about the Arab World is nothing compared to the truth, then it became frustrating that you have to laugh it out,” he adds. Many people are curious to know about the visitors’ backgrounds, but they are saturated with stereotypes, which creates such oddity. Hence, it is not an option for foreigners to adopt such a humorous approach seeking to pacify stress.  

A Direct Proportion

The source of every fanaticism is the fake feeling of superiority combined with a lack of knowledge. Traveling around, getting to know other races and cultures closer, and educating oneself about the REAL situations of nations and countries, can distant one from canned stereotypes and hence insulting people simply because they are different. Moreover, being self-centered, ignorant and convinced that one is better than the others, are the ingredients of a typical racist.

Legal Prosecution

The core element of the European Union’s goals, legislations and institutions is the promotion of equality and respect for human rights. Discrimination has caused this noble continent millions and millions of lives wasted by fake elitists who thought that they were better than other peoples. Records tell that the common denominator between the Axis Countries’ leaders (Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito) was their supremacy tendencies that used to scorn any other race or ethnicity. Europe has learned the lesson, and this democratically-based entity, the EU, has made it clear that all kinds of discrimination are criminalized. The Treaty of Lisbon entered into force in 2009, altered the status of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights that was proclaimed in 2000, and made it a legally binding document. In one of our Login Lublin Project meetings with a Lublin Police Department officer, she said that hatred crimes are reported to the police now in Lublin and other Polish cities. “Although we didn’t have serious crimes of that kind in Lublin, but we are so assiduous to prevent them and punish the perpetrators,” she said. From the foreigners’ perspectives, being away from your homeland and struggling with new customs and language; burdening with stereotypes and mockery can only add salt to their injuries.

By: Assef Salloom