İtobiad (Dec 2021)
International Migration and The Rise of Islamophobia as A "New Racism" Type
Abstract
The phenomenon of international migration is a problem that is more prominent than other types of migration today. It is observed that human mobility, which has increased due to various crises in the recent period, is especially concentrated in the prosperous and economically developed Western nation-states. This situation causes more people from different religions, languages, ethnic origins and cultures to meet and experience adaptation problems. In addition, these developments deeply affect the daily lives of Muslims, who are a minority in Western societies. In the process that evolved from xenophobia to a "new racism" based on Islamophobia, Muslims are now seen as members of an incompatible and dangerous religion. When evaluated together with these developments, the subject of the study is to examine the effects of dynamics in the encounters of people from different religions on their lives and understandings, which is one of the results of the phenomenon of international migration today. This study aims to analyze the rise of Islamophobia, one of the consequences of international migration, and the reasons for its transformation into "new racism" together with historical developments. A comparative historical sociological analysis method has been adopted. The most important findings of the study are that the phenomenon of international migration compares people from different cultures, languages, ethnic origins and religions more in Western societies with a higher socioeconomic level and makes integration problems more unsolved, especially with internal dynamics such as the far-right and the media. Especially in Western societies, in the context of historical crisis and developments of Muslim immigrants, xenophobia and a kind of new-cultural racism are more frequently encountered. This situation makes visible a dangerous process developing from Islamophobia to anti-Islamism.
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