This article analyzes Western societies and their growing xenophobia, especially towards immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers. Though Western society has already been known to displace and fear minorities and developing countries, in our postmodern society western societies are starting to witness major demographic changes because of the human displacement that they as a whole continue to fuel through taking actions that are not only ineffective but harmful. These actions include closing borders, enacting laws that place immigrants and refugees in detention centers, and other unjust practices.
The terrorist attacks on September 11 in 2001 done by terrorist group Al-Quaeda and the multiple, expensive wars that have followed as a result have only increased Western societies’ feelings of hostility, anger, and mistrust toward refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants, especially those from Middle Eastern countries. The constant mistrust of Western society has not only scared North America, where the attacks happened, but other countries as well such as Britain, Russia, and other Western countries that have increased border control. The stigma surrounding terrorism has been married to immigration and foreign insertion.
This article is a review of the overall system driven by the intent to gather additional sources and information to prove the presence of society’s hostile attitudes and feelings of anger and mistrust toward these refugees, as well as show that they may have a negative impact on their general well-being. It also aimed to identify whether society’s discrimination and negative feelings toward this population influence the refugees’ willingness to seek support from services
provided by the host society and, simultaneously, to trust the helping professionals who provide the services.