Refugees as the Other: Large-group identity,terrorism and border psychology

Abstract

On 27 August, 2015 two vessels with 550 migrants on board sank off the Libyan coast, and more than 400 persons were estimated to have drowned. Some credit this event as having coined the phrase ‘European refugee crisis’ that is still used to describe the present refugee situation in Europe. On 13 November 2015 a series of coordinated terrorist attacks took place in Paris and a northern suburb of the city. When a Syrian passport that belonged to an asylum seeker was found near the body of one of the gunmen, fear of Islamic State militants disguised as asylum seekers or refugees spread. This event, linked to similar tragedies that have occurred in many other countries before and since, evolved as a major symbol linking newcomers, and refugees in general, to terrorism and extreme forms of Islam.

When observing newcomers and local people in different host countries, in addition to accompanying societal reactions to multiple traumas, medical problems, legal, political, financial and other practical issues and security concerns, there is always an increased investment in large-group identity by both refugees and persons in the host countries. This article does not explore the psychology of asylum seekers, immigrants or refugees. It describes what large-group identity is, how it develops and why a population’s preoccupation with physical borders increases. Its aim is to examine shared psychological processes in European countries and the United States that manifest when perception of newcomers as the dangerous Other takes place.