Passportism: Xenophobia from Discourse to Policy

Abstract

The beginning of the twenty-first century has brought an intensifying rise of what is commonly known as xenophobia on a worldwide scale. Xenophobic sentiments are nowadays commonly used in a propagation of a discriminatory discourse, commonly as a means to achieving electoral support, eventually reaching the status of official state policy. This article explores several discursive cases regarding contemporary xenophobia, as well as xenophobic policy. In addition, it argues a lack of an appropriate designation referring to policies of discrimination based on a person's citizenship – that is, passport – offering the term passportism as a viable solution.