A Lesson From ‘Brexit’: On Immigration, Feelings Trump Facts
For people who are already destabilized by economic strain, those social changes contribute to a feeling that something precious is being lost, that their country is turning away from the things they value and toward a new and unfamiliar future.
.. In Australia, rising anti-immigration sentiment has focused especially on refugees from Southeast Asia, often disparaged as “boat people.” The country’s leadership, under growing popular pressure, created a system of offshore detention centers to warehouse refugees indefinitely rather than allow them onto Australian shores. These centers have been accused of abuses including rape, assault and child sexual abuse.
.. A relatively new body of social science research portrays a group of “authoritarians” who are dispersed across demographics but desire conformity, order and social norms. These can be “activated,” as the scholars describe it, when they feel threatened by social change, and then will seek harsh, punitive policies that target outsiders and restore the status quo.
.. “It’s as though a button is pushed on their forehead that says, ‘In case of moral threat, lock down the borders, kick out those who are different and punish those who are morally deviant.’”
.. In other words, social change and economic stress — exactly what many pro-Brexit communities have been experiencing in recent years — often lead to a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment.