Discrimination against foreigners

Often when a country's economic troubles persist, despite governmental change and growing independence, national and anti-foreign expressions may rise among the general public. Government officials may even depend on anti-foreign euphemism in their public statements in order to shift the blame on "economic migrants" to explain national failings.

In 1993, as western European governments and economies displayed signs of fatigue, expressions of intolerance of foreigners living in countries such as Germany and France were on the rise. A 1991 poll taken in Germany found one third of those questioned had "understanding for extreme rightist tendencies as a result of the immigrant problem". In eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, after the defeat of communism and the realization of a painful economic recovery, some have looked for blame in the presence of ethnic minorities. A 1993 report on the civil war between Algeria's Muslim fundamentalists and its military-dominated government in which more than 2,000 people had been murdered in less than 2 years, found that recent hostilities had turned to foreigners, as 2 Frenchmen and 2 Russians were kidnapped and assassinated within one month's time.