Anti-Immigration Sentiment

Anti-Immigration Sentiment: A Global Wound Deepened by the West 

Author: Gouya Roshan (Güya Aydın ) 

In a world that increasingly speaks of “human dignity,” a phenomenon called anti-immigration sentiment is silently spreading. It is a phenomenon that not only tramples on human rights but also reveals the hypocritical face of many governments, institutions, and even modern societies.

For years, Western media and governments from Europe to the United States and many other countries have positioned themselves as judges and watchdogs of other nations’ behavior. With human rights posturing, they have criticized countries like Iran for discriminating against immigrants, especially Afghans. These criticisms, while often justified and necessary, are now met with irony.

Today, however, anti-immigration sentiment is being institutionalized, legalized, and even legitimized beyond our borders in Europe and the United States. In some ways, what is happening in the West is even more blatant and brutal than the suppression of migrants in non-democratic countries.

The United States, once a symbol of immigration, cultural diversity, and the dream of a better life, has turned into a country that with actions such as separating children from parents, detaining migrants in inhumane camps, and building border walls has robbed millions of immigrants of hope. Immigration laws have become so complex and restrictive that not only asylum seekers but even legal immigrants feel unsafe. Media and politicians portray migrants as enemies, threats to the economy, culture, and national security.

In Europe a continent with a history of war, migration, and asylum immigrants are now seen as a burden and a threat to national identity. The borders of the European Union, especially in Greece, Italy, Hungary, and France, have become battlegrounds for refugees. The sinking of boats in the Mediterranean, the deaths of children in camps, and families living in limbo for years are part of a larger tragedy the modern world prefers to ignore.

The question is: Why does a world that loudly accuses Iran and other regional countries of violating migrants’ human rights remain silent about its own migration policies?

Does global justice only apply to those born on the "more civilized" side of the border?

Do human rights lose their value when faced with a migrant’s skin color, nationality, or language?

Shouldn’t human rights be universal—beyond territory and unconditional? How can an Afghan refugee be treated with compassion in Tehran, but be viewed as a troublesome burden without the right to live on the Polish or Texas border?

This double standard has severely damaged public trust in justice, humanity, and human rights. These concepts lose all ethical meaning and influence when they are used merely as political tools.

In most cases, migration is not a choice—it’s a necessity. No one leaves their homeland unless driven out by despair, hunger, war, or discrimination.

Most migrants are victims of crises in which the world’s most powerful countries have been directly involved from war-making and colonization to arms trafficking and support for dictatorships. Now, instead of accepting responsibility, these same countries are closing their borders, building walls, and treating “the other” as the enemy. The migrant is no longer a human being in search of a better life; he is a “dangerous stranger” to be feared, shunned, and suppressed.

If the world doesn’t awaken, a dark future awaits. If this trend continues, it won’t only be migrants who suffer host societies will rot from within. Any society that sows fear instead of empathy will reap violence. Anti-immigrant sentiment is not just a sign of a global moral crisis; it is a red flag warning us of the collapse of the very values on which modern civilization was built: freedom, equality, and human dignity.

Thus, anti-refugee sentiment is not an Iranian, American, or European problem; it is a global crisis. As long as we link human rights to nationality, skin color, language, or religion, no society will be safe.

Because the world needs a new collective conscience. A conscience that awakens not only for citizens and people of other races but for every human being who suffers.

My final word: Either all people are human, or no one