The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic Politicization in Western Countries on The Rise of Xenophobia Against Foreigners of Asian Descent

Abstract

This article treats how covid19pandemic has been politicized in the responses of the western states in sociopolitical context characterized by intense political polarization, through using narrative political discourse stigmatized covid 19 as a Chinese virus and accused china and the foreigners of Asian descent of creating and outbreak the virus. This discourse that founded on binary opposition: self / other ,has stimulated the spread of various forms of racism and discrimination against foreigners of Asian descent, and has also reinforced exclusionary policies towards foreigners from social interactions, has amplified societal cleavages along cultural and ethnic lines resulted of a rooted cultural biases, and changed the pandemic to a catalyst of xenophobia against Asian foreigners in the western societies, threatened their social identity and reinforced their status as perpetual foreigners