Aporophobia

By Karen Julieth Cubides Sarmiento (1st semester FIGRI student, Level 6 English)

Imagine living on the streets without a house, food or money. Traying to survive with nothing more than a few clothes. Hoping to have, at the end of the day, some food to feed your family. Imagine walking entire days through a new country looking for a new future. Or beg to others for money to live with the minimum life conditions possible. Moreover, hearing your children and family complain of hunger and tiredness because the situation. In addition to all this problem, the discrimination takes place, or as the philosopher Alicia Cortina calls it: aporophobia.  The massive immigration of Venezuelan people to Colombia has increase the levels of poverty, and in consequence, the aporophobia has become more evident. Venezuelans must do a long trip to arrive a new country where they don’t own nothing, and probably, where they don’t have anyone to help them.

Aporophobia: this term was introduced for the first time in 2017 by Alicia Cortina. It is the fear, phobia or social rejection to poor people. As Cortina says, it’s related to xenophobia, racism and other types of discrimination. An aporophobia’s important characteristic is that it’s mostly directed to foreign poor people, like migrants and refugees. “Nobody complains that an Arab sheikh is installed in a European country, nor to facilitate the residence of a famous soccer player.” (Perez, M. 2018).  

Nevertheless, we don’t need to go to the other side of the world to demonstrate that aporophobia is an actual issue. In Colombia, there are some clear examples of it. One of those is Farmatodo, this is a big Venezuelan drugstore supermarket chain. When this company set up in the country it was well received because the company’s owner is part of a rich family and it’s a rich company. But, unfortunately, the Venezuelan poor migrants aren’t received in the same way. And this is because they are poor.

On the other hand, it’s no secret that some Venezuelan people came to Colombia to do illegal activities, such like steal or participate in drug trafficking. Also, with the arrive of thousands and thousands of people, the situation for the less benefited Colombian families has get worse because the employers prefer contract Venezuelan employees to pay them less salaries, increasing the unemployment for Colombian citizens.

Finally, it’s true that everyone must deal with different situations, some are luckier than others. The respect is the key to a peaceful coexistence, so before discriminating or attack a migrant we need to ask ourselves if we would like to be treated with hate. In other words, we must “put ourselves in the shoes of others” to understand their situation and avoid the aporophobia. With the understanding of the citizens and the help of the government through public polices, Colombia would be able to escape of the effects of the aporophobia.