The term that we analyze comes from the Greek and is formed from two words: aporo, which means poor, and phobos, which means rejection or hatred. It is a relatively new word, as it became popular from a book published in 2014: "Aporophobia, the rejection of the poor" by the Spanish philosopher Adela Cortina.
Aporophobia and xenophobia
Both phenomena present some similarities, since they are two attitudes related to intolerance and contempt. However, each of them brings out different ideas and feelings . Xenophobia implies hatred of foreigners simply because of their origin, while aporophobia is an attitude of rejection towards the poor, whether they are of other nationalities or not.
It should be noted that xenophobia is not normally projected towards wealthy foreigners, since the most common is that it refers to foreigners with limited economic resources .
Fortunately, these types of hostile reactions are offset by generous and supportive attitudes towards the most disadvantaged.
Reactions that are activated in the face of poverty
The phenomenon of poverty has many faces. One of them is the one that takes place in advanced countries, where the average level of wealth is high but there is a percentage of people who live in very precarious conditions and in marginality. Regardless of the reasons that lead to poverty in first world countries, there is a reality: a part of society reacts with fear and contempt towards the most disadvantaged people.
Fear is experienced because someone's extreme poverty reminds us that any of us could find ourselves in the same situation. Sometimes the poor are despised because they are held responsible for their situation.
The rise of populisms and the contempt for those who have the least are two directly related phenomena
In recent years, populist political movements have appeared in different countries, such as France or the United States. They all have something in common: aporophobia.
In France the extreme right bases its discourse on the rejection of immigrants, most of them from very humble origins and who come to France looking for a better future. Curiously, the voters of the National Front are the French of the popular classes who see poor immigrants as a disturbing threat (the supporters and voters of the National Front argue that state aid ends up in the hands of foreigners with few resources ).
In the United States, President Donald Trump has taken drastic measures to control the emigration of Latinos who leave their territories in search of better opportunities. The aversion of some sectors of the population for Latinos is not due to their ethnic origin, but to their situation of poverty.