Xenophobes are all mixed-up

But then we all of us are. As animals with attributes we call human, and thus, more accurately, humanimals, we are forever in two minds about everything. Constantly torn between emotionality and rationality, instinct and intelligence, and every possible other set of opposites.

So it is no wonder that we are so confused and outright conflicted in our attitudes to foreigners. On the one hand rejecting them as interlopers to be feared or invaders to be fought, and on the other more or less happily accepting them as tourists, temporary residents or permanent immigrants.

Of course this dilemma has plagued us ever since our own and other humanoid species emerged from Africa countless millennia ago. But today, with the globalisation of everything from technology to terror, the issue seems more pressing than ever before.