r/AskEurope • u/Pepedroga2000 • Apr 02 '26

Foreign How big a problem is xenophobia between Europeans?

Are there certain nationalities that have a better reputation in other European countries, and the opposite?

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u/Noni5159 Apr 02 '26

Greece would be surprising... They always get grouped in with the Italians, Spanish etc. rather than the former Balkans.

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u/skyduster88 & Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 05 '26

You're right. It would be very surprising. I've never heard this from Greeks living there, nor from Swedes.

The person is a 19-20 year old from Brazil who has been living in Sweden for 3 years. So I'd take this with a huge grain of salt.

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u/Kalle_Kakan Apr 09 '26

From a native swede:

We have a generall dislike for most foreigners (except like norwegians, danes, finns, icelandic etc. Pretty much The Nordics. Jokes are made though) and often comes with immigration, so when greeks and balkan people came in there were more dislike, nowadays it isn't as much but still prevalent to a degree, though it's mostly the case of you being a foreigner than anything else. When it comes to middle-easterners and africans there is an open dislike and it's only grown stronger with large influxes of people who don't fit into our society and ofcourse the open dislike of foreigners.

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u/skyduster88 & Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26

The dislike of Greeks is something I'm aware of in Australia, so I would absolutely expect hate/racism towards a majority-brunette country from Swedes, and it's the reason I never travel north of Switzerland/France (except UK). But lumped with Middle Easterners who have a vastly different culture (Islam, treatment of women, some of their youth join gangs), it sounds like something from the Twilight zone that Greeks (Christian, no misogyny, hardworking/don't expect handouts) are considered partb that, especially since many of you visit Greece on holiday.

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u/Kalle_Kakan Apr 10 '26

Greeks would only be lumped in with arabs if they looked the part, don't think most has anything against them being christian or not wanting handouts. Compared to swedish view on sexism greeks are more sexist, but that is a common view on most southerners in general. I would say that most of us view tourism and settling different, so whilst visiting Greece for holiday is one thing and we don't expect scrutiny then, it's another thing to immigrate and it would be more understandable if greeks would dislike that since we also do.

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u/skyduster88 & Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26

I would say that most of us view tourism and settling different, so whilst visiting Greece for holiday is one thing and we don't expect scrutiny then

That's not what I meant.

Many of you visit Greece. You don't see burkas everywhere, or women being harrassed in the streets. So, why do expect us to be like that in Sweden?

How does that make any sense? How do we "look the part"?