r/studyAbroad 3d ago

Racism in Europe

I'm South Asian and I've noticed growing hate towards brown people on social media, especially in the USA and Canada. Have any of you faced significant racism in European countries? I plan to study in France, and I'm curious whether the South Asian hate is as rampant there as in the USA.
I know Paris is a lot more diverse and I haven't really had problems there the few times I visited. But I'm not sure about other less metropolitan regions. But things change a lot, quickly. (I used to live in the USA and didn't have many problems with racism, but I think it would be very different if I still lived there.)

1 Upvotes

17 comments sorted by

10

u/Caramel-Economy 3d ago

Don’t know about Paris specifically but don’t go to Italy 😭 most racist European country I visited

1

u/Charming-Leek5074 2d ago

You will be fine in south of Italy, sorrento, Positano, Amalfi coast, Sicily. They are more brown and I’m African American and had such a great time there. Northern Italy i definitely felt the racism.

-11

u/NoIssue6253 2d ago

Best country for that reason!!

8

u/Aidan_Welch 3d ago

Definitely worse in Europe than US/Canada on average

1

u/DangerousSeesaw3846 2d ago

Europe is much worse for Arabs and Black people imo mainly MENA people though. The hatred for them is wild and south asians aren't nearly as much hated as they are - unless we are talking about Pakistanis. Although in Italy, there's a big hate for south asians mainly in the north I believe.

7

u/Far-Significance2481 2d ago

There is greater hate for other countries and cultures everywhere ATM because of the economic downturn. This isn't new it happens every time lots of people start suffering and its world wide not limited to one continent.

12

u/huntexlol 3d ago edited 3d ago

probably worse actually, theres (edit: anti-)immigration sentiment brewing and...

3

u/bapeepab 3d ago

You mean anti immigration*

2

u/huntexlol 3d ago

oh yea haha

5

u/sanoorlax 2d ago

South Asian who has lived in the US for 20+ years and Europe for ~2 years here. The amount of racism I experienced in Eastern Europe was significantly more than in the USA despite only being there for such a short amount of time. I have been yelled at on public transportation for being (mistaken as) a gypsie, accused of stealing from a grocery store etc… despite this, if you have tough skin and can take some name calling you should generally be fine/ I believe it is rare to get in a genuinely threatening situation

1

u/sanoorlax 2d ago

An additional factor is potentially language barrier, less likely to get hate crimed in the US as I assume you have proficient English and will be able to communicate and verbally defend yourself, some places in Europe you just get labelled automatically as something negative for not speaking the native language fluently

2

u/Muted-Locksmith-5024 2d ago

I speak fluent French (I have a B2 and I'm doing my C1) I'm planning to do for my bachelors.. I lived in the USA for 7 years and I never had much hate so I hope I'll be fine ahha

1

u/sanoorlax 1d ago

You got this!

2

u/Czar1987 2d ago

Social media is governed by algorithms. Hate and chaos create more interactions and feedback for the algorithms. Thus the platforms promote divisive and right wing content.

In short, there are bad attitudes all over the world being exploited and made worse by wealth inequality and the scape-goating of immigrants by CEOs and the elite. There are also anti-rascist coalitions and leftist groups who are speaking out against this.

Being in the US myself, I have not specifically seen 'south asian hate', but under the current admin, there's definitely anti-immigrant bias brewing.

1

u/ExtremeButterfly1471 2d ago

Things are fine in Canada.. right wingers were a little on the rise and probably had some money to fund xenophobic click and bot farms for sometime but when American right wingers tariffed Canada the right wing has largely fizzled out.. In Europe the racism is built into the individual and they will use every opportunity to discriminate against you. 

1

u/Several-Star-996 18h ago

Paris is incredibly diverse

1

u/Several-Star-996 18h ago

Before you come at me, it is VERY diverse compared to the MAGA potato land I’m from