An attempt to promote friendship between Japan and countries in Africa has transformed into a xenophobic row about migration after inaccurate media reports suggested the scheme would lead to a flood of immigrants. The controversy erupted after the Japan International Cooperation Agency, or JICA, said this month it had designated four Japanese cities as Africa hometowns for partner countries in Africa: Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania.
Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) proposes that humans have innate capacities to hold certain moral values, which are then either nurtured or stunted by socio-cultural forces. The five morals typically listed are care, fairness, in-group loyalty, respect (for authority), and purity; other versions propose additional values such as liberty (which was primarily devised to distinguish Libertarians). Political conservatives tend to score highly across all five morals, while political liberals tend to score highly only in care and fairness ( Haidt & Nosek, 2009). Parasitic-Stress Theory (PST) proposes that human values were fundamentally shaped, as we evolved, by the interaction of our ancestors with parasites and diseases ( Fincher & Thornhill, 2014).
For many residents of central Asian countries, Russia remains the only realistic option to earn a living abroad, given a lack of opportunities back home. A shared language, familiar bureaucracy and established migration networks made this a natural transition following the collapse of the Soviet Union. But is Russia still the safe haven for central Asian migrant workers it once was? Increasingly, the answer seems to be no.
"In Portland Shakespeare Project's current staging of the play, the words are barely out of Portia's mouth before we hear offstage drunken laughter that emphasizes her xenophobia and provides a potent reminder that Merchant may be called a comedy, but this version is intent on grappling with the prejudices displayed by its characters."
