To me, there is a fundamental problem with any ideology which sees people from other countries as inferior or as different kinds of humans. There is something wrong with you if you think those things.
Anyway, I'm not really going to address racism in this article, but rather discuss some forms of anti-immigration and anti-trade rhetoric. Racism is not necessarily at the root of all such rhetoric. Sometimes, it subsists because of simple economic ignorance.
One common argument given against immigration is that people will only come to our country to use our institutions and live off the state dole. Obviously, if such "services" are offered, then they will be used. This argument makes about as much sense as advertisements against smoking or obesity in a public health care system. If health care was not public, there would be no need for thinly-veiled social engineering in the first place. In short, the statist is blaming a problem he created and proposing more government as a solution, which is a standard tactic.
Another expression used against immigration is "stealing jobs". This is pure fantasy, as stealing a job is literally impossible. Any job acquired by an immigrant, "illegal" or otherwise, is acquired by freely trading with an employer, not by theft. At best, a "native" can feel "cheated" out of a job, if he has the prejudice that immigrants are somehow inferior to himself.
The anti-trade attitude extends this hostile attitude against immigration in the domain of economy. Every time you hear the expressions "trade deficit", "sucking sound" or "buy American/Canadian", you are hearing examples of this attitude at work.
People who complain about "trade deficits" and "the sucking sound of jobs leaving the country" are actually complaining about the specialization of work that occurs in globalization between countries. Such complaints are no more reasonable than people who complain about layoffs : no progress can exist without specialization and change. By moving manufacturing jobs elsewhere, richer countries lower their production costs and help poor countries offer more choices to their citizens.
