Description

When societies face rising crime, housing shortages, disease, or social division, the blame often lands in the same place: immigrants.

From “they’re taking our homes” to “they’re bringing crime” or “they don’t share our values,” these claims surface again and again, across countries, cultures, and centuries. But why?

In Blame The Stranger, Tom Bourne cuts through rhetoric and emotion to examine why immigrants so often become the convenient explanation for complex social failures. Drawing on decades of international research in sociology, psychology, criminology, political science, and public health, this book exposes the mechanisms behind scapegoating and why evidence is so often ignored when fear and frustration are high.

This is not a book about immigration policy. It is a book about how societies think — and how they can be made to think more honestly.