Nativism

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A political or social movement that favors the interests of native-born inhabitants over those of immigrants, or the philosophical doctrine that certain mental capacities or knowledge are innate rather than acquired through experience
2. Support for prioritizing the rights and privileges of native-born people rather than immigrants ; the theory that some aspects of the mind exist from birth and are not learned through experience
3. An ideology that emphasizes the advantage of native residents in society above newcomers ; the belief that certain knowledge or cognitive abilities are inherent and not derived from environmental influence

Etymology: Nativism is a plain compound: "native" with the suffix "-ism," which English took from Greek "-ismos" through Latin, and which signals a doctrine or movement. The "native" half traces back, through Latin "nativus," to the idea of being born, so the word is built from the simple notion of birth plus a label for a belief system. Its first sense, political, concerned favouring people born in a country over newcomers, and the second, philosophical sense, concerns knowledge or traits thought to be present from birth rather than acquired. Because "-ism" is such a productive ending, nativism is one of many English words where the suffix does most of the work of naming a position. Applied to the mind, it sets innate ideas against the view that all knowledge comes from experience, a debate that long predates the word itself.

Synonyms: indigenism, nationalism, localism, xenophobia, patriotism

Antonyms: globalism, cosmopolitanism, internationalism, universalism, multiculturalism