I watched this recent video by Dogen about how immigrants should adapt to Japanese life etc.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_tXp5sFlHQ
One of the things I found odd was that he mentioned “eating while walking” as one of the offensive behaviors foreigners should stop doing. Many of the other examples made sense to me, but for this one - I never thought this was “rude”, rather “odd”. Thinking about it, I had a few conversations about this over time, but never got negative vibes for it (at least directly). Might be that people don’t want to tell me it’s rude, but I also got no negative opinions about it from people who lived abroad for a while (and thus are maybe better at communicating with foreigners) and/or are usually more upfront with me.
So my current understanding: It’s odd but not rude. Thankful for any further insights.
I don’t think it’s that normal in other countries, and also I don’t think that it’s always considered racist in the US. The way I see it, immigration politics become problematic when either there is a cultural difference that seems difficult to overcome, or when some politicians/media purposefully reinforce racist stereotypes.
For example: There was a big debate in Germany 20 years ago about whether it should be legal or illegal for women to wear a Hijab. Allowing it would support religious freedom, but be associated with gender discrimination. Disallowing it was seen as supporting gender equality, but be against religious freedom. Both gender and religious discrimination are unconstitutional in Germany. How should you resolve that?
Another example: The republicans in the US lie and say that immigrants eat pets. Media reinforces that. Now people hate immigrants a bit more (following a longer, ongoing narrative).