It's the oldest trick in the book. Pick minority groups to "other", and people will line up to blame all of society's problems on the other, and happily give up freedom and control to "protect themselves" from the other. It can be different races, different nationalities, different religions, different languages, different castes, whatever. People LOVE to try and make the world make sense and gain a sense of control by splitting the world into "us" vs "them".