Adjustment Racism, Othering, and the Global Socio-Cultural Impacts of the Rohingya Crisis: A Systematic Review of Evidence Published 2021-2025

Abstract

This systematic review synthesizes peer-reviewed evidence published from 2021 to 2025 on racism, xenophobia, stigma, and othering directed at Rohingya communities and evaluates documented socio-cultural impacts across origin, transit, and host contexts. Guided by PRISMA 2020 reporting principles, the review conceptually maps how racism operates through intertwined mechanisms, including digital hate narratives and incitement, host community boundary-making, and institutional exclusion from services and rights. The synthesis indicates that socio-cultural impacts extend beyond immediate safety concerns and include erosion of social cohesion, constricted belonging, barriers to education and healthcare, and intensified psychosocial suffering expressed through culturally patterned idioms of distress. Evidence also documents forms of collective agency, including community organizations and informal support networks that mitigate hardship but remain constrained by hostile reception, legal uncertainty, and politicized discourse. The review foregrounds Indonesia as a critical site where online hostility and local identity politics have shaped reception dynamics, demonstrating how global narratives travel and are re-localized through national and regional anxieties. The article concludes with practical implications for social cohesion and rights-based governance, emphasizing anti-hate measures, transparent communication, culturally safe service provision, and community dialogue mechanisms to reduce stigma while supporting coexistence.