The sixth volume in The Guiding Light Series refers to Hivers. This book shows how hivers are viewed by Okranites, who refer to them as "insect fiends."
The first and fifth volume in United Weekly Series refers to Hivers. The first one is an empire perspective on an increase of Hiver citizens in the United Cities which views them negatively as criminal and impoverished elements. The fifth volume is a story of empire traders visiting Hive Villages, and getting harassed.
Disdain against Hivers is commonplace in Kenshi, as a result of shunning the Hivers' organization, status, tendencies and race. The justification and policies to deal with them differs from faction to factions.
The Holy Nation considers Hivers to be darkened, beastly and dangerous influences born to a life of misery that will bring down their society. In order to purge their influence and enforce the holy doctrine, only Hivers with Human escorts are tolerated, those without an escort found in holy lands are systematically imprisoned and sent to Rebirth for further judgement. Needless to say, they do not trade with them either.
Shek Kingdom detests Hivers for their feeble physical build and lack of martial prowess, and often times harass them for this. For this reason, some haughty Shek warriors will refuse to be recruited by a Hiver, and it is likely as a result of this that no Hivers are found as citizens in their country, as Sheks there in general probably do not sell housing to them. Despite their inhospitality towards Hivers, the Hiver Trade Caravans are allowed to come inside their cities to pay tribute.
The United Cities in general, but especially the Nobles, loath Hiver immigrants for being impoverished, low-class, and ostensibly a contributor to increasing crime-rates inside UC. Although they do welcome them on one condition as Hiver immigrants can be easily exploited to be made as decent slaves and servants, to the point that a Worker Drone is around 4x more prevalent than a Human to be an Empire Peasant. However, a xenophobic group who can be found inside UC called the United Heroes League are unhappy with them, seeing them as both repulsive and competitors in the workforce, and often target them for harassment and violence. (Please note that the United Heroes League is a bandit faction and not actually affiliated with the United Cities. If attacked the guards will assist you in defeating the League.)
Lastly, Western Hive itself hates individualist Hivers, seeing them as traitors to the queen and defective. They absolutely refuse to have any deals with the "Hiveless".
Regardless of which group they belong to, a commonly held belief between the denizens of Kenshi and all (non-Hive) factions above is that the Hivers have a tendency to be dirty, greedy, stealing and scamming. Given that Hiver Trade Caravans have an event where they make a ridiculously high mark-up of Lantern of Radiance (and claiming it's a discount), and the fact that the source for their 'cargo' are suspicious at best, the better experience gain in the stats with regards to Thievery (which suggests they are good at doing and have a tendency of doing these stuff) alongside the fact that there is an entire shady gambling group made up solely of Hivers in Swamp, these beliefs are at least partially true.
Although this is not referenced by gameplay mechanics, western hive people are mostly vegetarian, mainly living on cacti and other plant based foods due to their lesser hunting skills and superior farming/gathering skills. Their high-in-cactus diet, means that they are able to produce a kind of super hemp by using their manure as both a fertilizer and additive during it’s fermentation process. Bug juice (known as ‘nutrients’ to the hivers) is an extremely potent and addictive substance known throughout the world.[9]