For example, according to the Henley Passport Index the weakest passport is from Afghanistan (not a surprise) as cizitens there can only visit 24 destinations visa free meaning they require a visa just to travel anywhere while for instance a Japanese passport holder can visit up to 187 destinations visa free making their passport strong.
Why is it that passport holders from “third world” (i.e. Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, etc.). nations are weak, meaning they need to constantly apply for visas just to visit countries that citizens of “first world” countries can enter without a visa. (Like an American can enter Poland without a visa while a Iranian needs a visa before entering).
As in if they saw someone from a “third world” country via immigration, they either get profiled more or face discrimination at border crossings due to suspicion of overstaying or violating the terms of their visa (i.e. entering under a tourist visa but finds employment), is that why it’s difficult for immigrants from those countries to travel?
What determines passport strength? Does it relate to a nation’s diplomatic relations and political stability? Since people from the “first world” can travel to a lot more destinations (is it more on mutual trust? That nations have biases towards certain regions of the world & their reputation, like they consider Middle East as an unstable region).
passports were created by European empires to help the police unions track down dissidents and to enforce bordering.
the reason why the global south experiences passport apartheid is because slavery and colonialism never ended.
in fact, there are more enslaved people in the present than there have ever been in human history.
edit: if you wanna learn more about what everyday bordering is and how it affects you
It’s very much a diplomacy agreement between two country, and how likely the citizen overstaying there. Malaysia, despite having the global GDP/C rank significantly lower than USA, have a passport rank of number 3 globally, with 121 countries visa-free, while USA ranked 10, with 111 countries visa-free. And Malaysia able to enter China(and North Korea before the assassination of Kim Jong Nam) visa-free, while needing to apply an ETA for UK and Australia due to the higher than average chance of people overstaying there.
On the other spectrum, Singapore, which ranked 2, have GPD/C higher than USA. It’s not about wealth it’s about not being an asshole.
It’s because the governments of the countries of visitation believe those folks are at higher risk of overstaying.
And thats true :) for example this was really common for Polish people in USA, since nobody thinks about usa a better place than Poland, we have no visa required
gasp people might like our country? PUNISH THEM. WHO THE FUCK DO THEY THINK THEY ARE, ENJOYING THEMSELVES?! THEY DISGUST ME.
They are welcome to apply through the proper channels.
Just not as welcome as other folk…
Because we treat everyone equally in everything else right?
Those proper channels are designed to keep out the poors. The whole system is fucked up
Right,ask USA how that’s going
Are you trying to imply that its impossible to immigrate to the US? I dont get your quip
Nah, people here are shit. “Ice” is killing And deporting actual citizens, good luck to anyone else.
“Use the proper channels” means fuck all here.
People are still getting accepted through immigration channels. There is a ton of people coming through legal channels in the US and all over the world.
Sure, but two things can exist at the same time. Many getting deported while others are trying to come.
Right now they don’t give a shit if you’re here legally “the right way” or not is my point. ICE sucks, this whole deal is to inflict pain to everyday people.
Not a serious answer, but restricting travel anywhere is such bullshit. I can buy a house somewhere in my country and move there, pay taxes, get a job, nobody would complain. But if I move to another country and do the same, suddenly it’s a problem or something? Why? I want everyone to have freedom of travel anywhere.
Partially based on relations between the countries and also if they think people from that country are likely to stay illegally.
If two countries are close politically, they’ll often have a visa waiver for each other, such as Canada/US. These citizens can cross into either country anytime without reason, usually for 1-6 months.
Then you’ll often see countries that are close politically but with a large wealth/standard of living disparity. A lot of times the citizens from the richer country are free to enter the poorer one with generous time limits, while the citizens from the poorer country have a lot more restrictions. Sometimes they have visa free zones near the border but would need to apply for a visa to go further or stay longer, but the visa isn’t too hard to obtain.
Then if your countries are hostile (or even neutral but with an extreme wealth/standard of living gap) then you’ll find it extremely hard to get a visa and you’ll be basically interrogated about the purpose of your visit and likely denied anyway.
