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).
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.