MINDFUL TRAVELLING
Confronting Passport Privilege When Living in Europe
For those of us with “powerful” passports, it’s important to acknowledge our travelling privileges in a post-pandemic world
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It was 2018 when I was living in the Netherlands for 7 months. I had the privilege of meeting friends from all over the world, travelling every other weekend to a new country, and getting to experience what “Dutch” life entails.
One night, while at dinner, one of my friends asked if we were available for a last-minute trip to go to London for the weekend.
I had never been to London and would have loved to go, but “unfortunately”, I already made travel plans to France for the weekend. Typing this sentence out, just screams privilege, already.
I simply told her, “oh I can’t, but maybe next weekend!”
Two of the girls who were also at dinner said “oh sounds like fun, but we can’t, we need to get a visa to visit.”
Both of us were perplexed. A visa to go to London for the weekend, why was that?
Sensing our confusion, they explained how their passports don’t allow them to visit the United Kingdom on a whim. Even if they wanted to visit, they would need to apply for a visa if they were intending to be in the country for longer than 24 hours.
This simple interaction taught me an important lesson on passport privilege.
My friend and I in question are Canadian citizens with Canadian passports. My two other friends in the story were Pakistani citizens with Pakistani passports.
Even though all countries issue passports, no two passports are made equal.
Passport privilege can simply be described as the privilege to be able to travel the world freely because of the type of passport you possess. These are often passports that come from North American or European countries.
For example, the Henley Passport Index ranks every country’s passports based on the types of destinations that can be accessed without a visa.
In comparing Canada and Pakistan, it is clear that there are significant differences between the two countries in relation to travelling.
As you can see, Pakistan is ranked 107th in 2021 with 194 visa-required destinations.
Canada is ranked very high on the index, at 9th place, and only requires a visa for 41 destinations.
In contrast, the possession of a Pakistani passport only allows passport holders to travel to 32 destinations without a visa.
In comparison, an individual with a Canadian passport can travel to up to 185 destinations without requiring any type of visa.
Embarrassingly enough, up until that conversation I did not realize my own privilege when it came to my passport.
Growing up, I always heard the advice of
“go travel the world to discover yourself”
“go live in another country for a year”
“travelling is good for the soul”
I never needed to bat an eyelash at this advice, because I knew I would be able to do all these things (money permitting) if I wanted to.
I didn’t realize this wasn’t the reality for most individuals.
In fact, there are 30 countries ranked in the top 10 “best” passports. Even though the top 3 most “powerful” passports are Japan, Singapore, and South Korea, the remaining 27 countries are either located in Europe, North America (Canada and the United States), and Oceania (Australia and New Zealand).
There are 11 countries in the bottom 10 for “worst” passports. These countries are Kosovo, Libya, North Korea, Nepal, Palestine, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Although the advice from above is well-intentioned, it is inherently flawed because it makes the assumption that someone can just pack their bags and leave, irrespective of money. There are significant barriers and structures in place that limit someone’s mobility — such as a passport.
Because of this, it contributes to the Western world’s domination of travel narratives, which further reinforces the unequal structures in place for travelling.
Even when I was studying abroad, I often picked up on how our shared experience was usually spoken about in relation to
Where did you travel this weekend?
How was ______?
Let’s do a trip to ______ this weekend!
As innocent as these conversations were, I began to realize that the majority of us were immensely privileged to be able to do this and have these conversations, while some of our exchange friends were not able to participate.
Living in the Netherlands was their whole experience.
For me, my experience was travelling to Krakow by bus, taking ferries to Maltese islands, and taking countless trains to Belgium or Germany. My experience was not limited to one country but to several during a short period of time.
As I continued having more and more conversations, it made me realize how easy it was for me to live and study in the Netherlands and in Europe in general. My visa process was quite seamless and straightforward with very few obstacles in place. On the flip side, many of my exchange friends coming from countries such as Pakistan, Malaysia, and Morroco, had a much more expensive and lengthy process to end up in the same place as me.
Although I do have my fair share of horrific travelling stories as a woman of colour, I’ve never been barred from travelling because of my passport.
As our world begins to re-open and the prospect of travelling for leisure increases, I can’t help but think about how often I saw articles about the declining power of the American passport because of the country’s COVID response and how inherently misguided these sentiments were.
Sure, yes, the American passport has slowly declined in ranking and the pandemic saw Americans being banned from entering countries such as Canada, however, these measures are temporary and miss a much larger picture.
The reality is that the majority of the world’s population will never even be able to step foot onto North America or Europe because of visa restrictions.
And not to pick on Americans, I believe that Canadians also hold this viewpoint as well. I, myself, had complained this past year about how I wish I could have been able to visit friends living in other countries or be able to participate in my post-graduation travel plans with my brother.
The goal of this article is not to make those of us with “powerful” passports feel guilty about having these passports. Western travel culture paints travelling as a right or even as a rite of passage when it is in fact a huge privilege, and I think that is the mindset we need to have when travelling.
Acknowledging the inherent privilege of travelling allows us to be more mindful travellers once we are able to do so and recognize the structures of power and privilege that exist within and outside our borders.
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