Many of us are not from one culture; I’m talking to the first generation citizens of the world, the refugees, and to those who have multiple cultural backgrounds. Speaking as someone from this demographic, I too struggle with figuring out who I am and where I belong. Having to constantly code switch at home and in school is something that, albeit second nature, causes me significant cognitive dissonance and to constantly question where I belong. But adopting a global view of the world may mitigate this internal dilemma I have on the daily. While citizens who identify nationally may say that we can never truly separate ourselves from our national culture when trying to adopt a global mindset, I argue that embracing cultural hybridity and not fully transcending our national culture may actually be beneficial when thinking globally because we can recognize our different cultural positions in the world which allows us to develop empathy for not only our own multiple identities, but other people’s as well.
But what exactly does being a “citizen of the world” mean one may ask? Put it this way: to be a global citizen is to recognize that we as a human race are all interconnected regardless of what race, gender, or country we come from. Global citizens feel an obligation to ensure that we all get equal opportunities and needs met, whether that be socially or economically.
To narrow down this definition a bit, consider someone like me who is American but also has cultural roots in the Philippines. Born to immigrant parents, I did not have the traditional American upbringing. Because they grew up in a different country, they subsequently raised me and my sister with those values. But outside the household, those values proved irrelevant. Society taught my sister and I to assimilate, which not only meant speaking English ninety percent of the time, but meant that our main attention and identity would center around America, not my homeland. If I were to identify solely with the US, I would be turning my back on my family and our heritage, or what little bit of it I still have within me left.
Powerful countries like the US can also fall subject to a laissez faire mentality which thus renders countries in need helpless, something I only recognize because of my dual identity. Extending on my Filipino experience, being loyal to only the US leaves developing countries like the Philippines at the bottom. By subscribing to only one country, national citizens risk subscribing to isolationism (i.e. only being interested in internal affairs at the cost of not participating in international ones). Taking a look at the vaccine rollout statistics, according to Reuters’ COVID-19 tracker, only 37,176,513 doses have been administered which equates to roughly 17.2% of the total population (Reuters). The US on the other hand is getting ready to administer a third dose of the vaccine and the option to refuse the vaccine, a privilege that citizens in the Philippines do not have. Even though the US can help out, the incentive to reach herd immunity is not enough for us to budge. Global citizens have the empathy to understand that this pandemic cannot end unless everyone around the world is immune. I am not saying that those who think nationally do not support a global distribution of the vaccine, but rather their priority lies in providing for their country first and foremost. If being a national citizen means living in a dog-eat-dog world and hence diminishing my empathy towards others who are not privileged Americans, then I don’t want any part of it.
As aforementioned, other countries such as my own that are inferior are in a constant state of suffering and I feel that as a part of this marginalized group, helping or at least advocating for all those in need regardless of where the diaspora comes from is a responsibility we as human beings should carry. This is also why framing my identity as “Filipino-American” instead of having to pick between my two identities would not trump identifying as a global citizen either. By simply identifying as Filipino-American I am ignoring the bigger picture at play. To be clear, I do still identify strongly with both my Filipino and American upbringing, but I think as a human being I am a lot more than just these two cultures. Belonging to an impoverished group helps me both empathize with those back home and with those in similar situations all around the world; if my willingness to help out others only extends to my own people, the incentive and drive to better society as a whole is not a priority anymore.
At this point citizens who identify nationally may say that we can never truly transcend our national culture when trying to adopt a global mindset. In layman’s terms, we are all inherently biased based on where we grew up; it is impossible to think globally if our values stem from our immediate environment.
While I do concede that we may never be able to think like a global citizen objectively, I don’t think we necessarily have to. Being prideful of our national culture, especially my ethnic one, is something that I always try to do, even if my ethnic ties are not that strong; but this is not to say that our national/own cultural sentiment prevents us from seeing that the world as a whole needs to advocate for each other and be more interconnected. If anything, not transcending our national culture may help us understand why we need to be more involved in global affairs if we have the means to. I believe that we can use our cultural biases to understand that not everyone has the same opportunities or values that we do, and these differences are why certain groups are more marginalized than others. If we can acknowledge that these differences in cultures, or even borders, do not make one group inferior to another only then we can fully embrace our multiple cultural identities guilt-free and thus gain empathy towards those who differ from our own diaspora(s) all around the world.
What this conversation reveals about national vs. global identity is that we cannot afford to think as nationalists when the dichotomy between the global north and the rest of the world, including my home country, is too apparent. Addressing ourselves as only what diaspora (or in my case multiple diasporas) we come from ignores dilemmas on a global scale that could inhibit the progression of society as a collective whole. Rather, finding a way to appreciate and respect the different cultures that make us who we are without putting just one on a pedestal(i.e. cultural hybridity) is more beneficial than having to identify with only a part of who we are. So if you’re anything like me, someone who’s in a constant flux of “who am I?”, there’s a simple answer to this internal monologue: it doesn’t matter. What matters is our ability to draw from our cultural experience(s) to better empathize with those who don’t share those experiences, which is something only a global citizen understands.
Bhatia, Gurman, et al. “Philippines: The Latest CORONAVIRUS Counts, Charts and Maps.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 9 Sept. 2021, graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/countries-and-territories/philippines/.
