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https://theconversation.com/new-passport-rankings-show-that-the-world-is-opening-up-but-not-for-everyone-197341>
"Salman Rushdie, the celebrated Anglo-Indian writer, once declared that the
“most precious book” he possessed was his passport.
Rushdie had already published dozens of works, including novels, short stories,
essays and travelogues, to wide acclaim and considerable controversy. But he
acknowledged that it was his British passport, doing “its stuff efficiently and
unobtrusively,” that enabled him to pursue a literary career on the world
stage.
On the other hand, Rushdie viewed the Indian passport he had held as a boy in
the 1950s as “a paltry thing.” “Instead of offering the bearer a general
open-sesame to anywhere in the world,” he recalled, “it stated in grouchy
bureaucratic language that it was only valid for travel to a specified – and
distressingly short — list of countries.”
Today, global mobility is on the rise. According to The Passport Index, an
interactive ranking tool created by the investment firm Arton Capital, the
“World Openness Score” reached an all-time high at the end of 2022. And the
score has only continued to increase.
This means that passport holders around the world are receiving permission to
travel to more countries without first obtaining a visa than ever before. As
pandemic-related travel restrictions waned in 2022, the total number of visa
waivers increased 18.5% globally. Nearly every passport on the index, which
includes 193 United Nations member countries and six territories, became more
powerful, with holders receiving immediate access to 16 additional countries on
average.
But there’s still a massive mobility gap between the most and least powerful
passports – and it has big implications for where people can travel, reside and
work. The United Nations may proclaim that “everyone has the right to leave any
country, including one’s own, and to return to one’s country,” but the fact is,
not all passports are created equal or treated with equal respect."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
