The privilege of travelling
My mom and dad both travelled the world and lived abroad for a few years. You could say that traveling is basically in my blood. It’s also the first thing I answer when someone asks me what I love to do in my free time.
When I was 17, I went to the city hall, paid 90 euros and 4 weeks later I received my first passport – no questions asked. I remember being annoyed that it was “sooooo” expensive, that it took 4 weeks to get and that it was only valid for 4 years.
New York City was the first place I visited outside of Europe, needing a passport.
Before that, my Belgian ID-card had been enough to get me to France, Greece, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands Germany and the UK. Later it also got me to Croatia, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Sweden and Portugal.
I got a new passport after 4 years and visited Cuba, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica and the United Arab Emirates. The only time it took the border-control-people longer than 5 seconds to check my passport or ID was when I had my hair styled differently than on my picture.
There are currently 195 countries in the world. Global Passport Power Rankranks the passports according to the number of countries its holders can visit without a visum. Germany and Singapore are the winners: passport-holders can visit 158 countries.
Belgium ranks 4th with a total of 155 countries.
Except for North-Korea, I don’t know which 40 countries we’re not allowed to visit just like that, but even applying for a visa wouldn’t be that difficult for a Belgian national.
Two years ago I decided to move to Switzerland. Not because there was a war in my country or any other “very valid reason”, no, it was out of interest and because I could. Of course, I needed to find a job there first, but being a EU-citizen gave me the liberty to travel there a few times to find one. I came back to Belgium after 1.5 years and took all the money I earned in Switzerland with me. I would be lying if I said I didn’t think regularly about moving back there, just because of economical reasons. I could – if I wanted to. I wouldn’t need to answer 100 questions about my motivations or proving that I have enough money on my bank account right now.
Let’s go back to the passports.
It’s Afghanistan that ends the ranking on the 89th place with a total of only 22 countries. That’s a difference of 133 countries an Afghan would not be able to visit compared to a Belgian.
Also in the top 5 of lowest are: Irak & Pakistan (26), Syria (29) and Somalia (33). (What a coincidince! I think not..)
North Koreans can visit 38, the USA ranks 3rd with 156 countries.
The first time I became aware of the privilege Europeans live with when it comes to travelling, was when I invited my Ecuadorian friend to come to visit me. “I would love to.. but I don’t have a passport nor a visa”. It’s not that you can’t get either one of them, as an Ecuadorian, it’s just that it’s very hard. So I had to go back and visit him – because for me it’s easy and it would taken him a lot of administration and financial prove to just get a travelling visa.
Ecuador ranks 49th, with 78 countries they can visit. That’s still almost FOUR times as many as Afghans could visit. Four times more… and still it’s way more difficult than for any EU-citizen.
And then there’s the final question: Why is an Ecuadorian moving to Belgium called an immigrant… but I, a Belgian moving to Ecuador, would be called an Expat?
Being able to travel is easy for us – a privilege I never really realized I had. I didn’t do anything to deserve it, I was just lucky to be born in a certain country – and so were all of you Europeans reading this.
I am incredibly grateful for the chance to be able to travel, because it has taught me so much. I am a believer of hard work, but I hope that more people will realize that in the world we live in, Luck is an often overlooked factor. I hope everyone in Europe realizes how lucky we are to be able to live in this bubble of privilege and that you as a person did literally nothing more or less than someone living in let’s say Afghanistan, to deserve this Luck. I hope that with realizing our privilege, more people will change their minds about the idea of opening borders, welcoming people to our cities and.. take advantage of the incredibly chance you’ve been given: book a flight, pack your bags and go see the world – it’s too beautiful not to 🙂
