By Rekha Joly (she/her)
The Henley Passport Index 2024 lists the top ten most powerful passports in the world today. The index is clear-cut: the Global North ('developed' countries like the UK, USA, Canada, and New Zealand) hold more visa privileges than the Global South ('developing' countries of Africa, Central and South America, most of Asia, and the Pacific).
As a person holding an Indian passport, I checked my world status. We are nowhere in the top 50 countries. Despite being a massive economy, with Indians contributing deeply and meaningfully, India sits at 81st. Its citizens can travel to 64 countries without a visa. Compare that to French citizens' access to 194 countries or New Zealand citizens' access to 189. However, Indians are doing much better than the citizens of Afghanistan, Sudan, and Palestine, who have perennially remained at the bottom of this ranking. They can only travel to a handful of countries. The doors are seemingly closed for a certain demographic.
So, without visa waivers, how do the rest of us travel? The burden of proof comes in the holy trinity of documents, time, and money. We need to provide documents for visa applications, bank statements, health reports, biometrics, wage slips, return tickets, police certificates, accommodation proof, letters stating our motivation for travel, and more. We are also required to pay an obscene amount to get a visa. Research claims that we spend almost three months of salary on a single visa. The time we need
to put in to see a visa application through is equally ridiculous.
Here are some stories from individuals who have carried this burden:
A man travelling to Switzerland with his Zambian passport recounted a particularly frustrating experience. He could only enter through a specific airport because part of the runway at Geneva Airport lies in France, which at the time was not part of the EU. As a result, he needed a French visa just to enter Switzerland. For a brief moment during take-off or landing, he had to reroute his entire travel plan.
A Vietnamese tourist shared her humiliating ordeal of being stuck in New Zealand during the pandemic. It wasn't the situation itself that was most humiliating, but the requirement to provide proof every two months that she had no intention of staying. This meant repeatedly buying flight tickets back to Vietnam. Additionally, she had to involve the Vietnamese embassy to vouch for her short stay. She described the experience as ‘dehumanising’.
Two other Indians expressed their frustration with visa fatigue. Despite their frequent travels, they were constantly required to provide proof of their intentions. ‘It's irritating at this point. It's not like I’m travelling for the first time in ten years. You have vetted me consistently. My thumbprints haven’t changed!’ They challenged me to find an Asian who can travel on a whim. For us, spontaneity often starts two months in advance.
In my research, I found that people from the Global South face more paperwork, higher costs, and longer processing times to obtain a visa. However, even with all this extra effort, a visa does not guarantee entry into the country. International students, both in New Zealand and the US, arrived at their respective airports with hopes and dreams, only to be sent back. Officials were not convinced of their 'characters'. These students were people of colour.
Visa policies are only becoming more severe; several countries are upping their requirements, like Australia, Britain, and Canada. Travel and study are becoming virtually impossible—boulders replacing borders. It is laughable that the UK, which trampled across the world, colonising with impunity, now restricts people from coming to merely travel or study.
There need to be more protections for visa applicants. Although there are established pathways for migrants, there are too many barriers for those applying for visas. Visa applicants are consumers of embassy and immigration services, as well as of the country's overall experience. Shouldn't they be entitled to some consumer rights as well? Especially when visa applications are rejected without any compensation or support. Legal frameworks would alleviate our suffering.
Streamlining the visa application process is pivotal in easing mobility. There is a lot of redundancy leading to wasted time and money. Even frequent travellers cannot get respite, compelled to approach each visa application as if it is their first. In this digital age, many of us from the Global South find it hard to believe that there is no global database to fast-track visa processing.
It is critical to change the narrative around migrants. Often, migrants are seen as a homogenised block—one where only people of colour reside. When the media presents migrant issues such as housing and job crises, why isn’t a student from Germany considered part of the problem? Within this realm, it is equally important that migrants themselves know and understand their worth. They are told never to stir the pot, and their cultural and economic contributions are never celebrated.
It is crucial that we realise this, talk about it, and engage in dialogue.
Ideas and voices do not need visas.
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