Global Inequalities In Granting Visas

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Global inequalities in granting visas

A study of global visa regimes has signalled that governments will have to reconcile their push for democracy, free trade and open-market globalisation with the increasingly restrictive and inequitable visa curbs on free movement of people. The study says that visa restrictions have created a system that ``is one of highly unequal access to foreign spaces, reinforcing existing inequalities''.

When it comes to enjoying visa-free travel to foreign countries, passport holders from rich nations form an exclusive club of 25 countries facing the fewest restrictions for going abroad, according to the research conducted by Dr Eric Neumayer, a geographer from the London School of Economics.

The study looks at how visa restrictions contribute to the growing inequalities between rich and poor countries.

Presenting the results to a geographers' conference in London on Aug 31, Dr Eric Neumayer compared a total of 36,000 pairs of joint visa arrangements involving 189 countries. The research revolved around seven hypotheses:

Countries impose visa restrictions on passport holders from nations from which they fear large-scale illegal immigration or infiltration by potential terrorists, criminals such as drug traffickers and other persona non grata.

Passport holders from countries whose nationals have perpetrated more acts of terrorism in the past are more likely to face visa restrictions going abroad.

The more autocratic and repressive a regime is, the more it is threatened by open borders. Hence, democracies, all other things equal, are more liberal on visas than autocracies are.

Countries grant visa-free travel for high-income countries for economic reasons.

Countries that are major trading partners are less likely to impose visa restrictions on each other. Major tourist spots are less likely to impose visa restrictions and major tourist-producing nations are less likely to face visa restrictions.

Countries are less likely to impose visa restrictions on nations with which they have historical or geographical links.

The study shows how rich countries systematically use visa restrictions to keep out visitors from countries that are poor, undemocratic and experience violent political conflict, not least in order to prevent asylum seekers and other migrants from entering. At the same time, citizens from those richer countries enjoy much better access to poorer countries.

It says notes that on average, the number visa restrictions by OECD countries does not differ in a statistically significant way from the numbers imposed by non-OECD countries (around 150 in both cases). ``However, whereas the average OECD citizen faces visa restrictions in travel to 93 foreign countries, the average non-OECD citizen needs a visa to travel to 156 countries.''

The study notes that ``OECD countries use their political power to maintain these inequalities.''

For example, it says, the EU threatens any country that is exempt from visa regulations with a review of its status should it opt to impose visa rules on nationals of one or more EU member states. But the EU ``has no problem with the fact that it imposes visa restrictions on many third countries who grant nationals from EU countries visa-free entry''.

``Similarly, to be granted visa-free access to the United States, it is a prerequisite for countries to offer reciprocal privileges to US passport holders, but offering such privileges in no way gives countries visa-free access to the US.''

According to Dr Neumayer:``For passport holders from rich countries, the world is in easy reach and travel is often free of visa restrictions. But the promise of a borderless world is an empty one for the majority of people. For them, holding a passport is meaningless without a visa.''

If mobility is one of the defining features of globalisation, he says, ``then as with many other aspects of globalisation, its realisation is highly stratified and subject to states' monitoring, regulation, interference and control.

``States might struggle with exercising their prerogative for thorough and comprehensive monitoring and control of movement in times of globalisation. But the era of supposedly unprecedented mobility is only part of the picture, and is at the same time also an era of great, continued and enforced inequality in access to foreign spaces based on the principle of nationality.''

The full study can be downloaded from: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/

geographyAndEnvironment/whosWho/profiles/neumayer/pdf/Visarestrictionsarticle.pdf

Imtiaz Muqbil is executive editor of Travel Impact Newswire, an e-mailed feature and analysis service focusing on the Asia-Pacific travel industry.

--Travel Impact Newswire 2005-09-04