mana5280| unsplash

Every Passport Has A Story

Despite this huge unfairness, because nobody chooses a particular passport at birth, some people have to go through it.
Madagascar, Eastern Africa

Story by Fortunat Miarintsoa Andrianimanana
Published on April 11, 2020. Reading time: 4 minutes

This story is also available in ar cn de es it kr tr



Listen to this story:


Your passport says a lot about you. Much more than your name(s) or your birthday. The three things the immigration officer will not fail to scrutinize are the visa(s) stuck on the pages, the expiration date of it and most importantly, the country that issued your passport. This simple information can make your life quite difficult and handicap your childhood dream of "free movement" around the world. But also the reverse. It just depends on which country has issued your passport. The truth is that if you are not yet raged about the passport you have; it is because you were born in the "right" country.

I remember the piles of documents I had to provide to the Spanish Embassy to come to Spain for my studies or the stressful interviews I had to pass to attend a conference in the UK or to visit the USA. Don't forget, the country that issued your passport determines the number of countries you are allowed to enter without a visa stamped in advance or on arrival. The more countries you can enter without a visa, the more “powerful” your passport is. Passports are annually ranked, which in 2020 highlights the passports of Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Germany, Italy, to only name a few, as the most “powerful passports” and the ones from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Somalia, etc. as the weakest[1]. My Malagasy passport, for example, allows me to enter 55 countries without a visa. There is very little information on the reasons for the unequal value of passports. It is certainly the result of diplomatic and trade treaties between countries.

Obviously, the more powerful your passport is, the higher are your chances to circulating freely in the world, and hence, in my case, you will have to make a memorable bureaucratic journey to be able to get out of your homeland with your “weak” passport in the pocket. Despite this huge unfairness, because nobody chooses a particular passport at birth, some people have to go through it.

The higher the number of visa(s) stuck in a “weak passport”, the greater the chance the passport holder may have his visa granted as the embassy or consulate staff is aware that this person is less “eligible” for gone-for-ever travel. This is the strength of the number of visas stuck on your passport. Personally, I am allowed to enter some countries without a visa if I have a residence in European countries or the USA.

The “weak passport” holder will certainly be required to demonstrate the reason for his travels, his economic subsistence and his intention to return to the country of origin before leaving. In other words, the wealthier you are, the easier it is for you to be welcomed in another country. The passport is, therefore, the first filter of migration which favors “powerful passport” holders.

What your passport doesn’t tell about you, is your story. Or more precisely why you are showing your passport and asking for a visa. And unfortunately, this is the least of the concerns of the agents holding and handling your passport. Visiting a family member, who is dying in another country? Looking for shelter to escape endless wars in your own country? Or simply to gather with your lover? There are thousands of reasons that force us to leave our country for a while or forever.

With a little luck, you will be able to have the visa printed on your passport. But you’ll notice, the story of your passport depends on the country that issued it.


Footnotes

[1] Henley Passport Index 2020 (https://www.henleypassportindex.com/passport); Business Insider (https://www.businessinsider.com/best-passports-most-countries-no-visa-henley-index-2020-1);
Forbes: (https://www.forbes.com/sites/duncanmadden/2020/01/10/the-most-powerful-passports-in-the-world-in-2020/);
CNN (https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/henley-index-world-best-passport-2020/index.html)


How does this story make you feel?

Follow-up

Do you have any questions after reading this story? Do you want to follow-up on what you've just read? Get in touch with our team to learn more! Send an email to
[email protected].

Talk about this Story

Please enable cookies to view the comments powered by Disqus.

Share your story

Every story we share is another perspective on a complex topic like migration, gender and sexuality or liberation. We believe that these personal stories are important to better understand what's going on in our globalised society - and to better understand each other. That's because we are convinced that the more we understand about each other, the easier it will be for us to really talk to one another, to get closer - and to maybe find solutions for the issues that affect us all. 

Do you want to share your story? Then have a look here for more info.

Share Your Story

Subscribe to our Monthly Newsletter

Stay up to date with new stories on Correspondents of the World by subscribing to our monthly newsletter:

* indicates required

Follow us on Social Media

Fortunat Miarintsoa Andrianimanana

Fortunat Miarintsoa Andrianimanana

I am a 27 years young Malagasy (no, there are no penguins in Madagascar). I am a convinced life enthusiast willing to always adjust the sails, enjoying at the moment the Barcelonean way of life.  When I am not investigating on internationally displaced people’s welfare or learning marketing strategy, you’ll find me listening to piano concertos or giving a (passionate) hug to someone somewhere.

Topic: Migration




Get involved

At Correspondents of the World, we want to contribute to a better understanding of one another in a world that seems to get smaller by the day - but somehow neglects to bring people closer together as well. We think that one of the most frequent reasons for misunderstanding and unnecessarily heated debates is that we don't really understand how each of us is affected differently by global issues.

Our aim is to change that with every personal story we share.

Share Your Story

Community Worldwide

Correspondents of the World is not just this website, but also a great community of people from all over the world. While face-to-face meetings are difficult at the moment, our Facebook Community Group is THE place to be to meet other people invested in Correspondents of the World. We are currently running a series of online-tea talks to get to know each other better.

Join Our Community

EXPLORE TOPIC Migration

Global Issues Through Local Eyes

We are Correspondents of the World, an online platform where people from all over the world share their personal stories in relation to global development. We try to collect stories from people of all ages and genders, people with different social and religious backgrounds and people with all kinds of political opinions in order to get a fuller picture of what is going on behind the big news.

Our Correspondents

At Correspondents of the World we invite everyone to share their own story. This means we don't have professional writers or skilled interviewers. We believe that this approach offers a whole new perspective on topics we normally only read about in the news - if at all. If you would like to share your story, you can find more info here.

Share Your Story

Our Editors

We acknowledge that the stories we collect will necessarily be biased. But so is news. Believing in the power of the narrative, our growing team of awesome editors helps correspondents to make sure that their story is strictly about their personal experience - and let that speak for itself.

Become an Editor

Vision

At Correspondents of the World, we want to contribute to a better understanding of one another in a world that seems to get smaller by the day - but somehow neglects to bring people closer together as well. We think that one of the most frequent reasons for misunderstanding and unnecessarily heated debates is that we don't really understand how each of us is affected differently by global issues.

Our aim is to change that with every personal story we share.

View Our Full Vision & Mission Statement

Topics

We believe in quality over quantity. To give ourselves a focus, we started out to collect personal stories that relate to our correspondents' experiences with six different global topics. However, these topics were selected to increase the likelihood that the stories of different correspondents will cover the same issues and therefore illuminate these issues from different perspectives - and not to exclude any stories. If you have a personal story relating to a global issue that's not covered by our topics, please still reach out to us! We definitely have some blind spots and are happy to revise our focus and introduce new topics at any point in time. 

Environment

Discussions about the environment often center on grim, impersonal figures. Among the numbers and warnings, it is easy to forget that all of these statistics actually also affect us - in very different ways. We believe that in order to understand the immensity of environmental topics and global climate change, we need the personal stories of our correspondents.

Gender and Sexuality

Gender is the assumption of a "normal". Unmet expectations of what is normal are a world-wide cause for violence. We hope that the stories of our correspondents will help us to better understand the effects of global developments related to gender and sexuality, and to reveal outdated concepts that have been reinforced for centuries.

Migration

Our correspondents write about migration because it is a deeply personal topic that is often dehumanized. People quickly become foreigners, refugees - a "they". But: we have always been migrating, and we always will. For millions of different reasons. By sharing personal stories about migration, we hope to re-humanize this global topic.

Liberation

We want to support the demand for justice by spotlighting the personal stories of people who seek liberation in all its different forms. Our correspondents share their individual experiences in creating equality. We hope that for some this will be an encouragement to continue their own struggle against inequality and oppression - and for some an encouragement to get involved.

Education

Education is the newest addition to our themes. We believe that education, not only formal but also informal, is one of the core aspects of just and equal society as well as social change. Our correspondents share their experiences and confrontations about educational inequalities, accessibility issues and influence of societal norms and structures. 

Corona Virus

2020 is a year different from others before - not least because of the Corona pandemic. The worldwide spread of a highly contagious virus is something that affects all of us in very different ways. To get a better picture of how the pandemic's plethora of explicit and implicit consequences influences our everyday life, we share lockdown stories from correspondents all over the world.

Growing Fast

Although we started just over a year ago, Correspondents of the World has a quickly growing community of correspondents - and a dedicated team of editors, translators and country managers.

94

Correspondents

113

Stories

57

Countries

433

Translations

Contact

Correspondents of the World is as much a community as an online platform. Please feel free to contact us for whatever reason!

Message Us

Message on WhatsApp

Call Us

Joost: +31 6 30273938