Global Passports and the future of citizenship

I have been thinking about immigration, citizenships and travel restriction for quite some time, mainly due to my work in Global Mobility but also got some hints from the universe (e.g. the TED talk of Ooooota Adepo at the TEDxBerlin conference in 2018).

The topic of citizenship has been debated in human history starting with Socrates who said, “I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world." – if we are to trust Plutarch words[1].

Looking at such statements, we can observe that this has kept people up at night for quite some time. Socrates was looking at the stars while contemplating world citizenship, others are now unsatisfyingly browsing Netflix while wondering why we even have borders.

Being a Mobility professional, made me think about the fact that there is a certain group of people which all countries would love to attract: highly skilled professionals.

Most countries have already implemented visa programs to facilitate the process for this group, but there is no global framework.

The obvious problem lies with the fact that there is no universally accepted institution that can manage the selection process for these professionals. With some resources, this could however change…

*Insert Flash Forward intro music*

We have the year 2050, Elon Musk brain is connected to Neuralink and the first baby was born on Mars five years ago. Generation Z wants to add the section “planet of residence” to their biometric life path (aka resume) and Mars is the new Singapore.

Polifinancial analysts estimate the universal basic income to be fully implemented across all countries by 2055. 

In the countries where this has already happened, older generations (who had to work for a living), have stopped performing productive activities and are riding the dolce far niente wave, with the wind of Pink Glasses Serum (PGS)[2] made by Sagerx beneath their wings, because who could live life like that sober. 

This shrinks the global talent pool. 

People who have specialized knowledge in certain fields are the new MVP[3].

Here comes the Establishing Vital International Leaders (EVIL) Corporation who offers sovereign states the possibility to be a member in their program and individuals to receive a passport which would certify that they have undergone extensive background and technical checks and they are in the top 10% in their fields.

Once granted, this passport allows them to work in all countries which are members of the EVIL program without undergoing any immigration procedures. This only for a specific period, after which a review is required.

The underlying issue - and yes, I used the word “issue”, get over it corporate world – is with the segregation this new available status created. The snowball effect of having an “elite” who is seen as first-class citizens, is that, where there is a first-class, there is also a second class…

***reverse sound****

When I started working on this article, I was thinking about global passports but the more I thought and researched this subject, I came to the conclusion that the future has only one citizenship, a global one.

There already is an organization who is presenting this concept, World Government of World Citizens but unless there is a global convention to abolish all immigration and travel restrictions, this is just some guy who looks like he is about to get his tinfoil hat from under the table.

The current hot topics are global warming, illegal immigrants, terrorism, AI, etc. 

Everyone is talking about global problems, but nobody is talking about having global access to all the available solutions.

How can I be interested in what is happening with all the plastic Europe and the USA are dumping into the Asian countries if I am not even encouraged to mingle with Wang?

We have global problems, why shouldn’t we also have access to the other side of the coin: global unlimited access to OUR planet?

Historically speaking, people only care if they are directly affected by a certain topic. It might be counter-intuitive, but the idea behind Angela Merkle’s immigration policy[4] would have worked, if all other first world countries would have played along.

When you have an influx of people who don’t have the same values or, for the matter of fact, many aspects with you in common and they CAN’T be stopped from coming (because there is only one global citizenship and they can travel freely), then you need to find real solutions. [5]

It’s the difference between being a business owner and an employee: the business owner must find a solution within the realms of possibilities for any problem; the employee can just change employers.

Until we will have a bigger problem to deal with, where we will be forced to work together without the possibility of changing employers, we will not truly understand why natural law should apply to the topic of immigration.

Or maybe we just move to Mars and start from scratch…

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[1] Plutarch, De Exilio
[2] Fictional name

[3] Most Valuable Player (not minimum viable product, Calin)

[4] There where other ideas behind it, but let’s stick to this one in this article

[5] I will not get into other possible solutions, because there are a lot of smart people out there who wrote about this (www.forbes.com/sites/thomasdichter/2019/01/22/a-solution-to-the-immigration-crisis-a-peace-corps-in-reverse/#6933587f6441)

📸photo credit first picture: pixabay.com

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About the author:

Raluca Bulduș is a selective extrovert, founder of  moosa Art Gallery and a Global Mobility professional. She usually has an opinion about everything and loves if someone manages to change it. 

Her super power? An endless supply of curiosity.