Moving Freely: Travel is a Privilege

I recently read an article called “Travel is a Privilege” which discussed the freedom and choice of moving around the world in a way most people don’t, or can’t. Many mainstream travel media and blogs about wanderlust, studying or living abroad often forget the fact that not everyone is able to travel, and instead depict travelling as something to be achieved if we simply adjust our mind-sets. These posts ignore the very basic point that you simply cannot traverse the world with a positive mind-set alone. You need money, an able-body, and a passport from a country with a stable economy and haughty currency.

A Canadian passport gives visa free entry into 172 countries, while my own passport (UK) allows me to visit 175 countries without a visa, on par with Finland, France, Italy and Spain. Germany holds the top spot for 2016, with visa-free access to 177 countries out of a total of 218, and Sweden remained in second place with a ranking of 176. Afghanistan comes bottom of the table, with only 28 countries available for entry without a visa, while Iraqi passport holders can go to 31, and Pakistan and Somalia are tied with 32.[1] These regulations unquestionably impact the travel freedom which citizens can enjoy. They create and contribute to privilege; a privilege which stirs a baneful mixture of ignorance and prejudice.

Many people are overlooked when it comes to the travelling fad, and it is often assumed that interrailing around Europe, studying abroad, sightseeing in England, road tripping across New Zealand, or hiking in Malaysia is within everyone’s capacity. Whether it’s due to a systemic socio-economic or political nature, family obligation, financial limitation, disability or illness, visa restriction and requirements or other circumstance, travel is out of reach for a large percentage of the world’s population. Having the opportunity and ability to cross borders means having the freedom and choice to move about the world in a way most people don’t. That’s a form of privilege.

It’s important that we do not forget or be ungrateful for any opportunities which have allowed us to move freely through the world. Travelling is an opportunity to be open to the wonder of another way of living, to be sensitive and respectful of the differences that lend meaning to lives.

As Oneika Raymond, the voice behind “Oneika the Traveller”, an award-winning travel blog dedicated to inspiring, encouraging, and empowering both women and people of colour to see the world says:

Not everyone can travel. Despite assertions to the contrary, it’s not something everybody can achieve, even if they work really hard to make it happen; even with a will the size of Russia, there is no way. Let’s stop pretending it’s so easy and instead acknowledge how lucky some of us are to fill our passports with stamps, relatively unencumbered by the burdens of life and circumstance.

I was 19 when I left my home in Northern England to study abroad. I was going on exchange, to Trent University, Ontario, Canada. 7 hours on a plane, across the colossal Atlantic, with temperatures of -41 degrees on my arrival. Little did I know that this step into the unknown (and cold!) would teach me so much more than my classroom at home ever could, about others, history, culture, social beliefs and forms of privilege, and lead me to other countries through friends I met.

Just over a year after my flight to Toronto Pearson Airport for my exchange programme, I was on another plane, for 15 hours, to Quito, Ecuador in South America. I met my boyfriend, Felipe, at Trent, who invited me to his home in Quito and Santa Cruz, The Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. New music, food, languages and people became the foundation of my trip, from Mount Chimborazo in the Andes, to the greenest, most beautiful rainforests in Tena, exotic sounds and tastes surrounded me and left me with an immense gratitude and unappreciated beauty for a country I knew so little about. My ability to study abroad, my passport and my privilege meant I was able to experience another country and way of living. The world became my medium for learning. The sights, smells, sounds, landscapes, cultures, beliefs and people, become much more interesting than anything behind a computer screen.

What shocked me the most was that this travel exchange between Felipe and I, between Ecuador and England was not reciprocated (by our governments). For a 2 week vacation in England, Felipe needed to go through a tedious visa application, including bank statements, payments, sending off his passport, providing proof that he would be returning to another country, a letter from Trent University, questioning on the border, including dates and locations of stay. He did it, and visited the UK. We had a great time, went sightseeing in London, wandered through the ancient cobbled streets of York and Lincoln, and spent the holidays with my family. Yet, all the while, I was, and still am, incredibly frustrated, more at my prior ignorance, to the strict visa impositions the UK places on other countries, and my own ease at accessing these countries.

Sian Ferguson, a freelance writer for Matador Network writes “My privilege means that I’m not ever going to be confronted with a system that constantly criminalizes me, making it difficult for me to travel. On planes and in airports, nobody assumes that I’m violent, a criminal, or a terrorist. When entering countries, nobody assumes I’m trying to illegally immigrate there. In foreign spaces, my foreign-ness is seen as interesting and not weird or odd.[1]”

The systematic inequalities perpetuated by our governments mean some of us can move freely, and some can’t. I encourage you to dedicate at least a tiny fraction of your time to think about travel as a privilege, and in recognising it this way, perhaps we can work towards shaping the world into a place we all need and deserve.

Travel has shown me that the world is beautiful and awe-inspiring, huge and diverse, but also unfair and dripping with privilege. There is an array of different people and an array of different, yet beautiful ways of living. I have so many things to be grateful for, and travel is one of them, but it is essential to acknowledge this form of privilege. It is this privilege alone which allows us to see the world. Being passionate about encouraging others to travel means first making travel a realistic option for whoever who wants to do it.