So I was scrolling through Instagram and came across a post from @hey_ciara where she mentioned how she made the mistake of trying to enter Istanbul, Turkey without a travel visa. Fortunately, it was a quick fix situation where all she had to do was pay $60 USD and she was good to go! But her post also brought up a really good point about the ease of traveling with a U.S. Passport. This was a topic I briefly touched on when discussing vacation budgeting but seeing her post really got me thinking. The topic of travel privilege deserves a much deeper dive because in the age of "everyone needs to get out and see the world," it's not always that easy. Of course, things like how much discretionary income you have, whether or not you have children, and how much free time/ PTO you are able to set aside are important things to consider. But there are other identity-based factors that can affect your ability to travel regardless of how well you budget or adjust small things in your everyday life. So let's talk about some of them!
Passport Privilege
I have traveled to 12 countries so far and only questioned if I needed to apply for a visa for one, and that was mainly because I was teaching English in Spain for a few months and thought I may need a work visa (I didn't end up needing one). Outside of that, I have never looked into the visa application process and only have a vague understanding of it myself. That is because I have a U.S. Passport, ranked #7 on the Official Henley Passport Index for global mobility. This list ranks each country's passport based on the number of destinations their holders can access without obtaining a prior visa. There are 195 countries in the world and Americans can visit 185 of them without having to complete any visa applications beforehand!
On the other hand, a person from Turkey can visit 110, a person from Kenya can travel to 72, a person from Haiti can visit 48, and at the very bottom, a person from Afghanistan can only visit 26. This means while I can wake up and say "I want to go to ____ next week" and make it happen with ease, many others can not. Being a U.S citizen means simply booking the flight, choosing your hotel, grabbing your passport, and leaving. For other nationalities, this process looks more like looking for an embassy to apply through, paying $100+, sending in paperwork proving your financial standing, having reference letters, providing flight and hotel information, completing an interview, hoping you get approved, and potentially waiting months to receive your visa before you can leave. This means a person from Afghanistan has to deal with extra expenses, take time out of work to complete interviews, plan months in advance, and remain encouraged while knowing they can be denied at any time. This is their reality should they want to go almost anywhere. This is a factor that I often take for granted but the "strength" of the U.S. passport makes traveling so much easier and much more enjoyable. I would encourage you to look a little more into this topic as it can definitely serve as an eye-opener. You can start by checking out the transcript from this interview of an Indian couple discussing their experience.
Language Privilege
Being a native English speaker has had a tremendous impact on my travels. English is considered the global language and approximately 1.5 billion people speak English around the world. This means that no matter where I go, it is highly likely that someone will speak the same language as me. English is the official language of the U.S. and is spoken by approximately 80% of the U.S. population. So 80% of Americans will have that same experience and will also be able to travel the globe with ease. A person from Tanzania, however, could not make it through a vacation as easily speaking Swahili. This is why English is the most studied second language in the world and is often mandatory for children to learn.
I can travel to most countries, especially in the more popular cities, and make it out just fine without knowing any words in the local language. Language privilege looks like asking the waitress for the English menu while at a restaurant abroad, seeing both the local language and the English translation written on major transportation signs, and joining any of the thousands of Airbnb Experiences knowing they are almost all offered in English. Language privilege is having an Indonesian person apologizing to you for missing an English word while you sit in a taxi in their country unable to even say a simple hello in their language. And language privilege is expecting all hotel staff to speak English and getting frustrated when one of the housekeepers does not.
Currency Privilege
Currency privilege is a unique one. One of my favorite parts about visiting Bali was that once there, I felt rich rich! An entire 2 bedroom villa with a private pool for only $100 a night (many villas are even less than this), full-body massages for $10, and meals brought to me by room service for $8 total, America could never!!!! But that is because the U.S. Dollar is one of the stronger currencies in the world. So $1 USD can go a long way depending on the destination. Through writing this post, I also learned that the U.S. dollar is the international reserve currency. This means that it is held by many central banks and is used for international transactions, international investments, and any other aspects of the global economy. Now I'm not too far into the world of finance so if you want to better understand the details behind that, ask Google not me. But from what I've read, this seems to be considered beneficial overall.
So I mentioned that the USD stretches really far in Bali so I decided to do some light research on how far the Indonesian Rupiah would stretch in the U.S. As you probably know, the minimum wage in the U.S is about $7 which is about $1,120 a month. That amount of money would easily cover a full week in Bali, accommodations, food, excursions, and all. From what I have read, the minimum wage in Bali is IDR2,770,300 a month which is less than $200! That means a person coming to the US would get basically 1 night at a hotel and that's it! So while a person making minimum wage in the U.S could technically (term used very loosely because let's be real, minimum wage won't get most people past the average rent prices) save up for a few months for a week-long vacation in Bali, it would probably take an Indonesian person years to comfortably afford a trip here.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of travel privileges. And I'll probably write more in the future. But what are your thoughts? Have you ever taken these into consideration?
Also, check out this blog post by Sojourner White to read more about travel privilege!
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