Passport Privilege Is A Thing...

Hi There,

Passport privilege is real and I didn't come to recognize it until I moved to Paris. In Western Europe, there is an unspoken undercurrent of intolerance toward people from countries deemed economically challenged. In most cases, it’s more a GDP issue than a racial one. This affects not just West and North Africans but also why Polish and other Eastern European nationals experience prejudice. It’s evident when looking for housing, visas, residency card renewals, even shopping in high-end stores. What's unique though, is the POC experience. The assumption is that if you are a person of color, or Black to be specific, you must be African. However, if they hear an American accent, the world opens up. It's crazy to me how that works.

Living in Paris, I understand where it comes from. There is a belief that when you come from the United States, you’re rich. Even if you’re on an extended stay, it’s believed that you will add to the GDP, contribute to the local economy and eventually return to US when you're ready. On the other hand, the assumption about someone from Mali or Tunisia is that they will not only never leave but will become an economic burden to a system that offers generous benefits to citizens and non-citizens alike.

Over the past few election cycles, the far-right party has complained about how undocumented immigrants, known in France as "sans papiers" (without papers), are taking advantage of the system. From the free education to the low-cost daycare subsidized by the government and CAF benefits (financial housing assistance), these sentiments are not confined to France. We’ve witnessed the rise of Far-right governments across Europe, including Italy. But is this one of those “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” kind of things or is it just unwarranted bias and classism against “outsiders” or maybe a bit of both?

To use an analogy, a country is like a home. Everyone’s home has its own “culture” and rules. If someone doesn’t respect the rules and runs counter to the house culture, you wouldn’t want them there for long. Could it be argued that like in a home, there are some guests that have made themselves unwelcome?

One could argue that there is enough blame to go around on both sides…

I’ve seen with the own eyes the lack of respect for a local culture or language, sometimes displaying a sense of entitlement or superiority, as if access to a country isn’t a privilege.

On the flip side, many foreign nationals living in a country struggle with integration. It often feels as though some countries are set up to make integration difficult. Even when integration is achieved, there can be a form of othering that persists, as if they are never fully accepted.

So, who’s really to blame for all of this? It’s definitely a question of the times…