Monika PeruffoMonika Peruffo • FollowingFollowingEuropean middle aged woman learning every day how to be a good ancestorEuropean middle aged woman learning every day how to be a good ancestor17h • 17 hours ago • Visible to anyone on or off LinkedIn

My travels showed me over and over the lottery injustice of the passport you are born with.
It says nothing about you and your aims, but it opens (or close) countless doors. The door to study abroad, to work abroad or even, more simply, to join your partner or to be a tourist.

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👇👇👇

A passport is not just a travel document.
It’s a colonial artifact that dictates mobility based on borders drawn through conquest, war, and supremacy.


🇩🇪 A German passport opens 194 countries
🇯🇵 A Japanese passport: 194 countries
🇳🇴 A Norwegian passport: 190+ countries
🇺🇸 A U.S. passport: 190+ countries

🇬🇭 A Ghanaian passport opens 68
🇵🇸 Palestinian: 38
🇸🇴 A Somali passport: 33
🇦🇫 An Afghan passport: 24


No matter your qualifications.

No matter your intentions.

No matter your humanity.

You are your passport. And the world has decided which ones matter.

So what is passport power actually measuring?👉Colonial legacy
👉Geopolitical alignment
👉Who the West trusts and who it doesn’t
Passport rankings are not neutral.They are a global hierarchy of belonging.
An African entrepreneur with a groundbreaking idea has to beg for a visa to pitch in Berlin.
Meanwhile, an European tourist can waltz into 190+ countries with zero scrutiny, zero justification, zero proof of intent.
This is not about immigration policy.📍It’s about who gets dignity by default, and who has to earn it, repeatedly, at every border

Chisom UdezeChisom Udeze   • 2ndPremium • 2ndAward Winning Economist | Leadership Strategist | Creator of the Identity-Context-Power Clarity FrameworkAward Winning Economist | Leadership Strategist | Creator of the Identity-Context-Power Clarity Framework2d • 2 days ago • Visible to anyone on or off LinkedInFollow

Passport privilege is one of the most invisible, normalised forms of global inequality.

It determines:
-Where you can go
-How easily you can flee war or disaster
-Whether you get a visa to study, work, or reunite with loved ones
-Whether your dreams require permission
-Whether you’re seen as a refugee, an immigrant, an expat, a threat, or a tourist

A passport is not just a travel document.
It’s a colonial artifact that dictates mobility based on borders drawn through conquest, war, and supremacy.

🇩🇪 A German passport opens 194 countries
🇯🇵 A Japanese passport: 194 countries
🇳🇴 A Norwegian passport: 190+ countries
🇺🇸 A U.S. passport: 190+ countries

🇬🇭 A Ghanaian passport opens 68
🇵🇸 Palestinian: 38
🇸🇴 A Somali passport: 33
🇦🇫 An Afghan passport: 24

No matter your qualifications.
No matter your intentions.
No matter your humanity.
You are your passport. And the world has decided which ones matter.

So let’s call it what it is:
❗It’s not about “security.”
Rwanda has a lower crime rate and is safer than the U.S., yet the U.S. passport ranks higher.
❗It’s not about education.
Nigeria produces world-class engineers, doctors, and scholars, yet its passport is treated like a liability.
❗It’s not about wealth.
Some of the world’s richest people hold passports that grant them little freedom of movement.

So what is passport power actually measuring?
👉Colonial legacy
👉Geopolitical alignment
👉Who the West trusts and who it doesn’t

Passport rankings are not neutral.
They are a global hierarchy of belonging.

And they reinforce that in 2026, your freedom to move, to visit, to do business, to exist across borders is still determined by the passport you hold – not your talent, your character, or your contributions.

An African entrepreneur with a groundbreaking idea has to beg for a visa to pitch in Berlin.
Meanwhile, an European tourist can waltz into 190+ countries with zero scrutiny, zero justification, zero proof of intent.

This is not about immigration policy.
📍It’s about who gets dignity by default, and who has to earn it, repeatedly, at every border.

We call it “border control.”
But who gets to move freely – and who gets detained, interrogated, and denied?

Until we name this for what it is – a system designed to preserve access for some and restrict it for others, we’ll keep pretending mobility is merit-based.

It’s not.
It’s a lottery.
And the deck has always been stacked.

📍We say “travel is a privilege.”
But why?
-Why should the ability to move, work, love, and live safely depend on a document you had no say in receiving?

If your passport allows you to travel without being rejected, doubted or having to plan weeks or months in advance,
you have privilege.
I have it too.

So use it.

And also interrogate it.
Interrogate the system that gives you wings while building cages for others.

Until we confront passport privilege, global mobility will remain a segregated system – designed to favour the few and exclude the many.

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