Photo Credit: Francesca Palazzi via www.flikr.com
Almost everybody has encountered prejudice in regards to their race or nationality at some point in their lives, either at home or while traveling. I had my most awakening experience in this term when I lived in New Zealand. Since then I have thought a lot about what to do when encountering prejudice. However, I feel that xenophobia is increasing.
The current political landscape in Germany (and other European and non-European countries) is scaring me. The right-winged party “Alternative for Germany” just entered parliament. Nationalism seems to become more and more popular. How this can be possible in a country with a history such as ours is for me absolutely incomprehensible.
What´s nationality anyway?
I am born in Germany with German parents and grandparents. I am German and have the Aryan certificate of my forefathers to prove it. Yet, I do not understand how anyone could think that due to their nationality one person may be better than another. What´s supposed to be so special about being German anyway?
The Cambridge dictionary defines nationality as “the official right to belong to a particular country”, which is proven by a passport, or “a group of people of the same race, religion, tradition etc.”. Since I believe, that none of these factors should be ground for discrimination, I decided to look at them more closely.
Nationality = passport?
The German passport is one of the most “powerful” in the world. It actually shares the second place with Japan, whereas only the passports of Singapore and South Korea opens more doors. So if you like traveling as much as myself, it is favourable to be German. However, that´s not enough to be able to discriminate against others, right?
In order to be able to hold a passport of a certain country, you either have to be born in that country or if at least one of your parent holds the passport of a certain nationality. Additionally, you can become a national of a certain country if you live in it at least a certain amount of years or through marriage. Since these different prerequisites already give totally different view of nationality it does not seem to be solid ground for any kind of conclusions.
If you are from a country with a “weaker” passport than for example the German one, there can occur more visa restrictions. Some of them, I feel, are in themselves discriminative. But that is food for another discussion…
Nationality = race or DNA?
This video by momondo sparked my interest, which is why I did an DNA test by My Heritage DNA. Even though experts claim this video to be flawed, I believe that it is true that there is hardly anybody where the nationality is mirrored 1:1 in their DNA. I believe we are all “mixed bloods” due to constant migration and general evolution.
So my DNA test had the following result: I am European!
- 83,7% North- and Westeuropean (mainly German and French since there has been a lot of movement of borders and people over the years)
- 0,7% Finish
- 7,4% Italian
- 5,0% Greek
- 3,2% East-european
Sure, this is still not a 100% accurate, but I feel it proves the point, that there is no reason for racism since we are all to a certain extend mixed race.
Nationality = tradition, religion & culture?
So lastly, it can be presumed that we are part of a certain nation by means of tradition, religion and culture. This, I feel, may be the most realistic definition since I believe we can become part of any nation we identify with.
However, since this gives an even more flexible context of nationality there is even less ground for discrimination. There are people living in Germany with for example Turkish descendants, who are in their habits and traditions sometimes even more “German” than some people of German race or passport. Some people, who call themselves nationalistic do still discriminate against them though due to their descendance. This, however, as we just discussed often does not show anything specific. So what can be the solution?
The right-winged movement and travel
The right-winged parties and other European countries are against the European idea. The Brexit has left a scaring mark in the European unity and its impacts are yet to unravel. Since it happened the racist motivated incidents have increased drastically. I think it may be only a matter of time that it will also affect travel. Trump´s travel ban to citizens of various muslim countries could only be a start.
Maybe a European passport could be an answer? How can we positively impact this situation?
Have you done a DNA test yourself? What were your results?
The post Why nationality does not matter and what it has to do with travel appeared first on Travel Responsibly.