Passportism is a new kind of institutional racism and politicism
The only passport I use is an Israeli passport - I didn't choose that, and yet still politicist fanatics who think that all citizens of Israel (or shall I say, all citiziens of Israel by force) have the same opinions about politics.
As to the best of my knowledge, it was Srđan Mladenov Jovanović (academic working from China) who first wrote about passportism.
After Mladenov, Shahnaz Habib (Indian world wide journalist) started writing about it two, in the context of discrimination against Indians in airports and we can read about her work at shahnazhabib.com.
Pallavi Aiyar joined Shahnaz Habib in the same wave of writing.
At 19 Apr, 2024 Bhavya Dore wrote the following:
Who amongst us has not experienced the ritual humiliation and mind-numbing bureaucracy of applying for a tourist visa to the “first world”? Off we go to be scrutinised, armed with bank statements, tax returns, passport photos of the correct dimensions and other paraphernalia to be authorised to enter France or Canada or Australia. This, according to Shahnaz Habib, is “passportism”, a term she borrows from the scholar Srdjan Mladenov Jovanovic.
It's only that my dears, it's also the eyebrow lifts, apathethic mannerisms and often verbal violence and anyway continuous hostility I can very often encounter in about 60% of the world because of a passport type I never chose and a series of millitaristic governments that couldn't care less about my opinions and criticism.
We fly hours to a country, we risk our lives, energy, time and money and may get blocked because of a trivial piece of paper.
Passportism is not only racism, it's also an extreme form of politicism.
