David Njoku
To all the Brits¹, Europeans, Australians, Japanese and Koreans who are outraged at the new ridiculous requirements for visiting the US, I have one simple question:
What the fuck do you think YOUR country has been demanding from potential African visitors for years?
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¹ Including me. I am a hypocrite.
Adrianna Tan
@Raven47 @davidnjoku the point is, most developed countries ask that and more of other countries, not just the USA
Earthling
@davidnjoku@mastodon.world
Why do you want to travel to the USA ????
Adrianna Tan
@krazykitty @davidnjoku @temptoetiam people who need Schengen visas also need to supply bank statements, which feels extremely invasive.
The American system used to be more in line with everybody else’s, and everything on this list used to be applied only to people suspected of terrorism. The way things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised if other countries also started adopting far stricter requirements along these lines. Possibly not as invasive, but more than whatever was the norm previously. International travel policies are about to get harder for many people.
Krazy Krêpe
@davidnjoku @temptoetiam just checked for France, and the requirements seem to be indications that you'll go back home (return ticket, proof that you have an occupation to go back to), proof that you have sufficient resources, address where you'll be staying. That already feels invasive, but that's much less than means of tracking you across all your social media/online identities, as well as detailed info about your parents/children/siblings. Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.
Adrianna Tan
@renpanda @krazykitty I think you are witnessing schadenfraude from people who have been treated poorly by western governments’ visa policies, at the idea that westerners are also subject now to onerous policies
I don’t see posts like these are ‘Europe is exactly just as bad’ (I agree the American changes are extremely onerous), but as ‘all western visa policies are extremely terrible to Black and brown and other people in ways that this specific update is surfacing’
There is a desire that people would speak out about visa and border challenges not only when white people are also affected
Ren
@krazykitty This is the thing, I’m not gonna say visa requirements aren’t invasive (ie bank statements) but people acting like these updated policies are already asked for general travelers elsewhere are exaggerating from what I’ve seen. Glad to have examples though. I don’t think we should be just shrugging our shoulders about this update. Like the US conservative defense of this is “most other countries already do this (systematically)!” And that seems…false?
Adrianna Tan
@renpanda @krazykitty all of these changes happened in ways that I see other governments adopting easily.
These onerous demands were first placed on a small subset of people before being expanded to all. Border policies can change at will and in the case of the EU, it is also getting increasingly harder for people outside the EU to visit or emigrate; we’ve also seen that Schengen doesn’t seem to apply to some people if brown people are being asked for papers within Schengen.
I’m hoping that all of this conversation can take into account how beyond tbe fact that America sucks a lot, it is simply a first mover in a lot of cruelty that follows in other places shortly after, just as the white supremacy and fascism that animates all of the current climate has no borders, neither do cruel border policies. I’m willing to bet that some governments will start to borrow / implement some of these ideas.
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