WHITE PRIVILEGE AND THE STRUGGLES OF TRAVEL WITHOUT IT

I might look white, but I am not. My passport says so. I am among those millions of people in developing countries to which freedom of movement does not apply.

I have been to all five continents – with the accompanying expense, stress, and time that applying for a visa brings. I have been to the United States of America at least 15 times. I have lived, short-stayed, transited through, touristed in the East Coast, the West Coast, the Rust Belt, New England, and the sorts. I even got a job filleting salmon in Alaska, which prompted by an overly stressed Mum and Gran, I never took. I have had a US visa since I was 17… until now; when I am due to travel to Ecuador transiting through Los Angeles. Airplane tickets bought, accommodation paid, red Mustang convertible ready to cruise around Hollywood; and no visa…

So, five weeks before my scheduled trip to Ecuador – via the US – I started my paperwork to apply for a US visa. As I live in Darwin, I need to physically travel to either Melbourne, Sydney, or Perth to attend a personal interview. I need to pay all expenses myself: flights, accommodation, food. Half way through the application a question in the screen prompts me to smile. It says “Are you wishing to renew your visa within 12 months of its expiration date?” to which I promptly said ‘YES!’, then it asks me if I have been ten-printed (fingertip scans of all my digits and thumbs) answered with a loud ‘YES!’ too. “Are you an Australian citizen or permanent resident” to which I sadly said ‘no’. Screen goes back to square one. Back to being a third class citizen.

So it is not about being white skinned. It is about being Australian. Or European. Or American. Or South African, but back in apartheid times – now they also need visas. It is about having ‘that sort of’ white privilege, irrespective of the colour of your skin. Darker coloured people with a white-privileged passport count – in theory – as white for travel purposes. Unless, you are denied entry to your ‘white’ country of choice…

White people can travel on a whim. Had a break up, travel. Got a partner, travel. Fancy a change, travel. Got spare cash, travel. Got no cash, travel. We can’t. We need to provide proof of funds, proof that we own some property, proof that we have a job to come back to, proof that people love us and will miss us if left behind for too long. Proofs. However, you may still have all the proofs and still not be granted a visa. We may have the proofs, but they have the whims.

…and next year I will have to repeat this all over again. My Ecuadorian children’s US visa will expire… so all expenses will be times three as a legal guardian has to travel with them to do the personal interview. Hopefully someday, we will be darker-skinned white-privileged Australian passport holders who can travel on a whim… Until then, better keep an extra piggy bank to cover all of the expenses of being third-class citizens and an extra bag of hope and patience.

Veronica Toral-Granda is a PhD candidate with RIEL studying the link between human mobility and the arrival and spread of invasive species in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.