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Passport Index 2016

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Re: Passport Index 2016

#141

Post by wildmusings »

sevenless wrote: post #101
wildmusings wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd expand that to cultural preservation in general. The French like being French and living in a French country, with all that entails concerning values, music, food, and way of life. The Japanese like being Japanese and living in a Japanese country. Mass migration can change the character of a country. It's totally logical to want to preserve your culture and way of life. If 100 million people from the Middle East…

This will be controversial, but France doesn't have any right to be a "French" country. Individuals have rights, but cultures and nations don't have a right to exist. If they did we would be obliged to preserve them, but peoples, countries and cultures always vanish over time, and there's no general obligation to stop this happening. Saying otherwise is simply a conservative demand, with no ethical basis. "The French…

Part of the rights of individuals is self-determination. If a people want to pick and choose who they admit into their community, that is their right. If they want to close their borders to the rest of the world, that is their right as well.

The fact that everything dies in the long run doesn't mean that those who hold their nations and cultures dear today should not work toward their preservation. An argument from nihilism isn't convincing to me. You and I will die too, but that shouldn't stop us from pursuing the good life in the meantime.

Besides, it's not a given that all current nations and cultures will die. They will certainly change over time, but it could very well be that the first human colony in another galaxy will fly an American flag. It's unlikely, but who knows.

Re: Passport Index 2016

#143

Post by Symbiote »

omarkassim wrote: post #84
chaostheory wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many countries in the Middle East still require exit visas. Dubai (UAE) is one of them

Dubai and by the extension doesn't require any sort of exit permit to leave the country unless you're giving up your residency at which time, you go through a pretty painless visa cancellation process. Very free movement given our strong aviation culture and infrastructure.

Except for the migrant workers, who built said infrastructure and are often compared to slaves. It's not easy for them to leave.

Re: Passport Index 2016

#144

Post by noobermin »

Aloha wrote: post #130
wildmusings wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the son of Cuban immigrants and I think that immigration levels are much too high right now, of populations that are a mismatch for our economic needs (lots of low-skill workers, but we have a tragic surplus of low-skill labor), into a system that doesn't encourage integration (welfare state and identity politics), and sometimes from cultures that don't share our values.

I think anyone who wants to come to this country to become one of us should be able to, provided they; Can pass the citizenship test. Can speak english at a conversational or better level. Can afford a more than nominal sum for a visa (1500-5000 dollars). Can pass a criminal history check of some sort. Doing so would get you a 5 year work visa, after the expiration of that, you could renew it again, and after that, y…

I agree with the citizenship test and the criminal history test. I think English at a conversational level is good too for practical reasons but that matched with the visa sum would select for more wealthy and hence educated immigrants. That isn't an issue, but given that many illegal aliens are filling unskilled jobs that Americans are unwilling to fill seems to suggest to me that the general desire is for unskilled immigration, not skilled. I mean this is hackernews, just look at how many H1b visa stories make the front page. Generally, people benefit from low skilled labor while they suffer from skilled immigrants who would compete with them while accepting lower wages.

Re: Passport Index 2016

#145

Post by honkhonkpants »

Let's comment on the visual design of passports. These are all basically the same, except two that stand out: Switzerland, and The Vatican. The latter is very typically Swiss, with an attractive, simple, and modern design. The former is sinister and mysterious, but also quite distinctive.

Honorable mention to Brazil and Bosnia for having passports without a coat of arms type of thing on the front.

Re: Passport Index 2016

#146

Post by nbaksalyar »

hal9000xp wrote: post #134
nbaksalyar wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can relate. I was a citizen of Turkmenistan, which is even more opressive than Uzbekistan. It's one of the most closed countries in the world on par with North Korea (or worse). If you're interested, you can read a good travel report from a Russian blogger (translated into English) [0]. So yeah, I totally agree that citizenship/passport of a free (or relatively free) country can be one of the greatest assets that y…

Yes, I'm aware of situation in Turkmenistan. I left Uzbekistan when I was 22 years old (i.e. I lived there pretty long time) and heard about Turkmenistan government. Turkmenistan for me is kinda mystery because they have a lot of natural gas and they could become pretty rich and developed country (kinda UAE). But they didn't. They got very weird dictator instead. Yes, I read this blog already. Is it difficult to leav…

    > Do you have some variant of exit visas?
Exit visas were cancelled around 2006 or 2007.

    > Is it difficult to leave Turkmenistan?
It depends on your situation. For some people it's not too dificult, for some it's impossible.

I've witnessed Canadian/Turkmen dual citizen was denied to leave the country until she cancel her Canadian or Turkmeni citizenship (which takes about 6+ months).

If you oppose the government they can arbitrarily prohibit you from leaving the country for an arbitrary length of time (read: until the government is changed). And "opposing the government" can be taken very liberally: it can be even a slight criticizing comment in a social network (those are blocked anyway, though).

    > I left Uzbekistan when I was 22 years old
We have a lot in common. ;) I left at the same age and I regret I didn't do it earlier.

Re: Passport Index 2016

#148

Post by donretag »

sevenless wrote: post #42

Is there a guide to multiple citizenship power leveling anywhere? Edit: A bit of munging from the web page later... For Americans and British/Western Europe, the passports you want are Burkina Faso, Benin and Senegal. They will bring your passport power level up by 13 points to 168 (American) and 170 (UK) and give you visa free access to Cote Divoire (Ivory Coast), Mali, Iran, Congo, Niger, Benin, Nigeria, Liberia, C…

How do you calculate the power ranking of a dual passport holder?

Re: Passport Index 2016

#149

Post by rwmj »

microcolonel wrote: post #126
rwmj wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I think the European Union should be more like an actual union. You should be able to subscribe to it, and your membership would grant you a passport, rights and duties. It would solve the whole Brexit issue, because everyone who wanted to remain a member could do so. It wouldn't even be that expensive - we pay about £185/year each at the moment to be in the EU (£13bn/70m people). Edit: Obviously this is…

I've seen you post this at least five times now. Next time you're on your comments page to copy it again, read what people said about it all of the other times you posted it.

I have never posted this comment before. You can look through my comments history to verify this easily.

Re: Passport Index 2016

#150

Post by sevenless »

donretag wrote: post #148
sevenless wrote: post #42

Is there a guide to multiple citizenship power leveling anywhere? Edit: A bit of munging from the web page later... For Americans and British/Western Europe, the passports you want are Burkina Faso, Benin and Senegal. They will bring your passport power level up by 13 points to 168 (American) and 170 (UK) and give you visa free access to Cote Divoire (Ivory Coast), Mali, Iran, Congo, Niger, Benin, Nigeria, Liberia, C…

How do you calculate the power ranking of a dual passport holder?

The same way the web site does. The number of countries a person holding both passports could visit visa-free.
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