Worldview Research Paper

Airports are the gateways to new countries, and passports allow us to pass through those gateways. “When traveling between different countries, a passport is required to gain access and cross the country’s borders” (travel insurance reviews).  However, our passports are more than a key to get in places. They hold information about our identity. We seem to base our identity off the place we were born in, and the reason why is not so simple. 

When people meet others for the first time, one of the questions they ask is “Where are you from?” This question may have a simple answer for some people, but not so much for others.  The answer for me would be “Well, my passport is American, but I grew up in China, where it feels like home.” I have spent 15 years of my life in China, and only three in America. China is more of a home to me than America will ever be. But my national identity still belongs to America, even though I am hardly American. This drives me to question why our passports get to dictate our national identity. 

The second people learn what nationality someone is, they are stereotyped in their minds. When people find out I am American, based on research, the top things they will assume about me are that: I speak English and only English; they assume I was born and grew up there; I am rich, loud, and proud to be American. In reality, I speak English and Chinese; I grew up in China; I am not rich; I am reserved most of the time; and currently, because of Donald Trump, I am not proud to be an American. 

Being from a country does not mean that you fit into the box that people think you should.  People are often confined to fitting the mold of their nationality. They let their passports define them. They let other people define them by their nationality, and they never question why. 

Based on research, it is necessary for people to feel a sense of belonging, which we get from having a passport that identifies us as a person from a specific country. Looking at simple psychology, “After physiological and safety needs have been fulfilled, the third level of human needs is social and involves feelings of belongingness. Examples include affiliating, being part of a group, like family, friends, or work.” We need to belong to a community, and most of the time we find that community in our passport country, with people that relate to us. But what about the people that did not grow up in the passport country, and have formed a community in a completely different place? According to world meters, 72.4% of Americans live in America. What about the other 28.6 percent? They are American but they live somewhere else, and maybe consider that other place as home. These people have grown to become two nationalities mixed into one. Those people fit in both places but only technically belong to one. What if they feel they belong in one more than the other but don’t get the choice to change what their passport says? 

People don’t have the choice most of the time to change their nationality. They are where they came from. But what if that is not what they want? What if they feel the most sense of belonging when they are in a place that their passport has no mention of? Do they listen to the facts, or do they follow what they feel is the truth? “Nationalism is ultimately unethical, not merely because it is an inauthentic posture, but because it imposes limitations on the authenticity of others” (Cliff James).

In conclusion, we all need to reassess how much our nationality identity gets to define us. If we feel at home in a country other than our passport country, it is still home. Passports shouldn’t dictate our feelings of belonging and of being home. “You are not what the world makes you; but you are children of God. (Henri J.M. Nouwen, Here and Now: Living in the Spirit).” 

Sources:

James, Cliff Bixter ED. Life As A Kite. Feedareed Com, 2019. 

Karger Publishers, http://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/363399

Mcleod, Saul. “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.” Simply Psychology, Simply Psychology, 21 May 2018, http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html.

Nouwen, Henri J. M. Here and Now: Living in the Spirit. Crossroad, 2003.

Study.com, Study.com, study.com/academy/lesson/ethnic-identity-definition-and-development.html

“United States Population (LIVE).” Worldometer, http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population/.

Travel Insurance review 

Tysdal, Damian. “What Is the Purpose of a Passport and Visa for International Travel?” Travel Insurance Review, 29 Jan. 2010, http://www.travelinsurancereview.net/2010/02/23/what-is-the-purpose-of-a-passport-and-visa-for-international-travel/.

If you would like to see my writing process click this link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DjQf6Q5oHzihi8XA3UdKxRhSw4LOKDmXNYTBqo_hdzM/edit

Personal reflection:

This paper specifically was difficult for me to write because I found it hard to translate me feelings and thoughts into words. I had lots of thoughts and opinions of the basis of identity. Since I am American but have grown up in China, I am a hybrid, and do not feel like the identity label “American” fits me well. So I tried to relate those feelings in this paper.