More than 120 million people have been displaced from their homes due to war, climate change, political instability, and oppression in the past few years, a figure that has doubled in the last decade. Millions more are living in vulnerable situations as stateless individuals, frequently unable to exercise even their most basic rights.
The population of displaced persons is larger than that of more than 220 countries and dependent territories. In other words, only 12 countries in the world have a population larger than 120 million people. As the UN High Commissioner for Refugees explains, “one out of every 67 people on the Earth” is displaced from their homes. More than “20 people are forced to flee every minute of every day” according to the International Rescue Committee. These figures do not even account for the day-to-day oppression that millions, if not billions, face but are unable or reluctant to leave to seek a safe haven.
Most refugees in the world are either internally displaced in or are fleeing from the following countries: Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Myanmar, Palestine, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Yemen.
As violence, war, and climate destruction affect more countries and regions of the world, the growing numbers of refugees and migrants will put a strain on social systems. National governments have responded to immigration flows in different ways, some limiting immigrants from entering their claimed territories and others welcoming newcomers. Just five countries—Iran, Turkey, Colombia, Germany, and Uganda—have welcomed almost 40 percent of the world’s refugees and others fleeing persecution and war.
The nation-state system has created the “refugee” and “stateless person,” as well as the severe problems associated with being considered outside the law or without “legal” status. All human beings are legal and have rights that should be respected wherever they live. Yet, due to violations of their human rights frequently perpetuated by or ignored by national governments, thousands of people flee their homes and countries every day trying to find safety, stability, and asylum.
A division of the world into 200 or so different countries has created “in” and “out” groups, with some achieving dignity, acceptance, inclusion, and rights fulfillment, and others being treated as less than human, unable to meet their basic daily needs. This disparity of treatment destabilizes society.
Why should humans have to flee to have their rights and basic needs upheld? Why are millions stuck in refugee camps with inadequate food, housing, healthcare, education, and opportunity?
To have the kind of world in which the rights reaffirmed in various declarations and treaties such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights are fully met, all people should be able to claim, and then exercise, their rights no matter where they happen to live on the planet. Human rights and duties are not bound by territory; they are not dependent upon the nation-state in which one happens to be born or where one happens to live.
Human rights are innate and unalienable. People are born with them and cannot give them up. We have them simply by being human.
World Citizenship
If everyone had citizenship everywhere—and the rights associated with that citizenship— statelessness would no longer exist, and only natural disasters would forcibly displace people. World citizenship, as a valid and legal citizenship beyond any other status that someone may carry, would ensure that everyone has at least one citizenship which, in its inclusiveness, upholds concomitant rights and duties.
With world citizenship, if people do not like where they live, if they do not like the politics or the rulers, then they could choose to live somewhere else, rather than being forced to flee for their safety and livelihood.
As a globally-recognized and legal status, world citizenship would reverse the power structure of ruler over the ruled. National government leaders could no longer rely on their claimed territorial borders to continue to exploit and oppress people who have the right to live and work elsewhere in the world. The veil of impunity and national sovereignty would not protect those leaders from prosecution for violating the rights of the people. Leaders would begin to recognize that to be legitimate leaders, they need to uphold the rights of those living in their community; otherwise, the people will choose new leaders, or the people will choose to leave.
One principle of world citizenship is helping people wherever they are. Basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, and education are not only requirements of human existence, they are fundamental human rights. Almost all national governments have agreed to respect these rights. They give lip-service to these rights, violating them every day. No matter where people find ourselves in the world, they should be able to claim and exercise these rights.
When people have food, shelter, education, work, equality, justice, and freedom where they reside, they generally are happy to stay there. If people can go about their day without fear, oppression, humiliation, or aggression, then they have no reason to leave where their family, friends, language, and culture are.
It makes sense to build a world where everyone feels safe and has their rights fulfilled locally, so that they will want to continue to live in that community. This would be a world where travel becomes an educational and cultural opportunity rather than an existential necessity.
In developing countries, governments would have to do their best to ensure that residents will want to stay put. This means implementing the UN 17 sustainable development goals. If governments did not have to worry about maintaining a military and building weapons, funds and resources would be available for peaceful pursuits, for providing better education and opportunities for everyone, everywhere. As world citizens, the people of the world have the right to demand that taxes are used to create tools that support and enhance all life rather than make walls, weaponry, and wars.
Instead of countries engaging in negative competition and the vicious cycle of military aggression, countries could participate in a positive competition to make their local communities increasingly welcoming and rights-affirming.
Developed countries would understand the immediate need to help governments and people in the developing world to prevent large groups of people arriving who might put a strain on the infrastructure and social system in their communities. Developing and developed countries could provide incentives for people to travel to less populated areas through lower-cost and subsidized housing, increased job opportunities, individual tax credits, and educational and training opportunities. Helping others where they are, as well as welcoming newcomers, improves the world for everyone.
Legal Enforcement
Requiring all governments to respect world citizenship status legally is the next step, which will support millions of displaced persons by ensuring that governments will begin to fulfill their obligations to respect the innate and unalienable rights of refugees as well as stateless and displaced persons.
Because citizenship and government are corollaries, as more individuals see themselves as world citizens and can act as world citizens, the establishment of world governmental institutions will help to support this newly recognized and legal status. Although everyone is already a world citizen based on the citizenship principles of jus soli and jus sanguinis, the legal recognition and implementation of this highest citizenship status will require global institutions of law, such as a World Court of Human Rights, a World Parliament of the people, and an Earth Constitution for a united and democratic federation of human communities.
During the current era of retrenchment of extreme nationalism, world citizenship may seem utopian or unattainable. After World War II, the World Citizenship Movement garnered millions of followers around the world who were fed up with war and oppression. Another world war should not be neccessary to consider other modes of human interaction based not on the current “us versus them” divide and conquer mentality but rather on a “unite and prosper” ethic.
World citizenship, as the highest level of allegiance, empowers people to focus on equity, justice, sustainability, unity, and harmony with each other and the Earth, without having to give up any local status, identity, or allegiance.
As long as the people of the world allow the nation-state system to maintain the arbitrary and exclusive borders that divide humans from one another, immigration will continue to be viewed as a problem rather than as an educational, economic, political, and social opportunity. When world citizens respect each other, both in terms of rights and duties, the entire earth will be a sanctuary of peace and safety for all.