By the way, I’m not referring to the urgent need to migrate for economic, social, environmental or conflict reasons. I’m referring to those who have been presented with an option to travel, to physically experience and explore the diversity of people, thought, culture, education and experiences that the world offers. The tax we pay is emotional of having to prove we are worthy and deserving of this privilege. And we have to prove it at every point: in collating all the documentation required for the visa; engaging with immigration at the port of arrival; interacting with the people who we have travelled to experience feeling a need of justification. Then there is the toll of a possible rejection – a rejection which will affect every subsequent visa application for the rest of your life, because whether you have previously been denied a visa is a specific question on applications. This rejection becomes yet another obstacle to overcome, another area for you to prove that you are indeed worthy of travel and of being in a country that is not your own.

In spite of these humiliations and possibilities of rejection, and despite the irony given our global histories, we still persist.