Unit Three

Unit Three Passport Assignment Revision

Initially, when I heard about this project, I was excited to participate. I wanted to see exactly what it meant to become a new citizen of a country. Arriving at Union, I drew my new country out of a jar and became the newest citizen of Spain. Initially, I believed that I would learn more about my new country, including their immigration customs and culture. Unfortunately, the information I was given did not go in as much detail as I wanted. However, I was still able to enjoy the amount of information I was given and going through the fun process of creating my passport. As I was creating my passport, I realized some of my peers around me had pulled the title of “stateless” out of the jar. Seeing that the possibility of not having a citizenship made me appreciate mine even more. Having a national identity that is recognized is a privilege, one that I did not understand, until this activity, that some people do not have. Overall, I enjoyed the concept and process of this activity but wish I had received more in depth information on my specific country.

When I was participating in this fun project, I was working among the majority of my peers. As we were sharing our citizenships and passports, I noticed many of them were labeled as “stateless.” Honestly, I had never heard of someone being stateless and until this activity. I had never realized that some refugees are labeled as stateless. I was naive to believe that everyone was a citizen, because I never realized there were people who did not belong to any “state.” I have acknowledged how lucky I am to be a citizen of the United States, but I have never realized I should be grateful for being a citizen in general. During this activity, I read one of my peers information who had received “stateless”; I read about a young woman who is stateless and doesn’t know if she’ll ever be able to see her family again was shocking. In her case being stateless and having her home country not even recognize her worth in any sense means she can not have a passport, which can be life or death for some people. Through this activity, I definitely became more conscientious of the conditions of some people and helped me recognize the privilege that I’ve never even really thought about.