When did we start using passports? - Kristin Surak — Transcript

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1. 0:06In 1941, in German-occupied Poland,
2. 0:10the Nazis began abducting members of the Jewish population
3. 0:14and imprisoning them in extermination camps.
4. 0:18But there were exceptions—
5. 0:20the Nazis held foreign passport holders in detention camps
6. 0:24to be traded later for Germans detained abroad.
7. 0:29With this loophole in mind, Aleksander Ładoś,
8. 0:32a Polish diplomat in Switzerland,
9. 0:35started producing forged Latin American passports
10. 0:39and smuggling them to Polish Jews.
11. 0:42In the end, these simple paper booklets
12. 0:45would mean the difference between life and death for thousands.
13. 0:51A striking thing about passports
14. 0:53is that they’re actually a relatively new invention.
15. 0:56They’re not the first form of travel documents:
16. 0:59in ancient Egypt, travelers carried letters of safe conduct issued by rulers;
17. 1:05in Han China and Tudor England, foreigners were issued travel passes;
18. 1:11and in the 19th century,
19. 1:12poorer migrants often needed health certificates to enter the US.
20. 1:18However, for much of human history,
21. 1:20borders have been relatively fluid and travel lacked bureaucratic requirements.
22. 1:26But when World War I broke out in 1914, everything changed.
23. 1:32Neighboring countries, and their colonies, became wartime enemies.
24. 1:37To deter both espionage and desertion,
25. 1:41many European nations established checkpoints at ports of entry
26. 1:46to confirm travelers’ nationalities.
27. 1:48Here, authorities would screen early versions of passports,
28. 1:53which, depending on the issuing country,
29. 1:55were documents that followed different formats
30. 1:58and contained varying types of information.
31. 2:02When the war ended, many expected nations to remove passport requirements.
32. 2:08In 1920, the newly established League of Nations discussed this,
33. 2:13but in light of other post-war concerns,
34. 2:16such as safeguarding national security, preventing the spread of epidemics,
35. 2:21and managing the movement of refugees,
36. 2:24they opted to temporarily keep the passport system.
37. 2:28To ease travel,
38. 2:29they encouraged countries to follow international passport guidelines,
39. 2:34using booklets of standard size and layout,
40. 2:37written in the language of the issuing country and French.
41. 2:42But beyond this, every country was free to determine what approvals or documents
42. 2:47a person needed to cross its borders.
43. 2:50This included rules around issuing visas,
44. 2:54the legal permissions dictating how long a person can stay in a country,
45. 2:59and what they can do, such as work or study.
46. 3:02And by 1926, when the League of Nations met again,
47. 3:06the idea of abolishing passports had lost momentum,
48. 3:10solidifying the passport system we know today.
49. 3:15However, this system brought new problems with it.
50. 3:19Passports were used not just to monitor movement,
51. 3:22but also as tools of power and control.
52. 3:26They reinforced hierarchies between citizens born in colonizer states
53. 3:30and those born in the colonies.
54. 3:33For example, in the 1920s,
55. 3:35UK-born British subjects could get British passports,
56. 3:40while Indian-born subjects could receive a distinct British Indian passport.
57. 3:46And since passports are issued by governments,
58. 3:49they could be withheld from citizens as punishment or to discourage dissent.
59. 3:54During the Cold War, the US revoked the passports
60. 3:58of political and civil rights activists, like W.E.B. Dubois.
61. 4:03As passport monitoring was largely relocated into airports
62. 4:08in the second half of the 20th century,
63. 4:10advances in digital tracking and databases
64. 4:14allowed governments to more tightly regulate and control individual movement.
65. 4:19Today, a passport’s strength and where a person can travel to and from
66. 4:24are often dependent on relationships between countries.
67. 4:28There can be regional agreements, like the Schengen Agreement,
68. 4:32which allows border-free travel within 29 European countries.
69. 4:37Higher-income countries also typically have better travel access.
70. 4:42The result is a system that privileges citizens of certain countries,
71. 4:46while constraining others.
72. 4:49As of 2025, a US passport holder can enter almost 180 countries
73. 4:55without arranging a visa beforehand.
74. 4:59For a Pakistani passport holder, that number drops below 40.
75. 5:03And these disparities extend to a person’s chances of securing a foreign visa.
76. 5:10For example, in 2024,
77. 5:12Algerian applicants for US visitor visas
78. 5:16faced a much higher refusal rate than Brazilian applicants.
79. 5:20In some places, money can buy you access—
80. 5:24more than a dozen countries offer "golden passports” programs
81. 5:28that grant citizenship,
82. 5:30and therefore passports, to people who make a significant investment or donation.
83. 5:36As the world becomes increasingly global for some,
84. 5:40and increasingly divided for others,
85. 5:43the question remains:
86. 5:44should lines on a map determine a person’s rights and freedoms?