Global Citizenship on the rise

• Posted on Oct 26, 2016
• In Global Citizenship

As the world marked United Nations Day on October 24th, business experts are reporting a rise in the number of well-travelled, culturally aware professionals who see themselves as a ‘Global Citizen’ rather than a product of their country of birth. A team of experts from Relocate Global, a leading independent multimedia publisher for the relocation industry and global mobility market, has estimated that global citizenship has become an integral part of modern people’s identity.

“It can be loosely defined as an individual who no longer feels they belong to a specific nation or cultural group regardless of what their passport says – normally as a result of living and working abroad,” said Benedict Slonecki, a UK citizen with English-Polish heritage who is currently based Hong Kong.

A study by GlobeScan and BBC World Service earlier this year found that nearly half of those surveyed from emerging economic countries identify more as a global citizen than as a citizen from their own country. Thousands of expats work and live outside of their countries, many on assignment for a global corporation, and as a result experience a cultural shift that changes the way they think. Some become so immersed in a variety of cultures that they now feel like a global citizen, rather than a national of specific origin.

The findings come at the right time to face and argue the statements that were recently made by the UK Prime Minister, Ms. Theresa May. As she suggests, “if you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere” and “you don’t understand what citizenship means.”, but it turns out that a great portion of the British population identifies themselves as either European or global citizens. Perhaps those are representatives of the anti-Brexit campaign.