Abstract
The issue of visas does not get much attention in international business, perhaps because visas mainly affect people from developing countries: Exemptions exist for most citizens of Triad countries. Yet there are extensive, opaque and country-specific regulations governing the movement of people across borders. In this essay, I speak about my personal experience in trying to obtain a visa, and reflect how visas act as a barrier to full participation in the global economy, both economically and in the cross-border sharing of knowledge. I suggest the possible value of a global oversight body to regulate how visas are granted.
Highlights
It was a wonderful surprise: Robert Grosse, immediate past president of AIB, wrote to ask if I would be one of two scholars from a lower income country to represent AIB at the upcoming World Investment Forum in Geneva
From the US, it was so fast to get to Europe—flights were typically five or six hours, rather than the twelve or more hours they took from South Africa
As a scholar of international business, I can see the arc of an abstract concept like “globalisation” in the pattern of my travels, but my most vivid association with those travels relates to applying for a visa
Summary
It was a wonderful surprise: Robert Grosse, immediate past president of AIB, wrote to ask if I would be one of two scholars from a lower income country to represent AIB at the upcoming World Investment Forum in Geneva. Upon my return to South Africa my international travels did not stop: I travelled three and four times a year to conferences in my field. In practice if not in intent, primarily to govern the movements of citizens of poorer countries.
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