Visa-free Travel Research Articles

Democratic centre, autocratic isolates: the changing field of international visa policies

ABSTRACTIn the international field of visa policies, states observe how other states act in terms of global mobility control or the facilitation of wanted cross-border mobility. But towards whom do they orient themselves? And what drives nation states to cooperate with others and grant their citizens visa-free travel or not? To tackle these questions, we conceptualise visa waiver agreements as positive relations between two states. A new data collection ‘Visa Network Data’ (1969/2010) provides information on all visa waiver agreements worldwide. By means of social network analysis (blockmodelling), we analyse the global structure of the network of nations in this policy field as well as its change over time. In the centre of the network we find evidence for the existence of a global model at which many others orient themselves. However, a second distinct position in the network shows a high degree of stability: Autocratic states that do not want to be involved in the exchange of these bilateral relations.

The pernicious impact of visa restrictions on inbound tourism: the case of Turkey

ABSTRACTVisa policies have been important instruments of control for the movement of people and what they effectuate depends on their character. They impede the flow of people when they are restrictive; they facilitate the entry and admission of people when they are liberal. Turkey has been using visa policies liberally for long to stimulate tourism growth. In this paper, the log-linearized version of gravity-type models is used to analyze Turkey’s tourism demand relating inbound travel to visa requirements, macroeconomic variables, distance and regional contiguity. The countries are segmented into clusters according to travel freedom their citizens enjoy using the Henley & Partners Visa Restrictions Index by employing the two-step cluster analysis. It is found that the visa restrictions imposed on a country has a detrimental impact of 29 percent on average on inward mobility and this impact is on the higher side for countries with almost visa-free travel.

‘With a Little Help from my Friends’: Russia’s Modernisation and the Visa Regime with the European Union

This essay examines Russian argumentation on its visa-free regime with the EU within the context of discussions about modernisation. It examines arguments within the Russian foreign policy establishment about modernisation, Russia’s modernisation partnership with the EU and visa-free travel, and how these issues are linked. First, the essay outlines two models of Russian modernisation, comprehensive and selective. Then the Russia–EU modernisation partnership is examined focusing on Russia’s view of the nature of the partnership. Finally, the essay analyses Russian argumentation on visa-free regime and liberalisation. The essay concludes that in the Russian modernisation debate, be it comprehensive or selective, inclusion into the Western community is understood as an important prerequisite for modernisation.

With a little help from Russia? The European Union and visa liberalization with post-Soviet states

Secure and well-managed migration and mobility figure prominently in the European Union’s (EU) relations with its Eastern neighbors. In the framework of the European Neighborhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership, the EU relies extensively on policy conditionality as it ties the reward of visa-free travel to the adoption of specific policies by neighboring countries in order to better regulate and manage mobility and migration. However, in the post-Soviet space, migration flows and management are, to a great extent, still shaped by (post-) Soviet legacies and interdependences. As a result, Russian domestic and foreign policies shape the way migration and mobility are perceived and managed by neighborhood countries. In this article, we seek to investigate what effect these historically grown ties and current foreign policy actions exert on compliance with EU requirements for visa liberalization in Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova. In all three countries, we identify patterns of change over time and explain them according to the interplay of partner countries’ political preferences with EU policy conditionality and incentives by Russia.

About the Legal Basis of Russian Citizens Visafree Travel on Cruise Ships to European Union Countries

The article deals with the regulatory framework of entry of foreigners – passenger of cruise ships and ferries in to Russia and the EU, as well as problems of visa-free entry of passengers of Russian cruise ships in the EU member states that given the political will of the CEC could be solved by enforcing just EU laws and London Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic, or by concluding a bilateral agreement between Russia and the EU.

When Visa-free Travel Becomes Difficult to Achieve and Easy to Lose: The EU Visa Free Dialogues after the EU’s Experience with the Western Balkans

Abstract In the wake of the visa liberalisation for Western Balkan states, the sudden increase of Balkan asylum seekers has become a salient issue in the eu. This article elaborates on how this issue has made the eu alter its instruments of visa-free travel. With regard to the pre-visa liberalisation phase, the eu now places more emphasis on issues relating to the fundamental rights and social inclusion of marginalised groups, in particular Roma. Also, the ongoing Visa Free Dialogues with countries such as Ukraine and Russia have become more political and include more instances of decision-making where member states can slow down the process. The most significant modification to the EU’s approach is probably the fact that the eu has developed a structured post-visa liberalisation phase. With its post-visa liberalisation monitoring and the visa safeguard clause, the EU has established new (lower level) instruments to keep track of and push for further reforms post-visa liberalisation. The incentive of visa-free travel has turned into a moving target not only used as a source of external eu influence on domestic policy-making pre-visa liberalisation but also post-visa liberalisation.

Regulating Territorial Access in a Globalized World. Visa-Waiver Policies in the USA and Austria

The immense increase in tourist travel over the past thirty years has made states re-arrange their border and control policies. While there is evidence for a more restrictive approach to control, states have also increasingly used visa-waiver policies and lifted the visa requirement for those considered “trustworthy.” In this article, we analyze visa regulations, in particular visa waiver programs, for short-term mobility, focusing on the USA and Austria. We demonstrate that citizens from wealthy democracies have always been more likely to benefit from visa-free travel than others. However, this effect has been reinforced under processes of globalization, leading to increased selectivity, and thus to a polarization of mobility opportunities. Additionally, we find an increasing convergence of both visa regimes since the 1990s.

‘Here Beats the Heart of the Young Socialist State’: 1970s' East Berlin as Socialist Bloc Tourist Destination

Drawing on the archival records of East Berlin's main tourist organisations, Berlin-Information and Travel Agency GDR-Berlin, this article examines a short phase in East Berlin's life as a dynamic tourist destination. It begins by exploring the vision of the GDR authorities when they made plans for the new central area focused on the Alexanderplatz in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and when they introduced visa-free travel in the early 1970s. It then goes on to examine the actual engagement with the space by socialist travelers during the peak of East Berlin's period as an important Socialist Bloc tourist destination in the 1970s. Existing scholarship on the GDR's experiment with visa-free travel in the 1970s has focused singularly on the shopping and smuggling activities of socialist tourists to the GDR. The historical record, however, reveals a more nuanced story. Socialist tourists, I argue, saw visa-free travel as more than a mere occasion to acquire goods that were scarce at home and East Berlin as more than a mere marketplace. East Berlin, I suggest, offered socialist tourists a robust tourist culture and an opportunity for Socialist Bloc authorities to fulfill their end of the socialist social contract by extending the privileges of leisure travel and of urban leisure culture to ordinary citizens of the Socialist Bloc.

Chinese Practice in Public International Law: 2012

This Survey covers materials reflecting Chinese practice in 2012 relating to: I. Fundamental principles of international law; II. Rule of law at the national and international levels; III. Sources of international law (provisional application of treaties; formation and evidence of customary international law); IV. Recognition of new States and governments (Palestine; Kosovo; the new Libyan government); V. Jurisdiction and immunity (Supreme People's Court's interpretation of the Second Amendment to the 1979 Criminal Procedural Code; Case concerning the 5 October Massacre in Mekong River committed by Sai Naw Kham, Hsang Kham, Yi Lai, Zha Xika, Zha Bo and Zha Tuobo); VI. China's territorial integrity (Taiwan; Tibet; China–India agreement on the establishment of a working mechanism for consultation and co-ordination on India–China border affairs; Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islands; Huangyan Island; Xisha Islands; Nansha Islands; Establishment of Sansha Municipality); VII. Polar regions (Arctic Council); VIII. International Law of the Sea (Baselines of the territorial sea adjacent to Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands; Selection, defininition and protection of the Protection Scope of Territorial Sea Base Points; Submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in part of the East China Sea; Revised Regulations on Administration of Coastal Border Security of Hainan Province; Suyan Rock; Okinotori Reef; Marine environment; Marine biodiversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction; Sustainable fisheries; Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf; International Seabed Authority; International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea; Fight against piracy); IX. International law on outer space (Militarization of and arms race in outer space; Space debris; International co-operation in peaceful uses of outer space); X. Aliens (Act on Administration of Exit and Entry; 72-hour visa-free travel to Beijing and Shanghai; Draft articles on expulsion of aliens; Refugees); XI. International human rights law (Human rights and the principle of non-interference of internal affairs; Human rights, politicization and double Standards; Human rights and national conditions; Right to survival and right to development; Human security; Discrimination and racism; Right to self-determination; Rights of indigenous peoples; Initial report under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; The Second Amendment to the 1979 Criminal Procedural Code; Act on Administration of Exit and Entry; Work of UN Secretariat in human rights; Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; Human Rights Treaty bodies and their reform); XII. International humanitarian law (protection of civilians in armed conflicts; Fourth Annual Session of Chinese National Committee of International Humanitarian Law; Litigation of Chinese victims against Japan before a court in Chongqing; Legal advisers in Chinese armed forces); XIII. International law on disasters (Strengthening of the co-ordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the UN, including special economic assistance); XIV. International law on arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation (Nuclear disarmament; Mongolia's nuclear-weapons-free status; Chemical Weapons Convention; Biological Weapons Convention; Amended Protocol II to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW); Ottawa Convention; Anti-vehicle landmines; International humanitarian de-mining assistance; Protocol V to the CCW (ERW); China–Laos Memorandum of Understanding on the Provision of Assistance of China to the Laotian Victims of Cluster Munitions; Arms Trade Treaty; Cyber weapons; Conference on Disarmament); XV. International Criminal Law (International Criminal Court; ICTY and ICTR; Scope and application of universal jurisdiction; UN Comprehensive Convention against Terrorism; UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime; UN Convention against Corruption; Cyber crime; Trafficking in cultural property); XVI. International environmental law (Joint Declaration of the Moscow Meeting on Inclusion of International Civil Aviation in the EU-ETS; Directive on Prohibition from Participating in EU Carbon Emission System; Protection of atmosphere; Effects of atomic radiation; Use of water resources of cross-border rivers); XVII. Law on diplomatic and consular relations (Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations; The CHEN Guangcheng incident; The WANG Lijun case); XVIII. International law on international organizations (The reform of the UNSC; Sanctions imposed by the UNSC; The working methods of the UNSC; UN Peacekeeping operations; Regulation on Participation of People's Liberation Army in UN Peacekeeping Operations (Provisional Application); Inter-mission co-operation of UN peacekeeping operations; Scale of assessments for the apportionment of the expenses of the UN); XIX. International law on settlement of disputes (International Court of Justice; Unilateral sanctions imposed by a State against another State).

Serbia “Enters” Europe: International Mobility and the Redrawing of State Boundaries

In 2009, citizens of Serbia were finally allowed to make short trips to Schengen zone countries without visas. This represented a victory for the regime in Belgrade. A whole generation of Serbians had been held back from European travel by the visa requirement that was introduced as Yugoslavia disintegrated. However, this victory came at a price. Schengen countries worried that the lifting of the visa barrier would trigger a flood of illegal workers and asylum seekers from Kosovo. The Serbian government, which considers Kosovo to be an autonomous province, had to come up with an expedient solution to reassure wealthier European countries that allowing Serbians to “enter” would not open the gates to a large number of problematic visitors. Eventually, Belgrade agreed to restrict the privilege of visa-free travel for residents of Kosovo, formally differentiating Kosovar citizens from “normal” citizens. The imperatives of international mobility have forced a country, in a sense, to redraw its boundaries and to acknowledge a different status for a section of its population from a province that it continues to claim. This essay unpacks the puzzle of why supporters of the “integral Kosovo” position in Serbia resigned themselves to the compromise. The central argument is that states seek to secure mobility not only for economic reasons but also to mark themselves as normal, respectable members of the international community. Serbia’s visa waiver decision provides a lens with which to view issues of mobility and national identity in one of the most complex and divided regions of the world.

Problems and prospects of EU — Russia dialogue on visa-free travel

Problems and prospects of EU — Russia dialogue on visa-free travel

Проблемы и перспективы безвизового диалога России и ЕС

This article deals with the issues pertinent to the EU-Russia visa dialogue — one of the major areas of cooperation between the two partners. The article aims to identify the main problems of this dialogue, as well as prospects for the introduction of a visa-free regime between the EU and Russia. The authors provide a historical overview of cooperation in this area and consider problems and prospects of visa liberalization from the economic, legal, and political perspectives. The analysis draws on primary sources such as the EU and Russia’s legislation, EU-Russia agreements on visa facilitation and readmission, visa statistics, expert interviews, as well as analytical reports and research works on the topic. Particular attention is paid to the “Common steps towards visa-free short-term travel of the citizens of the EU and Russia”, which is currently the main document in the visa dialogue. Having assessed the implementation of the provisions contained in the four blocks of the “Common Steps”, the authors draw conclusions about the political nature of major obstacles to a visa-free regime. This article is based on the proceedings of the “Russia and European Union: the dynamics of interrelations” international conference organized by the EU center of the I. Kant Baltic Federal University (the EU4U project).

Problem ruchu bezwizowego w stosunkach polsko-amerykańskich po 1989 r.

The issue of visa-free travel in U.S.-Polish relations after 1989 In the recent decade, the Polish efforts seeking extension of the U.S. Visa Waiver Program to Poland have been one of the major themes in U.S. -Polish relations and an important issue for the Polish public opinion. Polish politicians and media have often presented it in terms of American “ingratitude” for Polish support for U.S. positions like the Iraq war and the Ballistic Missile Defense program. This article, after brief outline of the provisions of the U.S. law governing visas and the Visa Waiver Program, presents a historical account of the issue and its role in bilateral relations since 1989, and describes legislative responses to Polish requests that have been introduced in Congress. After the analysis of those measures, the article concludes that the failure of Polish efforts for Poland’s inclusion in the Visa Waiver Program was caused primarily by mistaken strategy (overemphasis being put on conventional diplomacy over congressional lobbying), congressional reluctance to single out individual countries for exemption from generally applicable rules, and post -9/11 political climate, unfavorable to easing of immigration rules.

The facilitation of freedom of movement between Russia and the European Union: prospects and legal issues

The European Union, as any other state formation, divides all citizens entering its territory into two groups: those who need visas and those who are exempt from this obligation. As for any other state, for the European Union, visa regime with third countries is a general rule. An exception from this rule, i. e. the introduction of visa free regime, is made for certain states, as a rule on a reciprocal basis, if the state meets the four key criteria: 1) the nature of state policy and security level; 2) illegal migration level; 3) level of external relations; 4) level of regional cooperation and provision of reciprocity. The above criteria are presented in Council Regulation No 539/2001 of March 15, 2001 listing the countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders of EU member states. According to article 77 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union [1, р. 1], the issue of establishing a visa or visa-free regime for visiting EU member states falls within the authority of the community in whole, such decisions are subject to the regular legislative procedure, i. e. the consent of qualified majority in the Council and Parliament. As of today, the list of states whose nationals are exempt from the obligation to obtain a visa is approved in Council Regulation No 539/2001 of March 15, 2001 [2, р. 1]. Historically, Russia was on the first list, however, over the last ten years, our country has persistently but so far to no avail strived to be moved to the second list. So, on August 27, 2002, the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, addressed a message regarding the problem of sustenance of the Kaliningrad region in view of the EU enlargement to the chair of the EU Commission and the heads of EU member states, which proposed considering the question of prospective transition to a visa-free regime of travel [3]. This message marked the official beginning of negotiations on the issues of visa-free travel of the citizens of Russia and EU member states. The European Union did not reject the opportunity of establishing a visafree regime; on the contrary, the meeting of the Council of the European UnV. V. Voinikov

The Impact of Visa-free Entry on Outbound Tourism: A Case Study of South Korean Travellers Visiting Japan

Although visa-free entry is important to tourism flows across borders there has been limited academic research into the effects of this arrangement on international tourism demand. Using the ARIMA, the ARIMA intervention, Winters Exponential Smoothing and the Stepwise Autoregressive models, this study examined the effect of visa-free entry on tourism demand between South Korea and Japan, and estimated the impact of this visa-free travel on tourism numbers and receipts. The results showed that for Koreans visiting Japan, introducing visa-free travel was statistically significant with a positive sign. In the first year tourists increased by 12.1 percent and receipts by $US246 million and in the second year tourists increased by 25 percent and receipts by $US792 million. The key finding is that in a market with strong effective demand, the influence of a change to visa-free entry could be greater than 20 percent. However, as individual, national and external reasons modulate each context, further research into the influence of visa controls on various established tourism markets is recommended.

From membership conditionality to policy conditionality: EU external governance in South Eastern Europe

In view of the uncertainty about the final outcome of the current enlargement process, how effective is the EU's acquis conditionality in South Eastern Europe? By elaborating on the example of justice and home affairs, the article argues that the EU's external leverage has remained strong, as the EU has developed additional ways to render its conditionality approach credible. Although the hurdles for entering the EU have been raised, Croatia's compliance efforts can be considered to be similar to the logic observed in the eastern enlargement. The key to understanding the compliance of Macedonia, whose membership prospect is less certain or even questionable, is to take into account policy conditionality in addition to membership conditionality. The EU managed to compensate for less credible membership rewards by substantially increasing the value of the policy reward of visa-free travel. This strategy was effective but has created tensions with regard to the EU's broader objectives in the region.

Exit-Voice Dynamics and the Collapse of East Germany: The Crisis of Leninism and the Revolution of 1989 by Steven Pfaff (review)

752 SEER, 86, 4, OCTOBER 2008 This line of thinking led toan alliance with the independentMoscow Group forTrust, towhom theywere introduced by Jean. Attempting to use their status as heroines of the struggle forpeace towin official recognition for the Trust Group, they brought a member of the group along with them to a meeting with the Soviet Peace Committee, provoking an outraged reaction from SPC deputy chairman (andKGB colonel) Oleg Kharkhardin. Neverthe less, their solidarity ? and that of themany otherWestern activists who visitedMoscow in theirwake ? did enable theTrust Group to continue its work and protect it from further repression. And it is significant thatwhile Kharkhardin's mind was tightlyclosed other Soviet participants in themeet ing did not conceal an intense and sympathetic interest inwhat thewomen fromGreenham Common had to say. Readers should not be overhasty in dismissing Ann's claim that shemade an important contribution to opening up Soviet society and ending theCold War. Her testimony serves as further confirmation of the thesis so cogently argued byMatthew Evangelista ? namely, that the Cold War was brought to an end through cooperative interaction between Soviet reformers and Western disarmament activists (UnarmedForces: The TransnationalMovement to End the ColdWar, Ithaca, NY, 1999; see, also, the account ofmy collaboration with Viktor Girshfeld at ). The 'new thinking'was a product precisely of this interaction. To be sure, our effortswould hardly have borne such rapid fruitwere itnot for the rise to power ofMikhail Gorbachev. Ann Pettitt has made a few errors of detail concerning Soviet institutions and ideology. That is unfortunate. It would be even more unfortunate were a few errors ? or, perhaps, the relaxed and humorous style ? to militate against serious consideration of the insights and arguments in this book or prevent it from taking its rightfulplace in the historical record. Providence, RI Stephen D. Shenfield Pfaff, Steven. Exit-VoiceDynamics and theCollapse ofEast Germany:The Crisis of Leninism and the Revolution of ig8g. Duke University Press, Durham, NC and London, 2006. xv + 333 pp. Notes. Tables. Figures. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. ?14.95 (paperback). The fall of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1989 has typically presented historians and social theoristswith a set of perplexing questions, for despite the apparent stability and exemplary nature of this regime within Eastern Europe, itwas the one to collapse most swifdy, not only under the weight of public pressure, but also without any significant violence. In his book, Steven Pfaffconvincingly explains thisconundrum through a theoretical model of exit-voice dynamics, in which he examines the implications of no-exit situations on collective voice, and the way in which this becomes redefined once an exit option is introduced. The result isboth persuasive and enlightening. In order to explain the events of 1989, Pfaff suggests five 'propositions' in thefirstchapter, shaped by Albert O. Hirschman's theories on exit, voice and reviews 753 loyalty.The most central of these is 'proposition 5': 'Exit can triggervoice, but during an episode of political contention propelled by exit, beyond a cer tain point the occurrence of exit depresses the occurrence of voice' (p. 29). Using a combination of archival research and statistical analysis of survey data, he proceeds to use qualitative and quantitative evidence to test these propositions, focusing on the industrial region of Saxony, the 'cradle of the revolution'. His findings largely support the fivepropositions, and demonstrate how the 'exiting crisis' in the GDR mobilized collective action which was largely unstructured and spontaneous in nature. As exit grew, however, network-erosion became evident amongst 'insurgent voice', yet significantiy not amongst 'loyalist voice', represented by civic movements such as New Forum. In his analysis, Pfaffdraws on key eventswhich took place during the final months of the SED dictatorship, such as the Sputnik affairofNovember 1988, the ban on visa-free travel to Czechoslovakia and the transportation of exiters on trains through Saxony in earlyOctober 1989, the celebration of theGDR's fortiethanniversary on 7October and theLeipzig 'miracle' of two days later. Clearly these events are commonly recognized as central to the regime's collapse, yet Pfaff provides significant insight into the dynamics behind the mobilization of themasses and the party during such episodes. Most signifi cant is his emphasis on the informal but dense networks of friends, relatives and...

Visa-free Travel Privileges: An Exploratory Geographical Analysis

In early 2006 the Swiss migration-specialist company Henley and Partners released a global ranking of visa-free travel privileges. The present paper comprises an exploratory analysis of the data, despite the lack of information as to how or when it was originally compiled. The initial hypothesis – that the ability for citizens to travel to other countries visa-free is based on the wealth and openness of their own country – is confirmed. The bulk of the world's countries, and indeed population, have very little travel freedom. A measure of global travel freedom combining the Henley data with national population figures is proposed. Any more comprehensive investigation requires the full release, or re-construction, of the dataset and knowledge of how it was compiled.