
Global Citizenship a Growing Sentiment Among Citizens of Emerging Economies - f_allwein
http://www.globescan.com/news-and-analysis/press-releases/press-releases-2016/383-global-citizenship-a-growing-sentiment-among-citizens-of-emerging-economies-global-poll.html
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elcapitan
What does "global citizen" even mean? I am quite happy to be a citizen of
smaller entities. I would like them to be even smaller, not larger. I'm
German, and I find the size of that entity in terms of democratic
accountability almost too large already. Definitely constructs like the EU are
overblown and have too many competencies. I would prefer a small state like
Switzerland with a small population, but direct democracy and relatively
direct accountability.

~~~
philippnagel
Democratic accountability does not depend upon the size of an entity. Instead
it relies on how said entity is internally structured (e.g. direct democracy
vs. more representative models) and how prone to corruption it is.

Personally I think nation states are rather burdensome. In business one has to
handle countless different legal and tax frameworks while fundamentally every
human has comparable needs. Why operate ~196 governments when one government
would suffice? The inefficiency is just mind boggling in my opinion.

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mistermann
> Why operate ~196 governments when one government would suffice?

I don't disagree with your inefficiency comment, but upsides are diversity of
trying things in 196 slightly different ways, 196 chances to fail without thew
whole system going down, and the opportunity for individuals to move to a
place that is most inline with their personal philosophy.

~~~
allemagne
>the opportunity for individuals to move to a place that is most inline with
their personal philosophy

There are very, very few people who are lucky enough to base their current
country on their personal philosophy.

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simula67
I had a running theory that the spread of Internet and virtual communities
would force free exchange of ideas and bring the people of the world together.
I am less inclined to believe that now. Developed and under-developed nations
show no difference in nationalism. Nothing short of an alien invasion can
possibly bring humankind together.

~~~
vanilla-almond
One of the positive attitudes shown in this survey is the acceptance of mixed
race relationships.

I know that the 2011 census for England & Wales showed that it has one of the
largest mixed race populations in Europe, and projections are that it will
continue to grow.

For me this is a positive development - it shows that people mix with others
of different ethnicities, and perhaps might also encourage people to be more
open and tolerant of others.

~~~
leaveyou
What worries me is that we are increasingly accepting people who are not
necessarily accepting the same things we accept and we are increasingly
intolerant with those of us who are worried about our excessive tolerance for
the intolerant.

~~~
mistermann
Wilful ignorance, I see a lot of it on Facebook.

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lsd5you
Without passing judgement, is this not just measuring the desire not be
lumbered with the negative connotations of their respective countries? And
possibly also showing a desire and entitlement to be able to move to a better
off country?

We have something similar at a different level here. People in Salford (a not
well thought of connurbation of Manchester, UK) are 'from Manchester', where
as people from Didsbury are 'from Didsbury'.

That said China being on that list does surprise me.

~~~
f_allwein
Maybe, but even then the differences between the countries are interesting. As
a German, I am unpleasantly surprised we rank so low here.

~~~
kfk
You rank low because of your history. Germans are proud to be Germans, they
just don't feel right to say it. An interesting and very good consequence of
this feeling is that Germany has not only very open policies towards
immigrants, but also an overall good attitude versus expats which you rarely
find in Europe.

~~~
notahacker
The relatively small proportion of Germans willing to affirm support for
intermarriage between ethnic groups suggests there's more than quiet national
pride at play here. Although the country's history is almost certainly why
Germans are more likely to answer "don't know" or "depends" than anyone else:
even if much of the sample group is paranoid about immigrants and influence
from other cultures following recent media coverage, there are still few
people willing to commit to aligning themselves with the far right.

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jdimov9
Any move away from the stupidity of patriotism is good in my books.

~~~
vixen99
So an emotional emotional attachment to a nation which an individual
recognizes as their homeland, is 'stupid'. The nation has provided that person
with certain values which she/he deeply appreciates and feels strongly about:
is that stupidity? Isn't it a good idea to determine what those values are and
how they relate to other people before you generalize so crudely?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotism)

~~~
jdimov9
It is orders of magnitude beyond stupid - it's utterly brainless. So your
nation has PROVIDED you with your values, huh? Yay. The objective of
patriotism has been achieved. Now go and fight to the death for your beloved
nation, because surely no other values should exist on Earth.

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allemagne
I wonder if everyone in this thread and this study is using the same
vocabulary. When I hear or use the term "global citizen" I think of someone
who doesn't pledge loyalty to any government but instead recognizes the
existence of a global human community that they are already a part of.

Judging by some responses, however, it seems as if using the term "global
citizen" is seen as implicit support for some kind of central world
government.

~~~
dunkelheit
Right. For me (and maybe other commenters as well) the term "citizen" implies
paying taxes to an armed entity in exchange for some protection and rights. So
"global citizen" in this sense definitely implies some form of a global
government. But of course the article doesn't talk about anything like that. I
guess it intentionally uses the flashy term "global citizen" when its main
message could be expressed simply as "more and more people don't feel much
loyalty for their respective states".

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librvf
> "more and more people don't feel much loyalty for their respective states"

The world will not be stable with that sentiment for long. At some point, the
"global citizen" will seek to express their political will; a will that will
inevitably conflict with the will of the Nation-State.

To do that, the "global citizens" must have sponsors, leaders, and some way to
organize. Would-be sponsors, leaders,and organizers will see the potential for
gain here and will step in to sponsor, lead, and organize the "global
citizens." And at that point, a central world government has been seeded and
will begin to grow.

Alternately, people will remain organized in Nation-states and the "Global
Citizen" mentality will fade away since it won't have any relevant meaning.

~~~
dunkelheit
Haven't thought about it, kudos for taking a longer-term view :) But your
scenario requires that some sizable majority of people share _the same_
sentiment. E.g. the idea of "world proletarian revolution" rests on the
assumption that the majority of people are workers who will be more loyal to
their class than their state. On the other hand it is entirely possible for
most people to be more loyal to numerous hypothetical global communities which
are too small to oppose nation-states. Everything stays the same in this case.

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henriquemaia
From reading the comments, and having been born in Brazil, raised in Portugal,
and for spending a lot of my allotted time on this wandering cosmic orbe on
many countries, I feel that many don't get the _global citizenship_ concept.

Nations are abstractions. I belong to a greater human community. Fortunately I
could witness the advent of the internet and of massive information exchange
between peoples. I rejoice with a untold pride when human beings make some
amazing advancement in whatever field of knowledge we happen to strive for:
the many fields of science, art, philosophy. I watch with amazement when a new
boundary in space travel is surpassed; when we (humans) reach political
agreements that make the world a bit less inhumane (insane) and more
sustainable; when we stop thinking through the lenses of arbitrary divisions
and reach to a higher goal.

I am a citizen of the world (global citizenship) — and I am proud of it. I am
glad I am able to learn and to share information with such a vast array of
different peoples. I literally live on an utopia (no place) that is an
information matrix inside my head. And I am glad to be here today typing this
comment within an international community (HN).

This is my interpretation. If you try to make global citizenship a dystopian
political agenda then you're talking about something entirely different.

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mark_l_watson
As a US citizen, I identify strongly with being a world citizen, but I am very
much against the neoconservative one world government movement.

Even the democrats are marching in lock-step on the path to corporate lead
world government (e.g., President Obama dutifully going to England and
preaching against British EU exit, and of course democrat turned
neoconservative Hilliary Clinton).

I like very small countries. I recently spent 2 weeks in Singapore on business
and loved it there. I am also drawn to tiny countries like Dominica that are
off the usual path.

Ordinary people do much better in local economies where money in return for
services and resources circulates, largely staying in the local economy -
local economies are I think more resilient to a future of sporadic, or no
growth. The current economy relies on continuous growth, which is not
sustainable.

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corv
Generally a positive trend.

I wonder what is keeping Germans from feeling global?

~~~
maufl
(As a German) I think lot's of Germans feel global already. But I suspect it's
limited to a certain demographic, namely young people with academic
background. I don't know about the rest but recently it feels like more people
just want to keep to themselves (especially with all the immigrants coming
into our country).

~~~
alphydan
> all the immigrants coming into our country

When sorted by % of population that is composed of immigrants, Germany does
not have much immigration (it's country # sixty-something in the list) [0])

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_immigrant...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_immigrant_population)

~~~
ZoF
Yes, sorting that way does show that currently Germany doesn't have the
largest immigrant population, but that is changing quickly.

Today Germany is the second most popular migration destination in the world,
after the United States[0]

Not commenting on whether that's a good or bad thing(I feel it's pretty
neutral), just pointing out that the parent commenter saying "all the
immigrants coming into our country" isn't making a crazy statement.

[0] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Germany](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Germany)

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known
Patriotism is a favorite device of people with something to sell
[http://www.economist.com/node/21644538/](http://www.economist.com/node/21644538/)

However I strongly support
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_quota](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_quota)

~~~
lumberjack
The same president is also pushing globalism (TPP, TTIP) so your implication
is really a false dichotomy.

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andrewclunn
Russians are nationalistic, Afghanis divide by religion, and Asian nations are
racist. Not super surprising.

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geodel
Isn't it something similar that poor would want more equitable distribution of
wealth and lower rungs in corporates would want a more normal salary rise all
the way to CEOs. Pretty obvious thing.

I would think that global citizens would not be so interested in nations with
similar number of high aspirants.

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Havoc
Not sure about "global citizen" but I certainly don't feel particularly tied
to any country.

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lumberjack
At first glance it seems to me that all globalism trends are also erosions of
democracy. I dare say this is also what most Germans were thinking. Of course
there are many ways to interpret the question.

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kfk
The 22% strongly agree in US worries me

Edit. Wow, 44% in Spain? Seriously guys? 35% Greece. Somebody should correlate
this with GDP per capita, I believe there is a negative correlation there to
be found...

~~~
ForHackernews
> The 22% strongly agree in US worries me

Why does that worry you? I would generally consider greater global unity to be
a positive trend.

~~~
Mendenhall
Lets say you had a neighbor who spent too much money and was always broke,
would you want to tie their finances to yours and for you to be responsible
for them ?

~~~
hartpuff
It isn't about money or tying finances together, it's about how people self-
identify.

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twoarray
The results on Germany have amazed me.

Especially the huge white spaces.

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jkldotio
The full results in the report seem to me be somewhat more complex to
interpret than the summary, or the original submission title, suggest. On the
first question (Q18jt), a 4 point scale without a "don't know" neutral option,
there are large numbers of people putting global citizenship before national
citizenship (51%-49%). However, when you get to a later question (M2), that
asks people what their most important identity is, national citizenship
overtakes global citizenship overwhelmingly (52% national, 17% global, 11%
local, 9% religious and 8% race/culture). National citizenship is the largest
in all countries besides three, and it's the second largest in two of those.
When given a variety of choices in M2 the level of people supporting global
citizenship (17%) as a primary identity is even lower than even those who
"strongly agree" to global citizenship being more important to national
citizenship in first question (22%).

In M2 it seems all of the "somewhat agree" and a few points of the "strongly
agree" have gone elsewhere including back to national citizenship which
creates a tension between the results of the two questions. It’s quite stark
in the case of India where in the first question 67% place global citizenship
over national citizenship but in M2 51% have national citizenship as their
primary identity and only 6% have global citizenship.

I think the first question (Q18jt) would be more interesting if it was a 5
point scale with a "don't know" option provided rather than trying to railroad
people into an answer with a 4 point scale. Even then I think the M2 question
is a better instrument as it provides a clear set of choices. For example
Pakistan goes from 56% global in the first question to 2% global in the
second. Most of those seem to move to religion as their primary identity (43%
answer religion on M2). Many religions are globally oriented toward all
humanity but the M2 question lets us see more clearly what they believe.

Even though the second question (M2) is better it probably could still do with
some examination. For example the only country where global citizenship was
higher than national citizenship in M2 was Spain, but was that because many
people in Catalonia and the Basque Country are choosing global over "Spanish"
because the "local" option was translated in a particular way? If they used a
word closer to "neighborhood" you could see how that might happen. Similarly
was "local" translated more broadly in the Indonesian translation and became
the dominant answer there (56%) as people could identify with an
island/state/ethnic/linguistic group that was "local", like Bali for example.
It's hard to tell without all the data and the exact translations of the
questions.

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dang
Please don't rewrite titles unless they are misleading or linkbait. The
submitted title ('People see themselves as global citizens rather than
citizens of their country') says something quite different than the original.

