When Political Freedom Does Not Offer Travel Freedom: The Varying Determinants of Visa-Free Travel Opportunities

The ease with which a person can travel abroad may greatly impact the possibilities of what they can achieve in life. Previous scholars have found that as a country politically liberalizes and becomes wealthier its nationals can travel to more countries without a visa. After analysing data from Henley and Partners, the World Bank, and Freedom House for 154 countries, I find that this is only true for nationals from countries with above-average incomes. Among the bottom half of countries in the income distribution and the most unequal societies, nationals in politically free countries do not have greater visa-free mobility than nationals in less politically free countries. The higher a country's income per capita, the more travel opportunities its citizens lose because their society is not completely politically free. My findings have implications for how policymakers evaluate the costs of both migration policies and policies that politically and economically liberalize societies.