According to the Cambridge dictionary globalization is « a situation in which available goods and services, or social and cultural influences, gradually become similar in all parts of the world ». Some could argue that identities are fading ; when you look at town centres around the world you see more or less the same brands’ names ; people wear the same clothes and watch the same films. Yet geographical borders still exist and trips abroad are still very popular in the tourism industry. Mobility has developed a great deal in the last decades either within a country or to foreign countries but people’s motivations for moving to a distant country are various depending on whether they are a tourists or a migrants !
The development of transports around the world has permitted an increasing number of tourists and business travellers and a rise in the transport of goods. The impact on the economy is obvious : prices have lowered and the needs have changed altogether ; borders are more easily crossed to allow travellers to discover new ways of life, new cultures. However we may wonder what the impacts on our everyday life are. Has globalisation made the world a better place or has it brought up many negative changes?
Free trade has allowed the exchange of new goods and raw materials in the industry and even culture has been exported through the film industry or thanks to new technologies. This could be seen as a factor of diversity, inclusion and social climbing for emerging countries, it is supposed to provide work and higher wages.
Yet the effects of globalization have been rather disastrous for the environment and it led to a new trend of protectionism not only to limit the CO2 emissions. Indeed the gap between developed and developing countries seems to encourage people to move to their richer neighbours even if they are more and more reluctant to welcome those migrants. It leads to political and social crisis, South American and Asian migrants feel uprooted and suffer from the difficulty to integrate in their new environment. The menace of the wall between the US and Mexico and the treatment of illegal migrants in the US underlines that mobility depends on your country of origin and social status: for example in the UK you must prove that you will earn enough money to get a visa to enter the country and work there.
On the one hand geographical borders are often a cause of tensions like the tensions between Ireland and the UK following Brexit. However divisions may also exist within a country between different groups according to their age category, their language, their geographical origins, their point of view, as illustrated by the Brexit referendum and the Guardian’s Brexit Shorts : dramas from a divided nation. On the other hand identities may be enhanced by some cultural celebrations (Saint Patrick’s day or Notting Hill Carnival), or by local food for example (Asian cuisine in general and the use of spices).
