First World privilege is any advantages accrued by an individual by virtue of being a national of a
First World country.
Overview
First-World privilege is often explicitly maintained by legal means such as
immigration
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...
laws and
trade barriers
Trade barriers are government-induced restrictions on international trade. According to the theory of comparative advantage, trade barriers are detrimental to the world economy and decrease overall economic efficiency.
Most trade barriers work ...
. Further, very few nations have laws that prevent explicit discrimination on the basis of nationality for access to employment, promotions, education, scholarships, etc.
[''Global Rights, Local Wrongs, and Legal Fixes: An International Human Rights Critique of Immigration and Welfare Reform''; Hernandez-Truyol, Berta Esperanza; Johns, Kimberly A.] Laws of many nations actively encourage the
discrimination against foreign nationals, for employment and educational purposes, via stringent immigration requirements, exorbitant fees, devaluation of educational qualifications, and scholarship quotas that usually favor citizens from developed nations.
[''Drawing the global colour line: white men's countries and the international challenge of racial equality'' Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.]
First World nations usually have mutual trade and immigration arrangements and treaties that limit the discrimination faced by First-World nationals regarding employment, education and business in other First World countries. The existence of discriminatory laws and barriers across the world, according to First World privilege theory, on balance systematically favor the employment, business, access to education and health care, and subsequently welfare of citizens of First World nations at the cost of the welfare and oppression of the people of developing nations.
In general, the term "
privilege" when referring to social inequality has been criticized for not distinguishing between "spared injustice" and "unjust enrichment".
See also
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Developed country
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Global North and Global South
The concept of Global North and Global South (or North–South divide in a global context) is used to describe a grouping of countries along socio-economic and political characteristics. The Global South is a term often used to identify region ...
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First World problem
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First World problem is an informal term for the issues in First World nations that are complained about in response to the perceived absence of more pressing concerns. Although it has been described as "a subset of the fallacy of relat ...
References
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Social privilege