What Happened to Global Citizenship in a Pandemic?

With the impending New Year bringing us almost 2 years into the COVID-19 pandemic, this is an opportune time for international educators, myself included, to take stock of our work and look forward. For many years, I have been mulling over the concept of “global citizenship,” and my skepticism has intensified with the pandemic. In my opinion, notions of global citizenship can be more humble and realistic. Instead, the field might consider global awareness and engagement.

What Is Global? What Is Citizenship?

Rather than provide a historical and scholarly treatise on global citizenship, I attempt to engage with the phrase “global citizenship” at face value. The phrase naturally invites us to contemplate the two words: “global” and “citizenship.” According to both Oxford Languages and Britannica, “global” refers to the world.

On the other hand, “citizenship” is, arguably, more complicated. Oxford Languages defines it as “the position or status of being a citizen of a particular country,” and Britannica as a “relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection.” The latter points to an obligation to the state; a responsible citizen fulfills this obligation, whether or not the citizen desires it.

Beyond dictionary definitions, global citizenship, as Madeleine F. Green observes, departs from national citizenship; while the latter occurs by accident of birth, the former’s association with the world is voluntary.

Yet, it is in this voluntariness that, I argue, lies the problem with the concept of global