Karoli Hindriks: Why the passport needs an upgrade | TED

I grew up in Estonia under Soviet occupation.

In a country locked up behind the thick wall of the Iron Curtain.

Back then, where everything,

including bread, socks and underwear was a luxury,

I did not dream about the open world.

Because you see,

some walls are so thick and borders so closed,

that even dreams and ideas can't travel.

However, having lived in that level of darkness made me wonder

why are borders and movement between countries

constructed the way they are.

According to the World Economic Forum,

human capital is the driving force for economic growth.

So why are the barriers to global mobility so high?

Why is the process so time-consuming,

so dreadful and daunting, so very scary?

And I know it’s scary,

because I was detained at San Francisco airport for two hours

just to get on the stage.

It was the idea

that the cross-border movement of people shouldn't be so difficult

that sparked my inspiration for a future of frictionless,

borderless mobility for all,

regardless where they are born.

We are building a universal digital identity

for cross-border movement.

One where people own their data

and can seamlessly relocate anywhere they want

with minimal friction.

One which would eventually allow individuals,

from highly-skilled professionals to refugees seeking safety,

to start, track and get approval for their immigration process

without having to print out a single piece of paper.

And we are not alone.

Companies and countries around the world have started to leverage technology

in order to ease the complexity of immigration.

By doing so, we are expanding opportunities across borders

and through that, helping to build a richer world.

In 2017, the Economist magazine stated there's one seemingly simple policy

that would make the world twice as rich as it is.

Open borders.

Economist Michael Clemens

from the Center of Global Development seems to agree

as he claims that barriers to immigration place one of the fattest of all wedges

between humankind's current welfare

and potential welfare.

But you know what?

The problem starts from what we call a passport,

which was first introduced

as a globally required travel document during World War I,

slightly after Henry Ford introduced the first affordable automobiles.

Today, our cars have come a long way.

We have come from model Ts to Teslas.

But our passports look and work pretty much the same way as a century ago.

Besides the lack of technology,

there was also a flaw in the way the passport system was built.

The modern passport was designed by a Western-centric organization

after the First World War.

It became an object of freedom for the advantaged,

mostly Western countries,

but a burden for others.

The irony is that today

the passport doesn't even help those same Western economies anymore,

because you see, when in the past a good passport could indicate

a person coming from a Western country with a good education system

and thus useful skills,

then in 2020, the World Economic Forum reported

that the top three countries

where the highly educated migrants came from

were India, China and Philippines.

Which, according to 2021 Henley Passport Index

ranked among the least travel-friendly passports in the world

ranking respectively 85th,

70th and 77th out of 110.

So let's take a look at a recent relocation experience

by a highly skilled specialist called Ibtehal.

Ibtehal is a divorced single mother with full custody rights for her kids,

six-year-old boy Kenan and an eight-year-old girl Tamara.

All of them are Yemeni citizens,

which, according to Henley Passport Index 2021,

ranks 106 out of 110.

Again, one of the least travel-friendly passports in the world.

The Malaysian tech company that employed Ibtehal

wanted to transfer her and her family to their European office.

The immigration authorities let her know that her visa would get approved,

but her underage kids would not get their visas right away.

Instead, she was required to travel 6,000 miles alone to the embassy

to apply for her visa.

Then travel back to Malaysia, wait for three months,

then travel back again,

this time with her kids to apply for their visas.

And only after that could they all go and live in the destination country.

Stories like this are not the exception.

It is a pretty accurate reflection of the immigration experiences today,

and this is exactly the kind of hideous problem that I want to solve.

And I know it can be solved

because I have seen the Estonian society transform

from one of the poorest countries in the world

to an open and democratic one that not only functions but thrives

as a poster child for technology-driven governance and innovation.

One of the keys to Estonia's success in digitalization was the focus

to build one platform called the X-Road,

the backbone of digital Estonia.

The key to it is one digital identity for each individual

that allows public and private databases to link up and operate in harmony.

Estonians can do everything online,

other than get married or divorced.

Anything from doing taxes to voting in the elections

is securely done online

and takes about the same time as checking your Instagram account.

The digitalization saves Estonia a stack of paper

as high as the Eiffel Tower every month.

On top of that, according to Siim Sikkut,

the chief information officer of Estonia,

the digital signature alone

enables Estonia to save two percent of its GDP every year.

Two percent of GDP globally would be 1.7 trillion dollars.

With that amount of money, we could solve world hunger not once,

56 times every year.

That's a whole lot of money being wasted

because public sectors are not adapting to existing technologies.

We can tackle that by creating a secure,

universal digital identity

where all the users need to do is upload their data and documents

such as passport, marriage and education certificates

into our smart system,

which then converts that data into pieces

that can be matched to relevant government forms in different countries.

The beauty of it is the once-only rule.

The user needs to add their data once

as it is then stored for the future use.

The passport was created as a mechanism to move.

It is clearly time to modernize that mechanism.

If we could now connect that same digital identity

to government systems worldwide,

our system could act as a digital passport

and with a click of a button,

immigration applications are created, submitted and digitally tracked.

Imagine never to have to fill any immigration forms ever again.

In order for that to happen,

we need government immigration systems to enable a simple integration,

which would allow us to push applications and pull back the status.

Today, our system is able to do all that beautiful automation,

but to get that digital information to government systems worldwide,

ton of paper needs to be printed out

and a human at an immigration office needs to type everything in again.

In Germany, officials are so busy typing in applications

that it can take up to a year to even get an appointment,

at a time where Germany is experiencing a deep talent crunch.

That is not just an inefficient system,

not a harmless bit of bureaucracy,

it is actively working against itself.

Four years ago, when traveling to New York City from Europe

with my then four-year-old daughter Maya,

I briefed her what to expect at the border and why.

When we finally got to the border,

this was her look that the machine captured.

(Laughter)

I think it was the most authentic look how we humans feel

about immigration globally.

(Laughter)

Last year, through a small digitalization with Berlin immigration authorities,

my team managed to shorten a process that was 90 days into two days.

Think about what a person can do in 88 days.

Your passport describes you as a resident of your country.

We say you're a citizen of the world.

A universal digital passport,

one that would go beyond borders,

will take us towards a world where crossing borders

is not about waste of time or waste of resources.

Think about these 88 days

and how much actual life can fit into it.

Thank you.

(Applause)