I wonder, do we keep track of the number of visa rejections year over year, so that we know in comparison?
There are of course many factors that go into venue selection - one of them is visa (another is security, political stability etc). The countries that I remember going relatively smoothly were the ones where the organizers sought a collaboration with the foreign affairs of their country, to get some help. I don't know if Wikimedia Canada was able to accomplish that. But it does mean that a general bad reputation is not necessarily a bad rejection rate for this particular conference. (if memory serves me well, WMIL did a great job in this respect in 2011, for example) Lodewijk On Thu, Jun 22, 2017 at 12:48 PM, Felix Nartey <[email protected]> wrote: > This is a big issue and I think should be looked into more seriously. > Similar challenges were faced by participants from the Global South > selected to attend the CC Summit in Toronto early this year. > > This should inform future selection for all conference venues as it allows > for poor representation of the Global South at international conferences. > > Cheers, > > > > On Thu, Jun 22, 2017 at 10:13 AM, Gnangarra <[email protected]> wrote: > >> These issues are a symptom of the closed processes that have occurred >> firstly with Montreal and next year with middle eastern attendees to Cape >> Town . Acknowledging that the change was because of the amount effort put >> in by unsuccessful bidders was said to be wasted its showing that some >> things need to be opened for community discussion before decisions are >> made. >> >> That it may be better for the WMF to require applicants to first obtain >> a visa before being confirmed for the scholarships in the future. >> Perth/Australia is another place that visas for attendees wouldnt have been >> a big issue. >> >> On 22 June 2017 at 17:43, cs <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> That’s one of the reasons why I proposed Bangkok, Thailand, for 2019 >>> - apart from its extremely tolerant social cultures and very low cost, >>> while being a very modern hi-tech city easily accessible by direct >>> flights from most parts of the world. Almost everyone can enter the >>> country for at least 15 days without even a visa. Thailand only makes >>> it difficult for people wanting to stay longer (years) in the country on >>> the pretext of being tourists. >>> >>> It’s a shame for the visa refusals, but perhaps this will open up the >>> possibility to some refused scholarship applications. >>> >>> Kudpung. >>> >>> On 22Jun, 2017, at 16:23, Bodhisattwa Mandal < >>> [email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> Hi, >>> >>> The main topic of discussion among the scholarship recipients from >>> global south this month is the high visa rejection rate by Canadian >>> embassies from these countries. >>> >>> This year, we had 7 scholarship recipients from Bengali community, 4 >>> from India and 3 from Bangladesh. Already 3 out of 4 scholarship recipients >>> from Indian part of the communities got their visa rejected, others are >>> waiting. Although I am hoping for the best for all the scholarship >>> recipients, but may be news of more rejections are coming soon. >>> >>> Wikimania should be organised in a visa friendly country, and not in >>> those countries where global south citizens are not allowed to enter even >>> for a 6-days conference. Otherwise, a global community is not truly >>> presented. >>> >>> Best wishes, >>> Bodhisattwa >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimania-l mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimania-l mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> GN. >> President Wikimedia Australia >> WMAU: http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/User:Gnangarra >> Photo Gallery: http://gnangarra.redbubble.com >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimania-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >> >> > > > -- > *Felix Nartey* > *Cofounder/Director Finance & Admin* > *Open Foundation West Africa <https://openfoundationwestafrica.org/>* > *+233242844987 <+233%2024%20284%204987> | +447440959477 > <+44%207440%20959477>* > *Skype:Flixtey* > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimania-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l > >
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