Just Be Nice
Posted on Mon Nov 20, 2006 at 05:14:46 PM EST
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Upon arrival in Barcelona this summer, a Spanish official glanced at my passport and waved me on my way. Returning from Spain, I encountered a longer line at O’Hare, but I eventually answered a couple of perfunctory questions posed by a bored customs official who then waved me on my way. I was glad that I wasn’t visiting the U.S. from another country, because the “citizens” line made slow but steady progress while the lengthy queue of foreign visitors stood motionless.
It’s no surprise, then, that two-thirds of the business travelers polled by the Discover America Partnership considered the U.S. to be “the worst country in the world” in its treatment of foreign visitors at the border. More surprising, perhaps, is that a similar percentage of respondents fear being mistreated by DHS officials more than they fear terrorism. They viewed U.S. border officials as “arrogant, rude and unpredictable.”
“We deliberately sampled an elite group of business travelers who are more likely to feel positive towards the US than most people in their own countries,” said Geoff Freeman, the director of Discover America Partnership. “All they are asking is to be treated with respect, professionalism and courtesy: they are not asking for America to reduce its security measures.”
Treating guests with respect isn’t too much to ask from DHS employees. Long lines can be alleviated with more bodies at the gateways, but professionalism and courtesy need to be instilled from the top down.
The administration’s foreign policy (to the extent it has one) has diminished the country’s reputation worldwide. Rude treatment of visitors reinforces negative opinions about the U.S., and comes at a high cost to tourism and commerce.
The number of foreigners visiting the US has declined by 17 per cent since the September 11 terrorist attacks, while business travel has declined by 10 per cent in the past year.
More importantly, civil treatment of visitors is essential to national security.
“Since 9/11 this country has viewed foreign travellers as more of a threat than an opportunity,” [Freeman] said. “They [border officials] do not understand that foreign travellers are also key to our national security: they go home as ambassadors for our country.” Almost three-quarters of those surveyed said they were more likely to have an “extremely favourable” view of the US than if they had not visited.
Security and courtesy are not mutually exclusive concepts. Unfortunately, DHS has shown little interest in training its officials to manage crowds in a friendly, efficient way. We (via our newly elected Congress) should insist that visitors be greeted with the same courtesy we would hope for when visiting an allied nation.
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