NAVIGATING GLOBAL INEQUALITY: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF STRUCTURAL BARRIERS TO EQUITABLE CITIZENSHIP

Global citizenship is widely promoted in education as a means to foster global awareness, cross-cultural understanding, and shared responsibility. However, in a world marked by deep inequality, its ideals often remain out of reach for many. Structural barriers such as economic disparity, restricted mobility, unequal access to education, digital exclusion, and cultural marginalization raise critical questions about who can truly participate in global citizenship and under what conditions. This study aims to examine the challenges of promoting and accepting global citizenship in the context of persistent global inequalities. Through a qualitative document analysis, the review draws on peer-reviewed academic literature and international policy reports sourced from databanks such as Web of Science, Google Scholar, Scopus, ERIC, and JSTOR. Literature published between 2005 and 2025 was reviewed based on inclusion criteria focused on relevance to global citizenship and inequality. Thematic analysis revealed several key challenges: economic and geographic disparities, structural and postcolonial power imbalances, educational inequity, the digital divide, and political and cultural exclusion. These findings show that global citizenship, while noble in intention, often reinforces existing hierarchies and remains accessible primarily to privileged populations. The review concludes that realizing a more inclusive model of global citizenship requires confronting these structural inequalities directly. Decolonial, justice-oriented, and context-sensitive approaches are essential to ensure that global citizenship becomes a right for all, not a luxury for the few.