There are some benefits which are available to everyone who happens to be in a country, including visitors who expect to be there for less than six months:
· Everyone benefits from public infrastructure (3.2.8).
· Everyone pays the taxes which are levied on the sale of the goods and services which they buy, but visitors are not usually allowed to work so they don't pay income tax. Nor do they usually pay property taxes.
· All are entitled to expect socially acceptable behaviour from the people they meet (4.4.2). There is also an obligation on them to do likewise.
· All are protected by the law and are subject to it.
· Visitors might have to pay for access to some public services, such as healthcare.
Permanent residents of the country are entitled to expect visitors to meet all their obligations. It is therefore appropriate to apply security checks on those who enter the country, but it is also desirable to make it easy for tourists to visit; tourism contributes to the country’s economy.
As described in the following sub-sections, permanent residents may have additional rights and responsibilities (6.7.3.2) and citizenship offers yet more (6.7.3.3).
(This is an archive of a page intended to form part of Edition 4 of the Patterns of Power series of books. The latest versions are at book contents).