There are a variety of ways to check for membership in a list, but the one that is right for your situation depends on the problem you are trying to solve.

For common approaches see the faq.

Update
Perl 6 will provide the any junction, which you can play with using the Perl6::Junction module for now.

use Perl6::Junction qw/ any /;
  
if (any(@list) eq $var) {

}
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